Abstract
In this paper I argue that Richard Brautigan’s poem “All Watched Over By Machines of Loving Grace” is an ecological dystopia in the science fiction genre. Brautigan’s poem creates a post-pastoral image of a cybernetic ecology monitored and controlled by machines. The poem’s internal structure and tone provide an ironic commentary to its theme of a utopian project, highlighting its internal conflicts and showing its impossibility. I argue, therefore, that the poem is a critique of the ecological utopias of the 60s and can be read accordingly.