Part 4 – Slumberland

52.9% (Part 4.1)

The titles of the chapters in part four correspond to Violet’s vital signs, the health of her feed and consequently, her physical health. The part opens with Titus in the hospital waiting room as Violet is being treated. Although he is there physically, much like Loga and his own Father’s visit to his hospital stay on the Moon, he is distracted by the feed and is perusing car advertisements and movies. He is confronted by the sight of patients being wheeled past him, a sight of the end product of feed malfunctions, an illness that shocks Titus.

52.9% Quotes (Part 4.1)

The men in the wheels stared out, their mouths open, their eyes looking at everything flashing by, but the men were not moving at all. Just looking at the world helpless, in circles, the world going by. Part 4.1

87.3% (Part 4.2)

Violet’s father arrives and is genuinely distressed. He sends Titus a link to a site where they can monitor Violet’s health as a percentage. Titus is distracted and inappropriately clapping to something in the feed while talking to Violet’s father. He asks Titus to stop. They see Violet, who is apologetic, and who asks Titus why he is standing so far away from her. Although he says it is because of all the tubes, it symbolises a shift in Titus’ attitude, he is moving away from Violet, wondering how close she is to the girl who went ‘fugue’, acting radically out of order.

87.3% Quotes (Part 4.2)

He sent me an address. ‘Go there,’ he said. ‘If things neural were going swimmingly with Vi, the number you detect would be about ninety-eight percent.’ I went there. It was some kind of medical site. It said Violet Durn, Feed Efficiency: 87.3%. (Violet’s father and Titus) Part 4.2

She rubbed her eye. ‘Why are you standing so far away?’ Part 4.2

87.1% (Part 4.3)

Titus visits Violet at her house and they sit without talking, just ‘chatting’. Titus tries to reassure himself and her that she isn’t like the person who vented at the party. Violet suggests that maybe she is and that maybe that’s what is wrong. She talks about all the things she wants to do before she dies. Titus asks what it was like at the party when she made a scene. She explains it felt good to tell the truth and not worry about others, like singing a hit single, but in hell.

87.1% Quotes (Part 4.3)

‘It’s not you,’ I argued. ‘It’s the feed thing. You’re not like that.’
‘Maybe I am like that. Maybe that’s what’s wrong.’ (Titus and Violet m-chat) Part 4.3

I asked her, ‘What did it feel like? At the party?’
She waited. Then, she admitted, ‘It felt good. Really good, just to scream finally. I felt like I was singing a hit single. But in Hell.’ (Titus and Violet) Part 4.3

87.1% (Part 4.4)

A repeated chapter title giving a sense that things have stabilised with Violet’s feed. Violet and her father are petitioning companies like FeedTech to assist in the repairs of Violet’s feed, the warranty having expired, while Violet is treated like her technology, expendable, by the larger corporation.

87.1% Quotes (Part 4.4)

They asked FeedTech to take on payments for research and repairs. They said that FeedTech had to, because it was about the life of a girl. Her feed’s warranty had expired years ago. (Violet and her father) Part 4.4

86.5% (Part 4.5)

Titus catches up with Quendy who has recovered from being yelled at by Violet. She is still covered in lesions and one is currently opening up, distracting Titus. Quendy recalls how Loga helped her by saying that Violet was ‘completely in mal’ and a ‘complete fuguing bitch’. Titus interjects that she is not and Quendy shifts and says that she just needed to hear that the night of the party. Titus is still caught between his friends, his lifestyle, and Violet, with the truth that she brings. He defends her here but is shifting away from her when they are together. When he explains that Violet is unwell, he tells her that Violet sent a site for him to look at that explains what is happening to her. Quendy asks if he is going to look at it and Titus says he doesn’t really want to know. His deliberate choice of ignorance is emblematic of his outlook on life, shutting out the truth that Violet represents.

86.5% Quotes (Part 4.5)

‘She was like, Da da da, she was completely in mal, don’t listen to her, da da da, she’s a complete fuguing bitch.’ (Quendy to Titus) Part 4.5

‘Don’t you want to know?’
I said, ‘I guess not.’ (Quendy to Titus) Part 4.5

52.0% (Part 4.6)

Violet, awake in the night, and having problems moving her leg, sends Titus a message that he reads the next morning. She discusses her family and how her mother resisted the feed, calling it a ‘brain mole’. She explains that her grandparents were too poor to afford feeds for her father and both he and her mother had to get through university without the digital assistance. By sharing in this way, Violet is opening up to Titus, still believing that their relationship is strong.

