Sober?

When I first began reading Feed the experience was different from any other book I’ve read because of the voice. When I say the voice, I mean the informality. As I read it really felt as though I was inside the head of a teenager or at least a regular angst ridden teenager. This is in comparison to teenagers like Holden Caulfield and Charlie Kelmeckis. This was accomplished by the author’s frequent use of the word like. We've all come in contact with someone who uses the word like as a filler word and Titus’s did a variation of that. Feed didn’t necessarily interest me immediately or any time after that really. It wasn’t hard to get into the book except for the occasional unfamiliar slang word. I did enjoy the experience of reading it, it was similar to a roller coaster. For example, when you go to Disneyland and you’re on a ride, they do their best to try stimulate a realistic experience. So if you’re supposed to be going into space there is going to be lift off sounds and it’s going to get cold. The way the Anderson did this was by integrating the feed into the book itself like on pg. 15, “…their hit single “Bad Me, Bad You”:

“I like you so bad

 And you like me so bad

 We are so bad.-“

---

“…Hostess M’s American Family Restaurants. Where time seems to stop as you chew.”

I was able to get a sense of what it would be like to have feed inside my head. At the point in the book where the gang got hacked and Titus missed his feed, it made me think back to now. The age of the smart phone. I hear kids all the time say “I feel naked without my phone.” It always elicits furrowed eyebrows from me because that is essentially saying that without the world easily accessible at your fingertips, you feel bare. Titus felt bare without his feed, bare without the noise. The easy, effortless noise.

The lyrics of rock pop goddess P! nk’s Sober ring true here,” I don't wanna be the girl that has to fill the silence. The quiet scares me 'cause it screams the truth.”

 

With one change of the word girl to the word boy, these lyrics fit Titus to a T. He doesn’t want the silence because then he wants to fill it, but he can’t because he’s forgotten how to. That’s the truth he doesn’t want to face. He doesn't want to be sobered up.

 

Briana W. Prompt 1

Anderson, M.T. Feed. Cambridge: Candlewick Press, 2002. Print. 

The Attention Span of a Toddler

The first 50 pages of Feed intruded a complex world were the internet has been imputed into peoples' brains and now lets them use the power of the internet at anytime. This story starts off with 5 young adults traveling to the moon because they wanted to have fun and experience the low gravity of the moon. During there trip to the moon we learn some information about our narrators companions, and all I have to say about them is, they are brats.

The youth of this book are basically what the youth of today are slowly forming into. They rely too much on the internet for entertainment and information. For example our main charter has to use his "feed" to auto correct one of his sentences that he stumbled over to say. Stumbling over your own words when your talking to a pretty girl inst the only thing readers can relate to.

When our crew takes there first step on the moon they are swarmed by ads and a lot of unwanted signs. This is something we all can relate to, everyone has clicked on a website and than had the troubling task of closing the endless amount of pop-ups on the site. These ads don't even faze these kids, even though they are literally seeing them right in front of themselves. If I had ads flying at me I wouldn't be the calmest person around.

Another thing that is easily relate-able to is the feeling of boredness you get when you don't have any plans. This group of friends bounces around from place to place, exploring the moon, only to leave shortly after arriving somewhere. These children  don't have an attention span and I believe we can even see this in our life's today. The differences in generations are be coming more noticeable as time progresses and I believe that the generation after mine is very similar to the young adults descried in Feed, easily bored and they rely too much on the internet.

So anyway in the grand scheme of things we discover that Feed might actually be a satyr for our society today. These charters do funny things throughout the story and its very easily relate-able to our youth today.

-Richard P

Brainwaves and Advertisements: The Feed and Sibyl...do they go too far?

It’s a funny thing to see how far technology has advanced within such a short period of time. We’ve reverse engineered viruses to create cures, we’ve revolutionized the weapons industry, and we’ve sent a man to the moon. I guess those are some of the more notable accomplishments for modern science.

Technology is advancing quick, so quick that things that seemed like science fiction (floating cars, virtual reality) are far closer than we could think. M.T Anderson’s book Feed illustrates what life would be like with and without a global link to the internet, which everyone knows is like the lifeblood of everyone from their tweens up til their early adulthood.

