“Feed” by M.T. Anderson
I checked Feed by M.T. Anderson out from the library in preparation for seeing him tomorrow at the Twin Cities Book Fest. I read it years ago–perhaps in 2002 when it was published?–and recalled liking it but not being bowled over. This time around, I was extremely impressed.
Titus is a teen in a future, dystopic U.S., where everyone who’s anyone is hooked into the feed. He’s a spoiled boy with spoiled friends, who spend money always searching for the next cool thing:
We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck.
They speak in a tech-y argot, and there are many funny/sad turns, like the revelations of what languages have been lost, and what farms are like. Titus and his friends meet a girl named Violet on the moon, and then get into trouble with long-reaching effects. This is a satiric take on things that are all too likely, and while Titus’s behavior is sometimes troubling, especially in his relationship with Violet, it’s believable and even sometimes sympathetic for the teen boy character.
This one’s dark, funny, and thought-provoking. It reminded me of the film Gattaca, Stargirl by Jerry Spinelli and Little Brother by Cory Doctorow. A young adult book that’s good for us old adults, too.
October 16th, 2010 at 10:25 am
Back when I taught high school, this was assigned reading for the students in our science/engineering program. I decided it would be good for me to read it, especially since it seemed to be somewhat sci-fi (I wasn’t completely sure *what* it was before I started it), and I was very impressed.
What I found the most fascinating was how dead-on some of the author’s insights were — many of us already carry GPS with us in the form of an iPhone (or similar) and advertisers are on the verge of leveraging every little scrap of info they can get their hands on.
Being intentionally vague in an attempt to avoid spoilers, I found the main conflict to be really imaginative and sad. I think of it frequently when rating a book on Amazon or a movie on Netflix. (Oh, and TOTALLY love Gattaca!)
October 19th, 2010 at 9:07 am
Is there a sequence one should read the MT Anderson books - it looks like they have some repeat characters? Or do they stand alone, (other than the obvious sequences)?
October 19th, 2010 at 10:34 am
I’ve only read Feed and it’s not related to the Octavian Nothings which have only 1 and 2.