52.0% Quotes (Part 4.7)

My dad was there with me. He’s not doing very well. (Violet) Part 4.6

She decided not to have the feed installed. She called it ‘the brain mole’. (Violet about her mother) Part 4.6

82.4% (Part 4.7)

Titus listens to the message in two parts, first in bed then on his way to school. He gets a strange smell that he thought was an attachment but realises it is the smell of the hospital. He can’t shake the smell even when he arrives at school. He pauses and he thinks the smell is ‘her’, associating Violet with sickness.

82.4% Quotes (Part 4.7)

I could still smell the hospital in my nose. It wasn’t anything around me. It was her. I stopped breathing, but the smell was still there. I held my breath. (About Violet) Part 4.7

80.9% (Part 4.8)

A list of things Violet would like to do includes insight into her personality. She is a typical teen in some ways, wanting to grow up and have sophisticated parties, romantic in her affection toward Titus, always referring to activities that ‘they’ will do together, idealistic and searching for the natural world. Above all, she just wants to grow old.

80.9% Quotes (Part 4.8)

I want to sit with you in a place where I can’t hear engines. (Violet) Part 4.8

I want to get older. (Violet) Part 4.8

78.6% (Part 4.9)

Titus is at school watching a hologram teacher. He remarks that at certain angles they look hollow, symbolic of some people and the education he is receiving. Titus then takes his time listening to the list. The fact that Violet is dying and he can’t focus on the list or give it his full attention is a symptom of the feed-induced diminished attention span, and the fact that he has no empathy for her. Much like others, especially his own father, he can’t fully form a relationship or feel deep emotions. When he gets to the end he says ‘that was it’, a foreshadowing of the fact that he is nearing the end of his interest in Violet.

78.6% Quotes (Part 4.9)

When I got to the end, that was it. Part 4.9

If you don’t look right at them, they can look just like an empty shell. (About hologram teachers) Part 4.9

77.8% (Part 4.10)

Violet is chatting but Titus doesn’t reply. He is finished with her.

77.8% Quotes (Part 4.10)

‘Titus? . . . Titus?’ Part 4.10

76.3% (Part 4.11)

Titus hadn’t replied to Violet for a few days, he had put his ‘busy signal’ on, and spends some time with Marty and Link as they get ‘mal’ at a new site. During their ‘trip’ they head to the mall and talk. They ask about Violet and Titus is confused in his relationship with her, it is as scattered as the feed. He defends her when Link calls her a ‘bitch’, in response to Titus’ asking if Violet is being mean to him by suggesting he would be by her bedside. He hasn’t spoken to her but he is still with her.

Violet finally gets through to Titus and she wants to talk about serious matters such as the Global Alliance’s response to villages in South America being covered in pollution from the USA. Titus is in no shape to talk clearly, still under the influence of the trip. He makes his way to her house and in a ‘drunken like state’ says he will try to make things on the list happen before he passes out on her lawn.

76.3% Quotes (Part 4.11)

She had tried chatting me a few times since she sent me the list, but I had on my busy signal. (About Violet) Part 4.11

‘Do you think she’s being mean to me? In telling me about that part with me standing by her bed?’ (About Violet) Part 4.11

‘Have you heard about this Central American stuff? Two villages on the Gulf of Mexico, fifteen hundred people — they’ve just been found dead, covered in this black stuff.’ (Violet) Part 4.11

76.2% (Part 4.12)

Violet shares a memory with Titus who lives through her virtual file. It is an easy way for him to gain some empathy for what she is going through. In the file she walks down stairs but her legs fail and she falls, gasping for air. Nina, the FeedTech assistant, interprets this as panic and lets her know via the feed that panic can lead to underarm odour. This leads to an advertisement for a pharmacy to help control that problem. The lack of empathy from the Feedtech assistant isn’t dissimilar to that shown by Titus who is still ‘malfunctioning’ rather than focusing on Violet. Titus knows that her father would be furious to think his daughter is wasting her last days with him.

76.2% Quotes (Part 4.12)

.. it was pretty clear he was thinking, My daughter is spending these last like precious hours with some malfunctioned asshole. (About Violet’s father) Part 4.12

59.3% (Part 4.13)

Violet sends a big message pouring out her heart, obviously worried as any young person would be facing death. Titus feels crowded by the messages, they are too much for him to process and he doesn’t read them all, his lack of compassion evident when he deletes the messages. He does however feel some regret in his callous actions.

