Feed

Bibliographic Information: Anderson, M.T. (2002). Feed. [Audiobook]. Baker, D.A. (Narrator). Listening Library. ISBN: 0807217735

Plot Summary: In a dystopian futuristic America, where human brains are connected to the “feed,” Titus decides to go to the moon for spring break with his friends, which turns out to be a pretty “null” affair, until he meets a girl who intrigues him in an unusual way. The beautiful Violet Durn—dressed in old wool instead of plastic, is one of the many people who have their feeds attacked by a hacker at a club. Hospitalized and disconnected from their feeds for the first time since infancy (with the exception of Violet, who didn’t receive the feed until she was 7), Titus and his friends are unable to chat, play games, shop, or intoxicate themselves via intentional malfunction sites. Violet and Titus make a romantic connection during their recovery. When they return to Earth, typical high school life goes on: Titus dates Violet and attends SchoolÔ, a school with holograms for teachers, guiding students in the ways of consumerism.

When Violet decides to act against the feed by creating a purposefully confusing customer profile, she soon learns that her feed was not completely repaired, and she slowly starts to lose function in her body and mind. As Titus tries to cope with the deterioration of his girlfriend, she tries to raise his awareness to the riots and hostility being aimed at the United States from the Global Alliance, but his apathy for anything remotely meaningful, is just a product of a world controlled by corporate greed. With no privacy or original thought among the 73% of Americans who have the feed, they are all blind to the destruction happening all around them. All anyone cares about is stimulation in the form of fun, appearance, trends, shopping, and gaming.

Critical Evaluation: One of the most frightening aspects of this realistic dystopian vision of America, is that Regular school was done away with when the feed made it possible to access any piece of information at any given time via the brain. Corporations now bombard the feed with advertisements that are catered to each individual’s tastes, sights, thoughts, and actions. Products can be purchased and delivered instantly, even clones. Babies are customizable, and people fly around in “upcars” that go on auto-pilot through giant tubes. The oceans of Earth are acidic, the clouds are trademark products of corporations; everywhere, false beauty abounds and nature is squandered. The rich can afford to travel to the moon, but people in the lower class, like Violet and her father who homeschooled her, can’t even afford to connect to the feed. Violet’s dad is a quirky professor who represents any last connection to our current world, and he accesses the feed with a backpack computer and goggles with built-in screens. As a professor of ancient languages, Violet’s father  represents how language has been stripped of its power, beauty, and cadence by forms of texting, chatting and the telepathy offered by the feed.

Overall, Anderson offers a very satirical vision of the future, and it’s amazing that this book is already 11 years old, before social media was as big as it is now. The “feed” is comparable to Facebook, with the exception of screens and tangible computers. This book opens up a dialogue for debate about consumer culture, the future of information technology, and the possible outcomes for human life and Earth itself.

Reader’s Annotation: Titus is one of the 73% of American connected to the feed—a network of human minds all connected via chatting, games, ads, and shopping. He meets Violet on the moon and falls in love.

Author Information: From http://mt-anderson.com/, it states that M. T. Anderson has written stories for adults, picture books for children, adventure novels for young readers, and several books for older readers (both teens and adults). His satirical book Feed was a Finalist for the National Book Award and was the winner of the L.A. Times Book Prize. The first volume of his Octavian Nothing saga won the National Book Award and the Boston Globe / Horn Book Prize. Both the first and second volumes of that two-part series were Printz Honor Books. He has published stories for adults in literary journals like The Northwest Review, The Colorado Review, and Conjunctions.

He writes: "I love writing for younger readers. I love their passion. I love their commitment to stories. I love the way their heads are exploding with all the things they want to say and do. Thanks for reading the things I've written."

Genre: Science Fiction, Cyberpunk, Dystopian

Subjects: consumerism, communication, advertising, Internet, love

Curriculum Ties: Advertising, Communication, American Culture

Booktalking Ideas: Play a clip from one of the advertisements in the audiobook, setting up the future environment. Ask teens if they would trade in their smart phones to access the Internet from their mind. What would be the pros and cons of such a technology?

Reading Level/Interest Age: 14+

Challenge Issues/Defense: Due to strong language, this material may be challenged. If so, refer to:

1.     The San Francisco Public Library Collection Development Policy, Selection Criteria, and Teen Collection documents.

2.     The California Department of Education District Selection Policies, Reading Lists, and Resources for Recommended Literature: Pre-K-12.

3.     A hard copy of the ALA’s Library Bill of Rights.

4.     Mixed book reviews from School Library Journal, Kirkus, and Publisher’s Weekly.

5.     Book selection rationale.

6.     If necessary, The San Francisco Public Library’s Request for Reconsideration of Library Materials Form.

Reason for Selection: Feed was a National Book Award finalist and recommended by numerous YA resources.