When first reading Richard Brautigan's poem “All Watched over by Machines of Loving Grace,” it initially appears to contain a fairly weak anti-technology sentiment. In the second stanza, the author describes a spot where “deer stroll peacefully past computers as if they were flowers,” (13-15) giving the impression that, despite it being “peaceful,” the computers have replaced all flowers. This, and the fact that computers rend to lack the same muted ascetic beauty of flowers, paints a picture of a lifeless, mechanical forest. This mechanized view is further reinforced by the repetition of the word “cybernetic” in the third line of each stanza, which continues to bring forth a view of an unnatural landscape distorted by encroaching machines.
In contrast to the weak anti-technology sentiment, there seems to exist a strong pro-technology view. Lines such as “mammals and computers live together in... harmony” (4-6) suggest that animals and machines can live together happily. Furthermore, the author appears to insist that they are reflections of each other in the line stating that they are, “like pure water touching clear sky” (7-8). Later in the poem, the living together idea is taken to a new level in the third stanza where machines have made humans, “free of... labors and joined back to nature.” (20-21) Yep, life is good in this peaceful, work-free paradise where machines watch over frolicking humans and cute animals alike with a “loving grace.” (25)
However, after rereading the poem several times, the pro-technology images of tranquility and harmony begin to take on an uncharacteristically ominous tone. The phrase 'too good to be true' comes to mind as lines such as “mammals and computers live together in... programming harmony,” (5-6) begin to speak less about a mutual peace, but more about a “programmed” stability garnered solely through the absence of free will. Like a beautiful melody descending into dissonance, this wonderful mechanical paradise starts to takes on an oppressive atmosphere as we have only been “joined back to nature” (21) and our “mammal brothers and sisters” (22-23) because we have forgotten everything else ever since the machines have made us “free of our labors” (20) and essentially taken over. More and more, it seems, the vision of this “cybernetic ecology” (20) changes from one of happiness, to one of depression. For now we live in a statistically tyrannical realm where the machines will forevermore rule and “watch” over us with a mechanically precise “grace.” (25)
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