Post #2

"All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace" by Richard Brautigan

Richard Brautigan's poem can be understood as anti-technology due to many unbelievable comparisons. Some of Brautigan's comparisons are: "mammals and computers live together in mutually programming harmony like pure water touching clear sky", "deer stroll peacefully past computers as if they were flowers with spinning blossoms" , "all watched over by machines of loving grace". I read these comparisons as sarcasm. Mammals and computers living together, well that happens, but Brautigans talks about the two in a meadow. Brautigans treats the computer like a living being. He gives the computer human characteristics. When I read this I think of computers with legs, dancing and skipping through the meadow. I believe Brautigan is trying to warn us that if we aren't careful robots are going to be become humanistic and that might cause a problem.

Richard Brautigan's poem can be taken as pro-technology because he writes about computers and humans being friends. Brautigan says, "the sooner the better!" He wants the computers and humans to become friends quickly because he thinks it will be a better place to live in. He then later says, "right now, please!" He says this referring to computers being flowers and deer grazing around them. Brautigan seems to love technology and wants it to become more intertwined with our society.

While I was reading Richard Brautigan's poem I was thinking to myself is this guy serious? I thought he must have been joking. I thought he was trying to poke fun at society and how reliant we are on technology. But then I read about the author and he wrote this when technology was starting to become a bigger role in people's lives. He knew that with the gain of technology, nature would slowly pay the price. Trees were getting cut down. Bigger cities being made. So I believe Brautigan was hoping for a middle ground were both technology and nature could prevail.