Feed

Let's play a game. What was the last dystopian/post-apocalyptic novel you read this year? Think about that book. What does that book say about society? Do you agree with this? Is there any chance that the grim future predicted in that book could ever come to life?

With FEED, the answer is "yes." And it scares the fucking hell out of me.

In Titus' world, everyone (read: everyone who can afford it) has their brain wired to the Internet (called the Feed). They are bombarded with advertisements every day and they have no need to actually learn anything since they can just look it up.

Do you have friends who constantly text or play with their iPhone while talking to you? Now imagine that that's your entire generation, including you. Imagine a generation of chronically bored teenagers who go to the moon, not because they want to see the moon, but because they have nothing better to do. Imagine teenagers who use "da da da" (blah, blah, blah) as part of their everyday mental vocabulary because they lack the attention span for a real conversation. Imagine teenagers who have all but no notion that there is a world around them. That is the generation that M.T. Anderson paints.

This book is both satire and tragedy. And it hits so close to home. It reminds me of my friends in college who spent basically all of their waking hours in front of the internet. It reminds me of my niece and nephew, who would rather play chess on the iPad than on a real gameboard. It reminds me of the children I baby-sit--their parents specifically want me there to make sure that the kids don't spend all their after-school hours in front of a TV or computer. It reminds me of my brother and sister-in-law in San Francisco, who won't let their kids anywhere near technology because this is exactly what they want to prevent.

Titus is a victim of all this, and this is exactly what makes this book great. He isn't a hero or revolutionary. He's a first-hand look at how fucked up everything is. He's a teenager who doesn't know how to question things. When he says he feels stupid, it's because he IS ignorant. He doesn't think about how the world is going to hell, even when evidence of this is thrown in his face. And when serious problems like death loom in front of him, his response is to run away, because he has no fucking clue how to deal with anything of that magnitude.

***Spoiler below***

Also, has anyone but me noticed how the lesions make people look like zombies? Coincidence? I don't think so.

"I told her the story of us. 'It's about the feed,' I said. 'It's about this meg normal guy, who doesn't think about anything until one wacky day, when he meets a dissident with a heart of gold.' I said, 'Set against the backdrop of America in its final days, it's the high-spirited story of their love together, it's laugh-out-loud funny, really heartwarming, and a visual feast... Together, the two crazy kids grow, have madcap escapades, and learn an important lesson about love. They learn to resist the feed. Rated PG-13. For language,' I whispered, 'and mild sexual situations.'"
-- A brief morsel of meta-analysis from Feed by M.T. Anderson

The question was posed last week,"What is your favorite dystopian novel?". Well, this is my response:

In Feed, Mr. Anderson styles a voice so profound, so unique, so funny and haunting that by the time the last page is turned, the reader has experienced such a rich and complex journey that only the most compelling, thought-shaping and deeply affecting novel can provide. As the author presents this story in a futuristic, plastic world shaped by the ever-strong threads of consumerism that is, in many ways, allegorical, allusions of T.S. Elliot and George Orwell seem to reveal themselves more apparent. The warnings in Mr. Anderson's tale are all too relevant and the astutely conceived consequences are simply horrific. Also, while the environment ruled by over-consumption, foolishness and idiocy mirrors much of the foundations of our own current environment, Feed frames a genuine love story that is, altogether, lovely, heart-breaking, extraordinary and devastating.

M.T. Anderson is an incredibly interesting author and a personal favorite. He has written several books that may be labeled as necessary and important, but none more than the amazing Feed. You must read it, because, "The only thing worse than the thought it may all come tumbling down is the thought that we may go on like this forever".

Reader reviewed by Meg

I'm not a huge Sci-Fi fan, but I really enjoyed this book. The book's voice is really interesting, M.T. Anderson created an entire slang language for the future that is both really different and totally believable. There were two things about the book that I thought were really notable. First, it's really cool to watch the character grow as a person over the course of the book. Secondly, this book definitely has some strong social commentary about advertising and consumer culture, and it definitely made me think. I think that pretty much everyone would enjoy this book and find it really thought provoking.

Reader reviewed by Val

This is by far my favorite book. It's a bit hard to understand at first witht eh new lingo and the whoel concept but reading ti again only makes things better. The basic story si about a future society in which people have left behind the need for manual computers and tvs and have a small device implanted in their brains that act as their computer, intelligence and source of commerical advertising. Int his world few people dare to challenge the feed and Titus is one of those people who is like the rest fo the masses until... he meets vioket. Who although suffering because you'll find out why doesn't want to give into commercialism and the FEED!