Life-ous-ness and machinery

Early this morning I could hear the noise of a big ship shrieking and groaning at the dock. It had an almost musical quality, with its mechanical clanks and metallic grinding; quasi organic in sound. There is a rhythm and vivacity to port life. I want to say life-ous-ness. (Funny that there is a word lifelessness but no opposite, except perhaps the word organic - which is precisely what
these technologies are not.) These are sounds that are unsettling, piercing and tortured like small animals squealing and musk oxen bellowing - still their very repetitiosness and inherent declaration of productivity make them somehow reassuring. Funny how we take comfort in the habitual.