ALL WATCHED OVER BY MACHINES OF LOVING GRACE

In All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace, Brautigan has a seemingly positive tone towards machines and animals living in harmony, but it seems to have a different meaning. In the first paragraph, Brautigan mentions a “cybernetic meadow” (3) where the mammals and computers can interact with each other. Although a meadow does bring images of a grassy plain where animals graze, Brautigan calls it a cybernetic meadow giving it a computer-like feel that cannot have animals.

In the second paragraph, Brautigan comments on the “deer [strolling] peacefully past computers as if they were flowers” (13-15). In this image, it seems as if the computers are on the ground as flowers are and they are not functioning. Brautigan seems to be revealing that the kind of peace that comes with animals strolling peacefully will only come when computers are extinct. In the third paragraph, Brautigan talks about all of our mammal brothers and sisters being watched over by the “machines of loving grace” (24). This line gives a feeling of a Big Brother watching over all of the actions of the people.

On the other hand, Braugtigan also sheds a positive light on a possible future where technology and animals can interact peacefully. The image of the mammals and computers living together in “programming harmony like pure water touching clear sky” (6-8) has a peaceful feeling as if everything is as it should be in that moment. Brautigan also gives an image of a utopia where we are “free of our labors and joined back to nature” (20-21). This evokes an image of a time where people will not have to work anymore and can go to a peaceful future.

At first read, it seemed like the poem only had good things to say about computers and animals living together. After reading a few more times, it seems like Brautigan has more negative than positive comments to say about computers and technology. As the evidence was being searched for for the first part, there was more to say about the negative Brautigan was trying to convey through his poem. The reader needs to pay much attention if he/she is going to see the message Brautigan is sending to his readers.