All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (poetry collection)

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace
First edition
Author Richard Brautigan
Cover artist Bill Brock
Country United States
Language English
Genre Poetry
Publisher Communication Company
Publication date
 1967
Media type Print (Softcover)
Preceded by The Octopus Frontier
Followed by Please Plant This Book

All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace is Richard Brautigan's fifth poetry publication. Like several of his early works, the entire edition (of 1,500 copies) was distributed for free. The title poem envisions a world where cybernetics has advanced to a stage where it allows a return to the balance of nature and an elimination of the need for human labor. All thirty-two of the poems in this collection were republished in The Pill Versus the Springhill Mine Disaster.

  I like to think
  (it has to be!)
  of a cybernetic ecology
  where we are free of our labors
  and joined back to nature,
  returned to our mammal
  brothers and sisters,
  and all watched over
  by machines of loving grace.[1]

Excerpt from All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace (1967)

Copyleft statement

In the original 1967 publication, Brautigan included a copyleft statement which retains copyright but grants permission to reprint any poem in All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace on one condition:[2]

© Copyright 1967 by Richard Brautigan 

Permission is granted to reprint
any of these poems in magazines,
books and newspapers if they are
given away free.

Cultural references

The title was later used by Tucson, Arizona industrial rock band Machines of Loving Grace, formed in 1989, and in its full form by British musician Martin Carr as the title of a 2004 album, by the musician Martha Tilston for the title of her album "Machines Of Love And Grace" as well as a 2011 television series by documentary maker Adam Curtis.[3] Machines of Loving Grace is also the title of a 2015 nonfiction book by John Markoff, documenting robotics transforming society.

References

  1. ↑ "Richard Brautigan: All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace". brautigan.net.
  2. ↑ Barber, John F. "Poetry - All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace". Brautigan.net.
  3. ↑ Adam Curtis (2011-05-10). "All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace". BBC Online.
  • "Richard Brautigan: All Watched Over by Machines of Loving Grace". brautigan.net.
  • Bob Nelson (2011-02-04). "Richard Brautigan Writings - First Appearance Database".
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