All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace

Brautigan’s “All Watched over by machines of loving grace” is about a society that is surrounded by technology as well as nature.  However his opinion of this simultaneous coexistence is debatable since he appears to take both sides throughout the poem. 

The majority of the second stanza hints to me that perhaps Brautigan’s tone and message is anti-technology.  When describing the deer that are “stroll[ing]” in this “cybernetic forest,” Brautigan points out that they are not only “peacefully” walking, but they are walking “past the computers as if they were flowers with spinning blossoms.”  I recognized this as implying that perhaps these computers were unnecessary.  The deer pay no attention to the computers and Brautigan practically refers to it as simple “blossoms.”  All of these similes and metaphors seem to make me believe that this poem is pretty anti-technology.

Then in the final stanza, he refers to a time “where we are free of our labors and joined back to nature.”  Assuming that these “labors” are connected with technology, the poem’s anti-technology theme comes out yet again.  Here he also brings up his desire to be joined back into nature, to perhaps a world with less technology.

But then again, if you look at the first stanza and the opening lines, Brautigan writes, “I like to think (and the sooner the better!) of a cybernetic meadow where mammals and computer live together.”  This as an opening thought actually seems to be pretty pro-technology.  The speaker here is imagining and hoping for a world with nature and technology co-existing “harmon[iously].”  Not to mention, he believes that this world should exist as soon as possible.

Then look again at the final stanza—but this time in Brautigan’s final lines, he points out that while we may be “joined back to nature,” we are still “all watched over by machines of loving grace.”  For me, this is the reason why I think that Brautigan’s pro-technology tone and message is more convincing than the anti-technology message.  First of all, he chose to start the poem with the idea of technology and nature existing together.  And while he arguably changes his message in certain parts of the poem, he finishes with the idea that technology still is “watching over” all of society with “loving grace.”