Feed is one of my favorite frequently overlooked Young Adult Dystopian fiction books. I think of Feed as in the same genre as The Hunger Games, The Giver and Divergent but there are many things that set it apart from these more famous dystopian novels. One of the most common plots of a dystopian Y.A. novel involves a character who is a part of a seemingly utopian world but later discovers the ugly truths about that world and decides to do something about it.
In the case of Jonas from The Giver, he flees his community with baby Gabriel to save him from being euthanized. In The Hunger Games and Divergent both female heroines become a part of a revolution, throwing their worlds into turmoil and hopefully positive change. Feed does not contain this plot. Nothing radically changes about the world, and we are unsure whether or not the main character changes much himself. In my opinion, this makes Feed more realistic than many other dystopian novels. So many Y.A. dystopian novels feature a teenage character who takes on challenges many adults couldn't handle. Titus, the main character of Feed, reads like a teenager. He is selfish, easily entertained, social, obsession-obsessed and curious but never too curious. He is not a radical warrior. He is a boy.
Feed takes place far in the future in America. In the world of Feed many people have "feeds" installed in their brains at birth, which allow them to communicate telepathically, purchase items on the feed (very similar to purchasing items online), play games, watch shows, and record and play back memories they have. Through the feed, advertisements are marketed and buzzed into people's brains. These ads are constant, even during dreams. For example, when Titus and his friends walk by a store, ads are buzzed into their brains about what they should buy.
Titus explains that the feeds were originally marketed as the ultimate learning tool. With the feed, a user has access to any information he desires. He can look anything up at any moment. Eventually, though, the feed has become a way to buy. In Titus' school, more time is spent on shopping and decorating their rooms than on history or science because they already have access to all they need to know about everything.
This unlimited access to information does not make everyone eloquent geniuses. Titus and his friends speak in slang with words like "unit", "null", "skip" and "meg." Adults don't talk much differently. Much of Feed, which is narrated by Titus, is written in long run-on sentences and he often struggles to talk about how he means. The book is conversational- it is how Titus would talk to his friends, but without the video, pictures and ads they usually use to communicate. These are such a big part of the world that speech is not as valuable anymore.
The world of Feed may seem disturbing to us, but Titus is completely comfortable in it. He is a part of the feed, having it since birth, and never really questions it.
At the start of the novel, Titus and his friends go to the moon for spring break. They are "tapped" or hacked by a radical at a night club, and Titus meets Violet. Violet catches Titus' eye. She is wearing an old-fashioned wool dress and she is all by herself. Violet hasn't had the feed her whole life. She had it installed as a young girl after convincing her parents. Violet and Titus begin dating and Violet tries to show Titus the problems with the world around them. She thinks Titus is different than the rest of his friends. He is more curious, she thinks. Titus goes along with what Violet tells him, but after a while she becomes a bore. No one wants to brought down all the time.
Halfway through Feed, Violet reveals to Titus that she is sick. Her feedware is malfunctioning. She is losing function in her brain and she doesn't know if it can be fixed. Titus tries to be there for her, but he struggles to look for what to say. Violet isn't fun anymore. She's serious and negative and she wants Titus to store her memories as she begins to lose them. Titus panics and stops seeing or communicating with her. We as an audience want him to rise up, to fight back against the world around him that entertains others into submission, and be there for Violet when she needs him. We want Titus to be a good person.
One of the things I love most about Feed is the way its characters belong to its world. It makes you imagine what you would be like if you lived in a world where your every whim could be catered to in an instant, where your head would never be silent, where you are never alone or bored. How different would you be from Titus? How different are you from Titus now?
The world of Feed is unnervingly close to our world. We have a constant stream of advertisements everywhere we go. Entertainment is always a click away. We think we have gained so much from the technology advancements of today, but have we really? There are many things we are losing as well. Feed looks at a future in which technology has advanced, but many things have been lost and makes an argument to be fearful about a direction in which we may be headed.
Sunday, September 20, 2015
Tuesday, May 6, 2014
YA Dystopian Fiction
Young Adult Dystopian Fiction is a very popular genre today. As the Twilight series gave way to the "Young Adult Paranormal Romance" section in the bookstore, YA Dystopian Fiction is a subgenre that has become a full-fledged genre of its own. The Hunger Games, the most famous contemporary YA Dystopian trilogy, has made dystopias a popular setting for love triangles, uprisings and discovering horrible truths about human nature, perfection and power. Of course, before The Hunger Games there were many dystopias in fiction: the worlds of 1984, Brave New World and Fahrenheit 451. These were all well respected novels that depicted chilling predictions of our possible future. Since the publishing of these novels, and others like them, there was a large gap in any new Dystopian novels until The Hunger Games.
The Hunger Games took the formula of Dystopian novels before it and added something new: a female protagonist. Katniss Everdeen is a new character in the genre: someone who uses the skills she has to fights back even though she and her family are victims of the world they live in. In previous Dystopian novels the protagonists are frequently higher-class, more educated or more curious than other people in their community. They possess a different quality, something that sets them apart. This is often a quest for knowledge about the truths of their world.
Katniss' quality that sets her apart is purely her survival instinct. She knows how to survive against the worst odds. Katniss can hunt, gather, trade and provide for her family. She is not interested in the corrupt government of the Capitol or the propaganda and information required to fight back. She wants something simple: a place where she can live without fear of the hunger games. A place where children are not forced to compete in a death match.
Katniss is very much a character who is defined by her poverty and few opportunities. She became a hunter out of necessity. She is desperate, skilled, ruthless and impulsive. She is not good at handling emotions, even when she is forced to create a fake romance with her fellow "tribute" in the hunger games from District 12, Peeta Mellark. Katniss has many skills, but she feels out of her depth throughout the hunger games competition and later when fighting the Capitol. She is strong and most importantly she is human.
The Hunger Games has brought us a new collection of young, vulnerable, conflicted protagonists who try their best to rail against the imperfect worlds they live in, sometimes succeeding and other times not.
I chose to focus on YA Dystopian novels with characters like these. There are so many overlooked Dystopian novels that really deserve to be read by a wider audience. I will attempt to tackle that by bringing attention to these books.
The Hunger Games took the formula of Dystopian novels before it and added something new: a female protagonist. Katniss Everdeen is a new character in the genre: someone who uses the skills she has to fights back even though she and her family are victims of the world they live in. In previous Dystopian novels the protagonists are frequently higher-class, more educated or more curious than other people in their community. They possess a different quality, something that sets them apart. This is often a quest for knowledge about the truths of their world.
Katniss' quality that sets her apart is purely her survival instinct. She knows how to survive against the worst odds. Katniss can hunt, gather, trade and provide for her family. She is not interested in the corrupt government of the Capitol or the propaganda and information required to fight back. She wants something simple: a place where she can live without fear of the hunger games. A place where children are not forced to compete in a death match.
Katniss is very much a character who is defined by her poverty and few opportunities. She became a hunter out of necessity. She is desperate, skilled, ruthless and impulsive. She is not good at handling emotions, even when she is forced to create a fake romance with her fellow "tribute" in the hunger games from District 12, Peeta Mellark. Katniss has many skills, but she feels out of her depth throughout the hunger games competition and later when fighting the Capitol. She is strong and most importantly she is human.
The Hunger Games has brought us a new collection of young, vulnerable, conflicted protagonists who try their best to rail against the imperfect worlds they live in, sometimes succeeding and other times not.
I chose to focus on YA Dystopian novels with characters like these. There are so many overlooked Dystopian novels that really deserve to be read by a wider audience. I will attempt to tackle that by bringing attention to these books.
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