I just read feed for a class on children's lit. I liked it okay, but all the fuss was a mystery to me. Two problems, I guess. Poking at consumerism and pop culture is tooooooo easy. It can of course be quite valid, but everyone's done it by this point. I'm not convinced that Feed offered anything new.
I'm also not convinced that it works as a dystopia, if it's meant to be one. If we're to treat Violet's death as symptomatic of what's wrong with the world...we just can't. She isn't martyred by this cruel, cold world. She dies because a piece of technology malfunctions. This doesn't show that there's anything wrong with the feed--only that it could use a bit more perfecting.
And did we ever find out what the heck the guy who caused the malfunction was up to?
Well, Violet possibly could have been saved if not for the heartless feed representatives who didn't think she was a good consumer, so I think it does work.
The thing is, the problem is set up to be unsolvable. If you take out your feed, you die. It's not like turning off the TV. So it's all hopeless from the get-go.
"I think Anderson wants his book to make people stop being apathetic. But I'm not sure that telling them that they're jerks and pawns and that everything's hopeless is going to do that. I think that people who don't act are often not apathetic, but think that change is impossible and nothing one person can do will make a difference. They need to be inspired and encouraged, not confirmed in those beliefs, insulted, and yelled at."
Amen!
This reminds me of the review I wrote of Nancy Springer's I Am Mordred. You don't encourage people who are depressed about their inability to make changes in their lives by writing a character who is Fate's ultimate patsy. And if you don't want to encourage people, but are simply writing to convey your own despair and nihilism, you shouldn't write for children (or teenagers, who are older children
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I just read feed for a class on children's lit. I liked it okay, but all the fuss was a mystery to me. Two problems, I guess. Poking at consumerism and pop culture is tooooooo easy. It can of course be quite valid, but everyone's done it by this point. I'm not convinced that Feed offered anything new.
I'm also not convinced that it works as a dystopia, if it's meant to be one. If we're to treat Violet's death as symptomatic of what's wrong with the world...we just can't. She isn't martyred by this cruel, cold world. She dies because a piece of technology malfunctions. This doesn't show that there's anything wrong with the feed--only that it could use a bit more perfecting.
And did we ever find out what the heck the guy who caused the malfunction was up to?
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Well, Violet possibly could have been saved if not for the heartless feed representatives who didn't think she was a good consumer, so I think it does work.
The thing is, the problem is set up to be unsolvable. If you take out your feed, you die. It's not like turning off the TV. So it's all hopeless from the get-go.
Reply
Amen!
This reminds me of the review I wrote of Nancy Springer's I Am Mordred. You don't encourage people who are depressed about their inability to make changes in their lives by writing a character who is Fate's ultimate patsy. And if you don't want to encourage people, but are simply writing to convey your own despair and nihilism, you shouldn't write for children (or teenagers, who are older children ( ... )
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Connie Willis's DOOMSDAY BOOK (despite the dull future parts, which I always skip when re-reading)
Do we all do this? Maybe she should reissue the whole book WITHOUT the 'future' context, so we don't have to spend our time skipping over it!
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