Machines of "Loving Grace"

     As a culture, the people of post-industrialized countries are inundated with technology and are expected to believe that these advances are only for the best.  Richard Brautigan, in his poem “All Watched Over By Machines Of Loving Grace”, he poses the question of whether or not technology is a blessing or a curse, and gives his answer.  Although at first glance it may seem as though he supports technology through the soft imagery he is presenting, in reality, he is giving a critique on the social structure that has arisen as a consequence to the spike in technological advances. 
     In each stanza, Brautigan offers images of nature to soften his message of technology, creating the illusion that technology and nature may coincide peacefully.  By juxtaposing nature and technology, he creates a universe were “mammals and computers/ live together in mutually/programming harmony” (lines 4-6), pointing out that there should be a happy balance, or ‘harmony’, among the unnatural machine and the natural environment.  He mentions “cybernetic meadows” (line 3), “cybernetic forests” (line 11), and “cybernetic ecology” to further push the two unrelated ideas together and create a strong connection between the contradicting ideas.  He furthers his analysis of technology by comparing the harmony he wishes to achieve by likening it to “pure water/ touching clear sky” (lines 7-8).  The scenes created through imagery are a sharp contrast to the idea of technology, providing the idea that he may be in favor of technology if it brings harmony between humans and nature.
     But, a close examination proves otherwise.  Each stanza has a line in parenthesis, imitating the urgency and impatient nature that has resulted from using technology: “I like to think (and/ the sooner the better!)”(lines 1-2) … “I like to think/ (right now, please!)” (lines 9-10) … “I like to think/ (it has to be!)” (lines 17-18).  These lines add to the sarcastic tone Brautigan displays through his poem, aided by the images of nature contrasted against the images of technology.  He continues his anti-technological argument by giving reference to being “watched over/ by machines of loving grace” (lines 24-25), which is reminiscent of Big Brother in the Cold War when people of the time were afraid of being watched by a machine and having their every actions reported to the government.  With this hidden image of communism taking over the last stanza, it is very clear that Brautigan is anti-technology.
     Through imagery and irony, Brautigan shows his disgust of the advances of technology.  Although he is interweaving soft images of nature with images of technology, it is ironic he compares the two because technology actually takes individuals away from experiencing nature first hand and allows them through the technology he is critiquing.

Images of an Underwater Shipwreck

Images:

 ~book of myths   

~loaded camera

~sharpened edge of the knife-blade

~wet suit, flippers, mask

~sun-flooded schooner of Cousteau

~Innocent, foreboding ladder, and crawling down it as awkwardly as an insect

~Air, both above and below the water
~Ocean being powerful and mysterious
~Creatures living in the ocean
~Beam of light from the lamp on the wreckage
~The wreckage and the damage on the wreckage
~Mermaid/merman
~Damaged instruments of the wreckage, both the actual instruments and the speaker

Interpretation:
     Through imagery, Adrienne Rich shows that the ocean is a powerful place that holds painful memories of shipwrecks and floating bodies, of planned trips and failed journeys in her poem, Diving into the Wreck.  Not only does it show these memories vividly, it also suggests that loneliness is mirrored in the strange aquatic environment.  In the ocean there “is no question of power”, being vast enough to swallow many a ship and leave no evidence of the wreckage above the surface of the water while the lonely diver descends into the ocean to discover the described wreckage with only a book, a knife, and a camera to keep the speaker company.  The images of power portrayed by the ocean and meekness portrayed by the diver juxtaposed together show the fragility of life.
     In this work, the ocean is described as powerful and indifferent.  The diver seems to hold it in apprehensive reverence, describing the experience of the initial decent fearfully: “First the air is blue and then/ it is bluer and then green and then black I am blacking out and yet/ my mask is powerful”.  The disorienting flash of colors and the thought of blacking out are written in short, choppy lines illustrating the fear of entering the unknown.  The diver also has to “learn alone” how to breathe underwater, gaining no help from the powerful “deep element”, showing how empty the world beneath the surface is without companionship.  As the diver goes deeper, the audience catches a glimpse of the wreckage and what the ocean has done to it.  The ship is in shambles and the diver describing the ship’s sorry condition:
                    “The evidence of damage
                    worn by salt and away into this threadbare
                    beauty
                    the ribs of the disaster
                    curving their assertion
                    among the tentative haunters”,
an example of the abrasive tendencies of the ocean’s waters.  The image conjures an eerie tone through the words “threadbare”, “ribs”, and “haunters”, suggesting the ship is haunted by the bodies that perished in the sinking.  The diver also describes the bodies floating in the water, saying “I am she: I am he/ whose drowned face sleeps with open eyes”, adding to the eerie, dark tone created around the ship.  The diver also is the only witness to the floating remnants, giving to the illusion of being completely alone.  The ocean holds these and many more empty landscapes of horror and tragedy forgotten within the ever constant flow of the waves.
     The vulnerability of human life illustrated in the poem creates a strong sense of irony when plastered against the harsh, powerful ocean.  Although the ocean is strong enough to crush the individual entering it, the individual has a certain amount of power to explore its depths without it retaliating.  Human life is fragile when compared to the ever changing hostility of the ocean, and the poem illustrates this by contrasting the dead lifeless corpses to the living diver but giving the same eerie feeling of being alone. 

What's in a name?

"Shoot all the bluejays you want, if you can hit 'em, but remember it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."To Kill a Mockingbird Attitus Finch to daughter Scout, Chapter 10.

"Mockingbirds don't do one thing but make music for us to enjoy. They don't eat up people's gardens, don't nest in corncribs, they don't do one thing but sing their hearts out for us. That's why it's a sin to kill a mockingbird."To Kill a MockingbirdMiss Maudie Atkinson to Scout, Chapter 10.

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In Harper Lee’s classic To Kill a Mockingbird, the reader is shown that the mockingbird, a bird that does nothing but bring enjoyment to humans, symbolizes innocence.  As the story progresses, an African American man who is a hired hand in a house is accused and persecuted for trying to rape a young woman and found guilty by the court.  In the process, however, Atticus Finch, the narrator Scout’s father, puts the accusing family under public scrutiny after exposing some questionable conduct in the family home.  The man on the side of the persecuting family then threatens Finch’s family, and while trying to hurt Scout, he is ambushed by a mysterious neighbor who saves her life, but ends up startling the perpetrator who ends up killing himself in his confusion. Because both men, the African American and the mysterious neighbor, don’t do any wrong, they are both examples of the innocent mockingbird that is bringing unexpected benefit to the surrounding neighborhoods.

The reason this blog is called The Murder of a Mockingbird is because we as a culture are losing the simple innocence that riddles childhood with fond memories.  Literature, deemed the ‘outlaw’ of all books, is a culprit in the fast deteriorating ignorance of the population.  Good or bad, the childlike innocence that flees with age is aided by the hunger for knowledge and that knowledge is found through pieces of literature.  The purpose is not to become more childlike, but to move away from the ignorant bliss that is childhood innocence and gain a more powerful understanding of the world and how it works.  And unfortunately, a few mockingbirds may get hurt in the process.