Feed in The Alternative Worlds

Jul 15, 2008 Sandi rated it really liked it

Shelves: 2008, sci-fi

Feed is a much more complex novel than it appears to be. So much of the story is told by things left unsaid or details told in single sentences sandwiched in between unrelated paragraphs. The blurb on the back of the book is totally misleading. The girl, Violet, is not a rebel and she’s not out to change the world. She’s a lower middle-class teen. Her mother left and her father, a college professor, home schools her. The narrator, Titus, meets her on a spring break trip to the moon. Violet wants Feed is a much more complex novel than it appears to be. So much of the story is told by things left unsaid or details told in single sentences sandwiched in between unrelated paragraphs. The blurb on the back of the book is totally misleading. The girl, Violet, is not a rebel and she’s not out to change the world. She’s a lower middle-class teen. Her mother left and her father, a college professor, home schools her. The narrator, Titus, meets her on a spring break trip to the moon. Violet wants to fit in with the “normal” kids, but her way of speaking and thinking creates a chasm between them.

What makes this story different that the typical coming-of-age novel is the futuristic setting in which most people have computer interfaces installed in their brains when they are infants. These “feeds” provide people with instant access to any information they could possibly want. But, they mainly use it to message each other and to shop. The feed subjects them to a constant barrage of advertising that’s directed to them based on their shopping and browsing habits. Sound familiar?

While on the moon, Titus, some of his friends and Violet are touched by a creepy old man who infects their feeds with a virus. The teens are hospitalized for a few weeks and their feeds are disconnected until it’s certain they are virus free. Unfortunately, the virus causes permanent damage to Violet’s feed with disturbing results.

In the background, you slowly come to understand that the Earth that these teens inhabit has gone seriously wrong. Most people have access to untold consumer goods. They can communicate with others quickly and silently. They live in a Jetsons-style world with “upcars” and houses in bubbles connected by tubes. (Maybe it’s a giant human Habitrail?) It sounds kind of utopian until you realize that a forest has been torn down to make an air factory, you can only go to the seashore wearing something like a space suit, and there are mentions of radiation levels increasing. What’s disturbing is that the characters see all this as normal. They are so caught up in pop-culture and consumerism that they don’t see all the really terrible things happening around them and to them. They’re getting oozing lesions and they think it’s really cool and fashionable. They don’t even stop to wonder what’s causing the lesions or realize that lesions are signs of disease. One thing I give Anderson credit for is never telling the reader outright what the cause of the lesions is. I figured it out, but I suspect a lot of readers, especially younger readers, will miss it.

I saw some complaints about the way the story is told; that it’s too slangy and hard to understand. I didn’t find this to be the case. I thought the slang created for this book was perfectly suited for the characters and the setting. Anderson doesn’t try to mimic the way teenagers today talk and how they think. Instead, he creates a teen language that is based on having 24/7 access to information and entertainment inside your head. Yet, he also managed to keep quite a bit of timeless adolescent attitude in the story. These kids weren’t any smarter or less attitudinal than kids have been for the last fifty years. In fact, they aren’t quite as savvy as modern kids.

I highly recommend this book for any reader over 13. It’s intelligent and thought provoking. It doesn’t give the reader all the answers; it makes him or her work for them. I was very impressed.
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Aug 28, 2008 Jackie "the Librarian" rated it really liked it

Shelves: youngadult, sciencefiction, teen-books-adults-can-enjoy, awardwinners

It's the future, the internet is beamed directly into your head, people live in domes because the air and water outside is so polluted, people are getting lesions on their skin and their hair is falling out, and all anyone thinks about is amusing their jaded selves and buying stuff. But don't bother visiting the moon, 'cause it's totally lame.

The one exception is Violet, but she was homeschooled, so she's pretty weird. But Titus kind of likes her anyway. Too bad her feed got so fried.

Anderson c ...more

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Jan 03, 2012 Meg rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 21st-century, setting-worldbuilding, literature-of-us-canada, style-voicey, prose-skilled, literature-young-adult, genre-sci-fi

Oh M.T. Anderson, how I love you.

I didn't always. This is a new love and now I sort of want to hug your books ~~and maybe you but that sounds creepy~~.

I'll be honest: the first time I tried to read FEED a year ago, I put it down after two pages. The teenspeak made me feel nauseous.

But a month or two ago, I re-read Anderson's historical YA novel, THE POX PARTY. I'd read it maybe three years ago, thought it was alright, and mostly forgot about it. When I reread THE POX PARTY, I wondered how I coul ...more

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Aug 27, 2009 Wealhtheow rated it really liked it

Shelves: sci-fi, ya

A brilliant, scathing commentary on our world today: pop culture, youth culture, consumerism, colonialism, environmentalism. Anderson is incredible at creating futuristic pop culture, comprised of trends like "speech tattoos" (in which someone pays to have a word--say, a brand name--inserted into every sentence they speak), bands, fashions. He is equally excellent at believable characters.

The grief and horror of this book are almost overwhelmingly realistic. ...more

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Sep 19, 2009 Kara Babcock rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: from-library, science-fiction, posthuman, 2015-read, young-adult

Feed is not a comfortable novel, nor is it comforting. I seem to be on a string of these sorts of YA novels lately—not mention my Animorphs re-read. I feel strongly that these types of books are valuable for young people. There is something to be said for escapism and the reassuring, but somewhat inaccurate, message that some of the most popular dystopian YA is giving that “youth can fight the power.” But I am pleased when a novel reminds us that, sometimes, there are not easy answers to the ele ...more

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