Blog 3: All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace

    Brautigan’s “All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace” can have both positive and negative meanings in regards to the growth of technology and the decline of human appreciation of nature. Like most poems, both sides of the argument are very easily represented. A lot of the interpretation depends on how the reader’s own background comes into play.
    For the anti-technology side, one really notices how the author uses descriptive and positive adjectives when talking about nature. When the author is talking about the machines, there are hardly any adjectives beforehand. The key point that makes this poem seem as if it has a negative tone towards the growth of the technological age is found in the third stanza, and the fourth and fifth lines. It says, “...where we are free of our labors, and joined back to nature...” This line implies that the author feels bound by machinery. It seems as if he’d like to be as he puts it,‘free’ of technology. Also, him saying the word ‘joined’ when talking about nature implies that technology has separated man and nature, which is unnatural.
    On the other side of the issue, many people find this poem to have a positive outlook of the uprising of the technological age. This can be taken from many of his lines where he describes the interaction between nature and technology to be united. In the first stanza, fourth line, it says, “...where mammals and computers, live together in mutually, programming harmony...” These lines imply that it is possible and a very good thing that humans and nature and technology are all coexisting peacefully. The last line in the poem is also evidence that this poem could have positive meanings. The words “machines of loving grace” imply that machines and technology are not evil, but loving.
    I personally think that the argument for this poem being a positive one between nature and technology is more convincing. Though there are lines that could be interpreted negatively, overall the author is supporting the development of new technology and is simply commenting on the interaction between nature and technology. It is not necessarily a bad thing, but just a change, that could and should happen peacefully and positively.