59.3% Quotes (Part 4.13)

She kept sending things. I didn’t open them. I let them sit. I was walking around School™ the next
day, feeling them like, feeling them crowd me. (About Violet’s message) Part 4.13

I didn’t feel good. I sat on the sofa. I looked at the fireplace. I had deleted all her memories. (About Violet’s message) Part 4.13

57.2% (Part 4.14)

Amid a chaotic house where Titus’ younger brother, whom he calls Smell Factor, is running around being loud and chased by his yelling mother, while Titus’ father is away, Violet arrives. Titus’ hesitancy in what to do is shown in the fact that he pauses at the door before letting her in. Because Titus hadn’t replied to her messages, Violet came to tell him she is going to the country with or without him. He decides to go, partly out of guilt for erasing her memories.

Titus has lied about not receiving her messages and now lies again on the way to the country that he sent her something. This concerns Violet, who feels she is deteriorating faster than she thought. She admits that she liked some music that FeedTech sent her and feels they figured her out despite all her efforts to resist the feed.

57.2% Quotes (Part 4.14)

I got up and went to my bedroom door. I just stood there, and didn’t push the button to open it. My hand was on the button, but I didn’t push it. I stood by the door. Part 4.14

She was like, ‘Are you coming or not? This is my big time. I’m going to really live.’ (Violet) Part 4.14

‘I’m worried about the chat, though. That’s new. I didn’t know. Did you try to send me things?’
I lied to her: ‘A few things. They were short,’ but I didn’t feel good about it. I said, ‘You could send
the memories to me again.’ (Titus and Violet) Part 4.14

‘She figured it out. I’ve been sketched demographically. They can still predict things I like.’ She sighed. ‘They’re really close to winning. I’m trying to resist, but they’re close to winning.’ (Violet about Nina the FeedTech assistant) Part 4.14

54.1% (Part 4.15)

Titus and Violet check into the hotel under the name ‘Smith’, fulfilling one of the items on Violet’s bucket list. They head into town and see a protest but nobody knows what it is about, and they don’t take the time to find out but eat their pizza instead. Titus thinks he could possibly be intimate with Violet when he thinks that the night will make her flesh feel grainy. However, when they arrive back at the room and Violet makes a move on him, declaring that she loves him and wants to be with him, Titus calls a halt to the passion. He heartlessly says that it feels like being with a zombie as he keeps picturing her dead. They have an argument and break up, Violet explaining she just wanted to be normal, go to the Moon like normal people do, have a boyfriend like normal people do but that she feels like she was punished by the hacker for conforming. Titus says he thought it was just a fling and he hadn’t signed up for anything deeper. Violet continues and shifts her argument to the South America situation and the lack of natural world. Titus shuts this down by leaving and telling her to get her things and that she can finish the sermon on the way home. They have broken up. On the way home, Titus’ feed senses he is low and offers to cheer him up by pointing to a sale, where he buys something.

54.1% Quotes (Part 4.15)

There was some shouting going on by the college campus. … We asked the people what it was, and they said it was a protest. We asked for what, and they didn’t know. So we ate our pizza … (Titus and Violet) Part 4.15

‘I love you, Titus. This is going to be the most amazing night. This is going to drill eyes in the back of our heads.’ (Violet) Part 4.15

I said, ‘I keep picturing you dead already. It feels . . .’ I didn’t want to finish the sentence. She was waiting, though, so for some stupid reason, I did finish it, maybe because I was angry, and I said, ‘It feels like being felt up by a zombie, okay? That’s what it feels like.’ (Titus to Violet) Part 4.15

She said, ‘I went to the Moon during spring break to see how people live. When you came along, I thought, Now I’ll have a boyfriend, like people have boyfriends.’ (Violet to Titus) Part 4.15

‘You can finish the like, the sermon in the upcar,’ I said. ‘You’ll have a couple of hours before we get to your house.’ (Titus to Violet) Part 4.15

You low? said a banner. Not for long — not when you find out the savings you can enjoy at Weatherbee & Crotch’s Annual Blowout Summer Fashions Sale! It was a little embarrassing, but I did order a jersey. I did it really careful, in case she was tracking my feed. (Titus’ feed) Part 4.15

51.5% (Part 4.16)

The next day Violet messages Titus. She says she is not sorry but that she doesn’t think he is stupid, she believed in him and was waiting for him to rise to the occasion and to teach her things. In many ways, that has been the character flaw of Titus from the start, that he, although clearly despondent with the world and being presented with a chance to resist, failed to live up to that potential and continually fell back to the patterns of his parents, his friends, his wilful ignorance, the feed and its consumerism ideals.

