LS 5623 Mod 4



amazon.com



mt-anderson.com


Feed by M.T. Anderson

Module 4 Fantasy and Science Fiction



BIBLIOGRAPHY

Anderson, M. T.. Feed. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick Press, 2002. ISBN 0763622591

CRITICAL ANALYSIS

Today people and computers are separate. We need to use our hands to operate our electronic devices. We carry them in our pockets, backpacks or special cases. In Feed, a futuristic tale of a society with computer brain implants, Titus thinks things have gotten a lot better since the feeds. But the reality is that no one thinks for oneself and there is never any silence.

Titus is a teenage boy who, like everyone around him, is almost completely inarticulate. He's dimly aware that something is missing in his head. Yet he knows exactly where to get the latest clothes and where to go when he gets bored. He and his friends don’t read because they stopped going to School™ when they were about seven. Why would they need to go to School™ when everything they want to know is on the feed? Their spring break trip to the Moon changes everything Titus ever thought he knew about the world. He meets Violet who once lived without the feed. She has experienced silence and learning and reading. She can use a pen with her hand! Violet is not content with the feed and fights it as it destroys her body. She begins to draws Titus into her rebellion against government control but he proves to be too weak in character to offer any value to her cause or what is left of her life.

Anderson has done an incredible job of describing a way life that mankind has not yet experienced. Titus and his friends move about in flying vehicles operated by their minds. Medicines are delivered by way of floating orbs and all communication is delivered electronically from brain to brain. Enticing descriptions of parties on the Moon, skin lesions that enable ones internal workings to be seen, going “mal” (futuristic drug abuse), group kissing and foul language intensify the lure of this novel to young activists as well as those who enjoy thought provoking, science fiction writing. As technology continues to bring us into a new age of communication, this novel explores the possibility of a future of morally and intellectually bankrupt citizens as consumerism rules the planet.



BOOK HOOK/EXPLEMPLARY OR FAVORITE LINES

She said, "Look around you." I did. It was the mall. She said, "Listen to me." I listened. She said, "I was sitting at the feed doctor's a few days ago, and I started to think about things. Okay. All right. Everything we do gets thrown into a big calculation. Like they're watching us right now. They can tell where you're looking. They want to know what you want”. "It's a mall," I said. "They're also waiting to make you want things. Everything we've grown up with - the stories on the feed, the games, all of that - it's all streamlining our personalities so we're easier to sell to. I mean, they do these demographic studies that divide everyone up into a few personality types, and then you get ads based on what you're supposedly like. They try to figure out who you are, and to make you conform to one of their types for easy marketing. It's like a spiral: They keep making everything more basic so it will appeal to everyone. And gradually, everyone gets used to everything being basic, so we get less and less varied as people, more simple.” (Anderson 97)



M. T. Anderson is on the faculty of Vermont College’s MFA Program in Writing for Children. He is the author of the novels THIRSTY and BURGER WUSS and the picture-book biography HANDEL, WHO KNEW WHAT HE LIKED. He says of FEED, "To write this novel, I read a huge number of magazines like SEVENTEEN, MAXIM, and STUFF. I eavesdropped on conversations in malls, especially when people were shouting into cell phones. Where else could you get lines like, ‘Dude, I think the truffle is totally undervalued’?" http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/feed-m-t-anderson/1100305951



EXTERNAL ASSESSMENTS



Publishers Weekly

In this chilling novel, Anderson imagines a society dominated by the feed-a next-generation Internet/television hybrid that is directly hardwired into the brain. In a starred review, PW called this a "thought-provoking and scathing indictment of corporate-and media-dominated culture."



School Library Journal

Taking a nap on the way to the moon for spring break might be boring, so Titus does his best to stay alert and have fun with his friends. The "feed" in his brain is continuously spewing advertisements, music, game shows, hairstyle alerts and many other necessary bits of information. Hundreds of years ago, people actually had to use their eyes and fingers to get information by computer, but now, in M.T. Anderson's future world (Candlewick, 2002), the computer chips are built right in, and bombard everyone with exactly what the corporate world wants them to know. In the midst of this overwhelming flow of information, Titus becomes friends with Violet, a girl who cares about what's happening in the world, is not afraid to question things, and is opposed to the "feed." What will happen when their feeds are damaged and they decide to go against the feed? Anderson's book is written to be read aloud. Titus's stream of words and the rhythm of the "teenspeak" are read to perfection by actor David Baker. The intermittent feed commercials give listeners a taste of this society and help them understand the media attack the teens here are forced to endure. Baker's presentation will make this satiric cautionary tale very real for listeners.