Okay, so think about this: It would be pretty awesome to be hooked up to the internet, right? No need to carry extra devices, no need to strain your fingers typing and no need to damage your eyes with a bright screen. But what about the negatives of it? I’m sure I’m not the only one who doesn’t want advertisements interrupting my thoughts. And if that wasn’t bad enough:

             

                 “But the Braggest thing about the feed, the thing that made it really big, is that it knows everything you want and hope for…Everything we think and feel is taken in by the corporations, mainly by data ones like Feedware an OnFeed and American Feedware, and they make a special profile, one keyed just for you, and then they give it to their branch companies, or other companies buy them, and they can get to know what it is we need…”(48)

…that’s not cool, guys. I don’t want my thoughts taken (don’t probe me, bro!) and passed around to other corporations to be like “oh, look, his innermost desire *takes peek*.

 Ahem, anyway I decided to dwell on this a little. Is this taking things too far? If you have a company peeking into your brain folds all the time, is anything really ever private? While reading this, I immediately connected this story to an anime I had watched recently called Psycho Pass.

Psycho Pass in the long run is about a criminal detection system that has been implemented and networked throughout this entire city. Seems pretty great, right? With such an advanced system, nothing could go wrong, right (foreshadowing)?

The entire grid links everyone’s mind to a massive index, called the Sibyl System. This criminal detection program uses a scanner to read someone’s “psycho pass” and determines how great a threat to society an individual is with some arbitrary number called their crime coefficient. It’s the job of inspectors to take their human hunting dogs, the enforcers (who, by the way are also latent criminals) to capture and therapize or pin down and neutralize the criminal with special auto locking guns called dominators. Dominators can only be fired by authorized users at people who have been deemed unfit for normal life in society.

Dominators are the most ridiculous thing I’ve ever seen. Depending on the criminal, it will either be fired stunned like a stun gun or turn the criminal into a fine pink mist…why it has to be so brutal, I have no clue.

Not seeing a connection yet? Keep reading.

What isn’t really thought about by any of the Inspectors or Enforcers is what exactly raises a crime coefficient? Well within the first episode, you can see that…well basically every thought running through your head.

Walking down the street, sunshine and rainbows; Crime Coefficient 54

Bump into pedestrian, “man he was rude”; Crime Coefficient OVER 9000! (No, but seriously)

The biggest issue is how much the law enforcement industry changed because of it. Similarly to how the Feed greatly influenced the lives of those who actually owned them, the Sibyl System altered the way criminals were brought to justice.

The real point here is how people changed without them.

In Feed, when Titus and everyone’s feeds were hacked, they were all twiddling their thumbs like morons. There was nothing there to entertain them; they didn’t even care to talk to each other, really. It may not be too obvious, but at that point, Titus begins actually thinking. Majority of the story is him just thinking about what is going on around him, but then he begins to actually think like we do today.

In Psycho Pass, there are a select few who don’t appear on the grid of the Sibyl system, and those select few cannot be fired upon by the dominator. So how does one deal with someone that, to the knowledge of the all-powerful Sibyl System, does not exist? Well, you resort to the old style detective way of doing things: think like a criminal to catch a criminal

.

Wait a minute…FLASHBACK
 “Walking down the street, sunshine and rainbows; Crime Coefficient 54

Bump into pedestrian, “man he was rude”; Crime Coefficient OVER 9000!”

         -Me <3

And that’s where enforcers come from.

More to my point, both of these scenarios throw off the new balance that has been set in by newfangled technology that’s supposed to make life better for everyone. But the sheer fragility of it makes me wish for normal computers, normal police officers…hell, give me old west sheriffs and parcels for all I care, anything but this!!!

Taylor R.

_________________________________________________________________________________

Anderson, M. T. "Missing the Feed." Feed. Cambridge, MA: Candlewick, 2002. 48. Print.

Psycho-pass. FUNimation Productions, 2013. Film.