51.5% Quotes (Part 4.16)

But I am messaging you to say that I love you, and that you’re completely wrong about me thinking you’re stupid. I always thought you could teach me things. I was always waiting. (Violet) Part 4.16

Summertime (Part 4.17)

The naming of the chapter as Summertime rather than as a number reflects Violet’s feed showing that Titus has moved on. Titus is now going out with Quendy; as all the members of the group have at some point had relations, their superficial nature is showcased. Titus is having a good time, and comments on how people’s hair is falling out and how they are freezing like mannequins. At a time when people were automatically blaming such experiences on groups like the Coalition of Pity, it turns out these were experiences of nostalgia for things people did not even know about yet.

Titus experiences his own melancholy again. He reflects that his car is not as cool as he thought it was and that it was like he kept buying things to be cool, but cool was always flying just ahead of him in an endless cycle of unfulfilment.

Summertime Quotes (Part 4.17)

When school ended for the year, Link and Marty and I went to one of the moons of Jupiter …. It was okay. We had a pretty good time. By that point, I was going out with Quendy, and I kind of missed her. Part 4.17

People were just stopping in their tracks frozen. At first, people thought it was another virus, and they were looking for groups like the Coalition of Pity, but it turned out that it was something called Nostalgia Feedback. Part 4.17

It was like I kept buying these things to be cool, but cool was always flying just ahead of me, and I could never exactly catch up to it. I felt like I’d been running toward it for a long time. Part 4.17

The Deep (Part 4.18)

Titus’ father returns from a corporate adventure where they had been whale hunting. He shares his memories in virtual film style with the family, like snap shots from a holiday. Among the action of harpooning a whale, Titus hears a small voice saying she wanted me to tell you when it all stops. It was Violet’s father and he told Titus that her feed has completely shut down. He leaves the family gathering to go to her house while his mother is implying that his father was eyeing the sales lady in the video feed. Titus’ mother is losing skin so much so that you can see her teeth even when her mouth is closed. However in what is typical of the futuristic world, seemingly petty events like the whaling or her husband’s wandering eyes are more important than an obvious health disaster. Even Titus fails to continue his thoughts about people losing hair or skin. It implies that the feed, driven by corporations that are possibly to blame for the environmental and health disasters, is keeping everyone distracted and placating or pacifying the masses. Although on the news the violence and riots are reported, few seem to care in the way Violet did.

The Deep Quotes (Part 4.18)

I heard a voice say, She wanted me to tell you when everything stopped. Part 4.18

My mother said, ‘Maybe because “we” have been strutting around on a whaling boat, eyeing up the V.P. of Sales.’ My mom had lost so much skin you could see her teeth even when her mouth was closed. Part 4.18

On the news, there were underground explosions that no one could explain in New Jersey, and a riot had started a few hours before in a mall in California, and was spreading, with feed coverage of people stampeding for safety and children falling and professional people beating the shit out of each other with chairs and a body floating in a fountain while the Muzak played a waltz. Part 4.18

4.6% (Part 4.19)

Titus arrives at Violet’s house and is let into her room by her father. He feels that although she is there it is as if he is all alone and that she is just a prop version of herself. This reveals his lack of emotional connection and his inability to fully process what is happening. Violet’s father joins him and talks about her last days where she drifted from confusion, talking about her mother and Titus, to awareness, awake but trapped in a body that did not function. He discusses why he got the feed for Violet after feeling excluded in a meeting, obviously now full of regret. Titus says he is sorry and Violet’s father doesn’t let him off easy. He asks if Titus is sorry for the things he didn’t do regarding him just leaving Violet at her time of need. He also doesn’t let Titus off when he says it isn’t his fault as he took Violet to the club the night she was hacked. Violet’s father tells him to leave and to go and take what’s his and play his games, clearly unimpressed by Titus’ wealth or attitude that have left him without real depth. He details American consumerism and how everything, including his daughter, can be discarded when not needed. He questions if Titus will ever open his eyes to see what is really going on in the world.

Titus returns home, strips naked and sits on the floor. He repeatedly orders the same colour pants over and over as if it will stop his pain.

4.6% Quotes (Part 4.19)

You could stand there and you would feel completely alone, like you were just in a room with a prop. Part 4.19

‘The worst stage was when one could tell she was still awake and almost alert, but she knew that nothing worked. Imprisoned. …. Looking out from the eyes. Her own mind, at that point, was as small and bewildered as a little fly. Behind great battlements.’ (Violet’s father) Part 4.19

‘You’ve done your duty. Why don’t you go along and play your games?’ said her father. ‘We’re the land of youth. The land of opportunity. Go out and take what’s yours.’ (Violet’s father) Part 4.19

‘We Americans,’ he said, ‘are interested only in the consumption of our products. We have no interest in how they were produced, or what happens to them’ — he pointed at his daughter — ