All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace
"All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace" is a poem by Richard Brautigan first published in his 1967 collection of the same name, his fifth book of poetry. It presents an enthusiastic description of a technological utopia in which machines improve and protect the lives of humans. The poem has counterculture and hippie themes, influenced by Cold War-era technology. It has been interpreted both as utopian and as an ironic critique of the utopia it describes. It is Brautigan's most frequently reprinted poem.
Synopsis and analysis
Brautigan wrote the poem and eponymous collection between January 17–26, 1967, while a poet-in-residence at the
The poem is typically understood as a mix of hippie counterculture, with its desire for leisure and a return to nature, with Cold War-era technological visions.[5][6][7] Brautigan's publisher, Claude Hayward, said it "caught me with its magical references to benign machines keeping order ... [which] fit right in with our optimism over the promise of the computer".[8] Digital humanities professor Steven E. Jones described the theme of the poem as "what is now called cyborg identity", and situated it in 1960s California counterculture, with its juxtaposition of hippie values with technology, burgeoning hacker culture, and psychedelics.[7]: 187–193 The idea of a technologically enabled utopia was popular in 1960s California, with one strain, exemplified by "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace", described by historian Charles Perry as a post-scarcity "robots will do all the work" leisure society.[9] Historian of counterculture Theodore Roszak wrote that it "captures perfectly the much-prized synthesis of reversionary and technophiliac values",[10] while futurist James Lovelock viewed it in an environmentalist light, as "an early, and in some ways accurate" example of the subject of his book, Novacene: "an age in which humans and cyborgs would live together in peace—perhaps in loving grace—because they share a common project to ensure their survival. That project is maintaining the Earth as a liveable planet".[5]: 104 Jones also wrote that Brautigan's use of religious language, in a way that was common among hippies, was "at once ironic and deliberately naive" while also placing the poem in "the American literary-religious tradition".[7]: 188
Poet
Others have interpreted it as an ironic, mocking critique of Cold War-era technology, or of the kind of technologically enabled utopia it purports to long for.
Publication history
"All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace" was first published by the Communication Company, the publishing arm of the
The poem, and its eponymous collection were popular, in part due to the success of Brautigan's 1967 novella
Brautigan then gave permission to The Diggers to include the poem in their August 1968 pamphlet, The Digger Papers. That 24-page pamphlet was in turn republished in The Realist issue 81, and another 40,000 copies were printed by the Diggers and given away for free.[18] The same year, it also appeared in TriQuarterly,[19] the Ann Arbor Sun, and San Francisco Express Times.[1][20] "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace" has gone on to become Brautigan's most frequently reprinted poem.[8][12]
Brautigan read the poem, along with several others from The Pill versus the Springhill Mine Disaster, on his 1970 album, Listening to Richard Brautigan. The 33 1⁄3 phonograph record was issued by Harvest Records based on a recording Brautigan recorded at Golden State Recorders in San Francisco. It was reissued in 2005 on compact disc.[21]
Legacy
In the 1970s, the poem became associated with the
The documentary series All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace was named after the poem, which is a favorite of director Adam Curtis. Its second part includes a recording of Brautigan doing a reading. According to the Chicago Reader, "For all the frenzy of the images, what dominates the sequence are Brautigan's voice and the languid piece of symphonic music on the soundtrack."[13]
The
References
- ^ a b c d Barber, John F. "Poetry - All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace". American Dust. Archived from the original on July 19, 2011. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
- ISBN 978-3-642-28102-0.
- ^ Madrigal, Alexis C. (September 17, 2011). "Weekend Poem: All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on January 19, 2017. Retrieved March 5, 2017.
- ^ Bokinsky, Caroline J. (1980). "Richard Brautigan". In Greiner, Donald J. (ed.). Dictionary of Literary Biography. Vol. 5. Detroit: Gale Research Company. pp. 96–99.
- ^ ISBN 9780241399361.
- ^ ISBN 9780262359504.
- ^ ISBN 0-415-97868-8.
- ^ ISBN 9780786482511.
- ISBN 0-394-41098-X.
- ^ Roszak, Theodore (2000). "From Satori to Silicon Valley". Making the Macintosh: Technology and Culture in Silicon Valley. Retrieved January 15, 2022.
- ^ Nambisan, Vijay (June 3, 2000). "Pines and cybernetics". The Hindu. Archived from the original on April 4, 2018. Retrieved April 4, 2018.
- ^ a b Moore, Steven (2009). Michelle Lee (ed.). "Paper Flowers: Richard Brautigan's Poetry". Poetry Criticism. 94. Gale. Retrieved January 3, 2022.
- ^ a b Sachs, Ben (January 5, 2012). "Now online: All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (part 2)". Chicago Reader. Archived from the original on March 5, 2017. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
- ISBN 9780226817439. Archivedfrom the original on November 17, 2012. Retrieved September 4, 2016.
- ^ Seligo, Carlos (June 4, 2011). ""All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace"". Stanford University Libraries - Academic Technology Specialists. Archived from the original on June 9, 2017. Retrieved September 3, 2016.
- ^ Gangewere, Robert J., ed. (1972). The Exploited Eden: Literature on the American Environment. New York: Harper and Row. p. 376.
- ^ Barber, John F. "Poetry - The Pill versus The Springhill Mine Disaster". American Dust. Archived from the original on January 14, 2009.
- ^ Barber, John F. "A-Z Index". American Dust. Archived from the original on August 11, 2006.
- ^ "All watched over by machines of loving grace". TriQuarterly (11). Northwestern University: 194. Winter 1968. Archived from the original on November 5, 2021. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
- ^ "Brautigan". San Francisco Express Times. December 1968. pp. 8–9. Archived from the original on January 4, 2022. Retrieved January 4, 2022.
- ^ Barber, John F. "Recordings". American Dust. Archived from the original on November 22, 2021. Retrieved January 3, 2022.
- New York Times. Archivedfrom the original on January 4, 2022. Retrieved January 3, 2022.
- ^ Florian, Federico (June 2017). ""All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace" - Palais de Tokyo". Art in America. 105 (6): 146.
- ^ Simpson, Veronica (July 3, 2017). "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace". Studio International. Archived from the original on January 4, 2022. Retrieved January 3, 2022.