WARNING: This article contains spoilers for Feed by M.T. Anderson. You’ve been warned.
College students always dread the first few weeks of classes. Unlike high school, we receive homework right away as we are “more prepared” for it. I know as an incoming first-year student, I was so excited to begin my new journey here at Millersville University. Yet, something was eating at me: how difficult will the homework be? In most of my classes, our first homework assignments were reading. French, Stagecraft and so on seemed to be okay, until I was in my COMM 101 class and our professor said to begin reading our first book entitled FEED by M. T. Anderson.
At first, I thought, “This book does not seem interesting. Who calls a book FEED?” Well, I ended up being completely wrong. Let me explain to you how this book changed my views on the world, one technical device at a time. . .
FEED by M.T. Anderson is about teenagers who had the chance to travel to the moon. The term “feed” in this book refers to a technological device that is implanted in your brain. It’s almost as if our phones were connected to our brains. These teens can message each other through brainwaves and even adapt to advertisements as they pass by a particular place. Once on the moon, the three boys named Titus, Marty, and Link, and their girlfriends Calista, Quendy, and Loga seem to love partying. They have a term called “going mal” which to me is almost the same as being on multiple drugs at once. When in “mal”, your eyes roll back, and you feel like you’re in another dimension. How do they do this? They go on illegal sites and let it hack their minds. Why? Who knows.
Marty and Link are like Mario and Luigi, always getting in trouble and goofing off. Titus, however, is the most relatable character. He comes off as a loner who just wants to be loved. He calls himself lonely quite often in this book, until he comes across Violet. . .
Fast forward, Violet and Titus share these deep feelings for each other. Most readers feel so connected to these two based on their own experiences with relationships. As I said before, this squad LOVES partying. They all end up going to a big party where suddenly a hacker from “The Coalition of Pity” hacks all of them except Loga. The squad ended up in the hospital getting repairs done to their “feed”. Except. . . Violet. We later find out in the book that her “feed” is permanently damaged and is slowly killing her. The thought that Violet was dying and losing movement in her limbs everyday triggered Titus. They broke up. . .
You can only imagine how hard it would be to find out your lover is dying painfully. Instead, like most dumbfounded teenagers, Titus hooked up with one of his girl friends for a bit. Violet, slowly fading and not being able to move, still messaged Titus occasionally. He ignored most of the messages and even removed a very important one without reading it. It was all of her memories she wanted to be saved. WHAT A JERK! But I will ask you readers this. . . would you have done the same? The heartbreak can quite frankly mess up your thoughts and feelings quickly, but for a dying person’s sake why would you not save those memories? Just one thing and you couldn’t handle it.
This book had me crying, laughing and thinking about my own life, and I only wish for the rest of the world to have the same views. However, I’d like to discuss the technological aspects of this book a bit more.
Having a technological device implanted in your brain is something that our world has been discussing for ages. I recently saw in the news that a man had a chip implanted in his hand that could unlock his car and house doors with it. Do you believe the author M. T. Anderson is trying to predict the future? I mean, we have cars that run on electricity, new phones releasing every couple of months with new features, and so on. Sooner or later there will be a big technological advancement that could change us all.
With that, I would like to leave you with a question: would you consider putting new technological advancements in your body? What about your children? Personally, the idea is a thrill to me, having that kind of technology at our fingertips to be used for anything. However, the thought that something could malfunction and kill me is NOT worth it. Just wanted to give you something to ponder about because, who knows, this advancement could be right around the corner. . .
HCXO, Ace