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

The poem “All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace” by Richard Brautigan gives an anti-technology tone and message. The first thing that jumps out as anti-technology is in each stanza there is a line in parentheses, all ending with exclamation points. These lines all are asking for a world of technology to get here quicker, or to happen sooner. In the first stanza, the line is “(and the sooner the better!)” and the way that it is inserted into the poem seems to be in a sarcastic tone. The line seems out of place, almost as if it is mocking the lines that follow it.  Brautigan does this in all three stanzas, suggesting that he does not agree with the images of nature and technology interacting that he writes in the rest of the poem.

            Another reason this poem is anti-technology is from the images that are presented. In the first stanza the image is of mammals and computers living in a “mutually programming harmony”, which seems to be a contradiction. Mammals are not programmed; they are a product of nature. This image suggests that mammals will become programmed to be like computers, acting out the programmers will. In the third stanza Brautigan describes a time where us, humans, will be able to go back to nature, but be “watched over by machines of living grace”. This brings to mind the idea that humans and all of nature will be inferior to the ever-watching machines. A warning of sorts, that technology could get out of our control and take over the world.

            “All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace” by Richard Brautigan can be understood as a pro-technology poem as well. The images in the poems all are of nature and machines interacting peacefully. Use of words such as harmony, pure, peacefully, free, grace and loving all set a tone of good things to come from the interaction of technology and nature. The message can be read as the more technology advances; the easier it will be for humans to go back to nature and simplicity. All while being watched by “machines of loving grace”.

            I believe that the poem is anti-technology. This is because those 3 lines at the beginning of each stanza in parentheses jump out at me as stark contrasts to the mood of the rest of the poem. The urgency of those lines just does not fit, and gives me the sense of mockery and disagreement with the rest of the poem. The image that comes to my mind of being watched over by machines is of the movie “The Matrix”. Where humans are unaware of what nature is and are controlled by the machines. This poem is stating that technology should not be mixed with nature.

Frost's "Design" Imagery

Fat, white spider

White web holding a moth

White rigid satin cloth

Death and blight, darkness

Witches potion

Snow-drop, snowflake?

Innocence

Design? Purpose?

White, innocence

Dark, death

The poem “Design” by Robert Frost uses the images of white and dark, or death, to convey the meaning of the poem. The question that Frost is asking is if there is a design to life. Is some greater power controlling our lives? The poem begins with a spider, fat and white on a white heal-all. There is a moth in the flower that has been caught. The moth is compared to a “white piece of rigid satin cloth”. Cloth is usually not rigid, suggesting that something is not quite right with the image. This is showing that the though the flower looks innocent, the spider is using it as a trap. The use of the word white to describe everything in the first three lines gives an image of innocence. The beautiful flower, white spider, are not as they seem, they are cruel intentions of death. The heal-all was once thought to be a curer of all ailments, and for the spider to use it as a trap is a contradiction of its purpose.

            The next lines of the poem go away from the white, innocent view, to images of darkness and death. “A witch’s broth” is brewed in the morning with all things evil, ready to go out in the world and bring death. The spider is mentioned again, but not as being white, but as a “snow-drop spider”. The spider is now compared to a snowflake, not simple and pure anymore, but complex and imperfect. It is an ingredient in the witch’s broth, a tool of death. The flower is the froth of the witch’s potion, just another ingredient of death.  The next stanza begins with the question of why the flower was white if it was used for a dark purpose. The heal-all is a blue flower, and of good intent. It is not white or dark, but a color in-between. Not everything falls into a category of good and evil, the line is blurred. What leads the moth to meet its dark end? The design of life leads the moth there; the design is white and dark, life and death. The witch brews a broth of death, but there is the beauty of nature to contrast it. The spider and its flower are both beautiful and deadly.

Frost then asks if an event so small is even controlled by a design? That is what the meaning of this poem is. Design touches all things, even as small as a spider, flower and a moth. Nature is dark, it is white, and it is every color in-between. That is what makes nature so amazing.

What's In a Name?

I named my blog “A Very Literal Blog” because I wanted something clever and something in the context of this class. Since the class is an introduction to literature, we are going to be blogging about literature. I guess the best way to read my title is “A Very Lit-eral Blog.” It is going to be a blog about our readings and opinions of the readings, all which are literature. I liked how the class website was a play on words as well, with “Exploring Literritories” and I wanted to do the same. I think it is fun to name our blogs anything we want, and I did not want a boring blog name. Also this is my first time having ever had a blog, and I wanted it to be a good name.

            I actually spent a lot of time thinking about what I wanted to name my blog because it is going to be something that I am going to be spending a lot of time on for this next ten weeks. I had other ideas, but this one actually stuck. I also take the blog title to mean what the words say. This blog is going to be pretty straightforward and only used for ENL 3 class assignments, so it will be literal. Part of my grade will literally be taken from what I write on this blog. But most of all, I just wanted to have some fun, and this idea came to my head on my bike ride home tonight.