Review Twelve: Feed

    Feed is a futuristic novel by M.T. Anderson. It takes place on an Earth where most Americans have a chip in their brain, known as The Feed. The Feed enables all humans connected to it to interact with one another, sort of like Facebook without a computer. Feed users essentially have the entire Internet at their disposal at anytime, connected through their brains. While they have it with them all the time, they can never escape it.

    Users hooked up to the feed experience constant advertising, as if they were constantly bombarded by Internet pop-ups. Corporations has become the top American power, dominating every possibly effigy and idea. In this world, there is no escape from the corporate stronghold. They even own the entire US educational system.

    One of the book's main characters, Violet, comes from poverty, and was implanted with the Feed at age 7. A problem occurs as most children are implanted with the Feed from birth. It is revealed that the Feed can come to control bodily functions as the user grows. However, because Violet was implanted later in life, her functions wear away until she dies.

   The manufacturer could have easily fixed Violet, but there was a small problem in the way: She was a non-conformist. She was unwilling to be a victim of constant marketing, and decided to confuse the feed as an act of rebellion. By buying a bunch of random, unrelated objects, Violet's "use profile" was incoherent, and the feed was unable to properly advertise to her. When her feed started to malfunction, the manufacturer claims that she is "unprofitable", and refuses to pay for repairs. Because she is poor, she cannot afford to have it repaired herself, leaving her to die.

    Feed represents a corporate dystopia, where the people are bombarded by constant advertising.

    Feed also provides a few glimpses into other aspects of future life. For example, the ocean is now toxic, burning human skin and forcing whales to be wrapped in plastic (yeah, just go with it). Humans are no longer capable of sexual reproduction, forcing mothers to undergo in-vitro fertilization and choose the child's physical features. Meat grows on trees and clouds are made artificially. In short, life kinda sucks.

    It's fun to note that the main character is not a rebel, but his girlfriend is. He's torn between the life he knows and the girl he isn't too attached to. Just a note.

    It's also interesting to note that this novel was my first high school reading assignment. Yeah, that's how I'll end Phase One of the blog project. I'll just make a bunch of random references.