Richard Brautigan on Technology

The struggle between nature and technology has been debated upon for the past half century. Richard Brautigan’s poem, “All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace,” uses sarcasm to express his anti-technology views. The whole poem has a sarcastic tone especially the lines in parenthesis. The actual text sounds like Brautigan likes technology but his juxtapositions of nature and technology like deer walking past computers are almost absurd and unbelievable. He talks about machines having a loving grace but machines have no feelings and are not associated as having the feeling of love. Phrases such as “cybernetic forest” and “cybernetic meadow” also gives us an image of a virtual reality, suggesting that we are leaving the real word and into pixilated world.

Brautigan’s poem can be interpreted as pro-technology if it is read literally. Repetition of what he would like to think suggests that he wishes for harmony with literature. By putting nature and technology it would seem like he wants naturalists and scientists to agree with each other.

However, figurative language triumphs over literal text. He uses irony as a tool to convey his idea that technology is not as good as it seems. The first two lines in parentheses are sarcastic because they attack at the speed of technology. He wants a harmony between technology and nature but that will never come fast and technology cannot speed up a consensus. Living in a programmed harmony sounds like a world where the two exist together is not real and maybe even forced. His last line in the poem is the major line that expresses his views. This line is extremely effective since it is the title and the last line of the poem. Being watched over by machines means that humans will be taken over by technology, where robots will the ones controlling us. Brautigan believes that we will eventually lose control of our technological creations. When he says we will return “to our mammal brother and sisters” it seems like we are going back to an uncivilized way while the technology is controlling us. Therefore, Brautigan wants us to slow down and think about whether we should be progressing with such artificial intelligence.