"Feed" First 50 Pages of Uninterested

Starting a book can be one of the most important and crucial items in the whole novel. There should be a way to capture the reader’s attention in his or her own way. Make believe you were there when the action or event was happening or see the event from the characters eyes. The book “Feed” by M.T. Anderson, sadly, doesn’t do that for me. Now, the idea of having a chip in your head that allows you access to the internet, which they call the ‘Feed’, is something that is so interesting to me since I am in the middle of the technology generation and the older generation. It would be easier access to everyone to look up information and be very helpful in certain situations, but it will also be a major distraction for students, drivers, workers, actually I believe it would do more harm them good. But it’s the main character that kind of sets me off. He reminds me of that snotty kid that was given everything by his parents and everything bored him. Even his friends were boring to him. I mean, come on kid, I wish I had stuff like that! I would so use that for like video game cheats and help on research papers. Oh wait, I can do that already on a cell phone, or even on my laptop. So what is the use? Maybe it’s more convenient  and quicker access to resources and not carrying around a phone in your pocket the size of a 4x6 photograph. I can imagine the size of an iPhone during that time being the size of a paper, so maybe the chip isn’t so bad. But then comes the part of security with the people themselves. Now a days there security issues with just cell phones and laptops and still those are just limits. Think what will happen with people’s security with the “feed”?  All the information you remember, search up, and depend on can be accessed by others with a simple hack. That means photos, social security numbers, bank accounts, and everything personal to you can be accessed by another individual who has the skill and knowledge.

 That can be a pain in everyone’s ass, but maybe there’s a good side to all this madness I’m typing now. Or maybe I’m right in the sense that this book is kind of bad so far. Oh did I forget to mention now there’s a love interest? So original!!! Jesus can there be a novel where there isn’t a girl who looks totally hot? Make here ugly and make the guy see her for the good in her heart and not for what’s bulging in his pants. It’s just aggravating seeing this in all young adult books. Anyways, let me get back on track. This book is so far bad in my opinion. Great idea, but maybe you could have had a different concept and beginning. Plus the way the kids talk sounds like my sister talking to her friends. All this slang that I have no clue of what it is just confuses me entirely. My professor had to come up with a translation for the slang and give it to the class! That’s when you know it was unnecessary and unneeded.  I just can’t relate to anyone of them so far and that is what drags, not interest into the book. Maybe further into the book I'll see the difference, but right now it’s a thumbs down. 

-Justin R.

Just Like You and Me

Over the summer, my friends and I planned to go down to Myrtle Beach for vacation. Every day leading up to our departure we would talk about what we would do when we got there, get tattoos in our lips (wtf?), all these people we were going to meet, how shitfaced we were gonna get blah blah blah. We were so excited. Everyone on social media knew and trust me they wished we would just leave already so we’d shut the fuck up about it.

When we finally arrived in Myrtle Beach, we didn’t take in to consideration this huge factor: we were all under 21! I have no idea how we thought we were going to get “shitfaced”. We tried so hard to find people to party with and get us in to bars, clubs, anything, but nothing worked. All the other kids in our condominium were over 21 but wanted nothing to do with us, they were too busy shoving their legality in our faces saying “you’ll have your chance one day”. It was a bust.

Within just the first 50 pages of M.T. Anderson’s novel, Feed, I am able to relate to the characters and because of this understanding, I can see myself learning from them—even though they’re not your ideal role models.

                “Then we went back to the hotel. There were parties there, but mostly college kids. Usually we can get in, because me and Link and Marty and Calista, we can turn on the charm […] That didn’t work this time. We tried to get in and we were standing in the doorway and they were all, “Who the hell are you?” (Anderson 11).

Okay. What?! This quote is literally the definition of my unfortunate underage life. When I read this I started chuckling like okay. That’s me. I feel your pain, unit.

Even a little bit later in to the book, when they all tried to break in to the minibar and were throwing it against the wall so try and open it so they could get drunk before going to the club (33,34). Anderson didn’t directly say it but c’mon they were trying to pregame before they hit up the club.

Anderson’s ability to capture the commonalities among young adults is what’s so captivating about this book. I can see that these characters are exactly like me, even though it’s hundreds of years in to the future. My relation to the characters is what draws me in to the story and for the first time, like ever, I am excited to keep on reading and see what happens to these crazy kids. 

Anderson, M.T. Feed. Cambridge: Candlewick Press, 2002. Print. 

Nicole S.