The Feed

As Violet points out to the group in the party ‘Look at us! You don’t have the feed! You are feed! You’re feed! You’re being eaten! You’re raised for food! Look at what you’ve made yourselves!’ In this way Violet explains the symbolism of the feed itself. It is a system reflecting the larger society that has powerful corporations nudging consumers toward products on a minute by minute basis. The consumers are in fact feed for the machine; if they didn’t participate by buying the products and watching the entertainment the feed would break down, the large corporations would fail. However Titus and his friends are willing to have the feed and to play their part by following whatever it presents without questioning.

The feed is intrusive, mirroring the influence of technology and corporations on society. At one stage, they arrive on the Moon and are bombarded with so many advertisements they can hardly walk and need to wait for it to clear to communicate.

The feed also reflects the class system; those that have a feed can purchase what they want when they want and have access to the best technology and products, however those without wealth are restricted. Violet’s parents had to get through university without the feed, competing with others that had diagrams and formulas in their virtual world. To fuel the feed with products other people are being exploited, seen in Titus’ dream where a young girl sews and a boy is beaten.

The Feed Quotes

… I was currently disconnected from feednet, of course, and I was starting to get scared, … Part 2.1

That’s one of the great things about the feed — that you can be supersmart without ever working. Part 2.5

And the feed was pouring in on us now, all of it, all of the feednet, and we could feel all of our favorites, and there were our files, and our m-chatlines. It came down on us like water. It came own like frickin’ spring rains, and we were dancing in it. Part 2.12

There, I’ll be sorting and sifting, and trying to make life as easy and interesting as possible for you and your friend and all of our excellent customers at FeedTech — making your dreams into hard fact™. (Nina from FeedTech support) Part 3.13

‘Can I tell you? We are hovering in the air while people are starving. This is obvious! Obvious! We’re playing games, and our skin is falling off.’ (Violet) Part 3.20

‘You don’t have the feed! You are feed!’ (Violet to the group) Part 3.20

Lesions

Lesions are emblematic of the blindly compliant and unquestioning society. In a world with many problems that seem to be increasing as time passes, lesions are an indication that both something is not right, and that people are willing to ignore or even celebrate it if the feed so instructs. The lesions appear and are mentioned when the group is on the Moon. They are open sores and the group at first is a bit self-conscious of them. It is Violet who reframes lesions, telling them about grid lines of beauty on a face when she is introduced to the group. After the show that they follow, Oh? Wow! Thing!, has characters who celebrate their lesions, some members in the group accentuate their lesions. Calista even goes on to have artificial ones added to be trendy.

The lesions are not questioned. In the same way, other health issues arise for society which are not questioned by the group although Violet and her father question these. Hair falls out, Titus’ mother has lost so much skin you can see her teeth even when her mouth is closed, hipsters can’t move as their increasing nostalgia glitches the feed and they are frozen in their tracks. Titus mentions all of these things but rarely focuses on them, quickly moving on to a more superficial topic.

Lesions Quotes

Quendy came back from the bathroom and said, ‘Omigod! Like big thanks to everyone for not telling me that my lesion is like meg completely spreading.’ Part 1.4

Calista got it done yesterday. Quendy made this face. Now that lesions are ‘brag’. Now that they’re the spit. (about lesions) Part 3.18

Upcar

Titus’ upcar is symbolic of his wealth, given as a gift it shows how easy things come for him. Violet in turn teases him saying it was from mommy and daddy, implying he is not yet independent. She does not come from a home that can afford an upcar. The ease at which the car is purchased, with banner advertisements depicting scenarios of Titus riding with bikini clad girls or taking drives in the country coupled with an instant line of credit, means it will be an effortless purchase.

The car also reveals that the artificial happiness available through the feed is short-lived. Titus is ecstatic with the purchase at first; he celebrates with his father and they seem as if this has brought them closer. However as time goes on, and only a few short months later, Titus finds little joy in his upcar, regretting the purchase when he considers it to be not as cool as he initially thought it was.

Upcar Quotes

The Ford Laputa. Sky and Suburb Monthly says there’s no other upcar like it. And we agree. Part 2.12

And it unwrapped in my head, a banner for a dealer, and links to other dealers, and a big line of credit, and I was hugging them, and I was like holy shit, by tomorrow I would be driving to pick up Violet in my own goddamn upcar, and suddenly, suddenly, I didn’t feel so stupid anymore. Part 3.8

‘I want to get worried. If there’s like some meg thing wrong.’
…. My mom reached over … ‘You’re safe.’
Dad said, ‘You have an upcar.’ Part 3.10

The Moon

As the novel opens with a trip to the Moon, the experiences on the Moon foreshadow the society and events of the entire novel. Primarily it provides little satisfaction for the visiting group; Titus is bored by the trip there and has to force himself to have fun. The Moon also has been transformed from what would be a natural wonder into a series of hedonistic clubs that bombard visitors with banner advertisements to lure them in for financial gain. This will be seen on a larger scale on Earth. The Moon is also the turning point for Titus, who coincidentally is named after a moon himself, the sixth moon of Saturn. Titus is hacked here giving him a chance to change his life path which, combined with meeting Violet who is willing to question the ‘normal’, means that he can return to earth a new person, different from when he left.

The Moon Quotes

We went to the Moon to have fun, but the Moon turned out to completely suck. Part 1.1

We flew up and our feeds were burbling all sorts of things about where to stay and what to eat. Part 1.1

I was trying to talk to Link, but I couldn’t because I was getting bannered so hard, and I kept blinking and trying to walk forward with my carry-on. I can’t hardly remember any of it. I just remember that everything in the banners looked goldy and sparkling, but as we walked down to the luggage, all the air vents were streaked with black. Part 1.2

In other news, protests continued today against the American annexation of the Moon. Several South American countries including Brazil and Argentina have submitted requests to join the Global Alliance in response. Part 2.12