FEED

I finished reading Feed the 1st week of class. I'll admit I'm not a science fiction fan and I was initially frustrated with the made up words. Nonetheless I pressed on and started to get the lingo down. What a bleak view/commentary of what we may become. Laminated whales, conceptariums, programmed day and night and weather, no need for the written word, lesions that are hip, skin falling of, air factories, no trees, toxic oceans, and of course the feed satiating your every need and want even before you know that you need or want it. (Self gratification gone awry and at any cost.) Or do you even know what you want or need or is the corporation subliminally telling you what you want and need. Remember Titus' strange dreams or were they dreams at all??!!

Violet got the feed at an older age and so had a different perspective of things - noticed the ugly side of things, was even concerned about them. The rest of the kids saw her as too cynical, and didn't want her diatribes of the unpleasantries of the world seeping into their "perfect" Shangri-La. Cynic that I am, I don't know if I even buy the story that the hacker messed up her feed or that because she was older when she got the feed, she had irreversible damage that eventually caused her demise. Rather, was it convenient for her to die because she questioned too much and they (the corporation) couldn't get a handle on her, couln't fit her into a nice neat profile, couldn't shut her up! After all, the feed is connected to everything, so it wouldn't be that far of a stretch for them to get rid of a rabble-rouser, would it? I think the author wants you to think about this possibility. Government conspiracy and Big Brother at its worst!

One final note - I think Weatherbee & Crotch was a satirical jab at Abercrombie & Fitch whose customer base are only the skinny, beautiful and young.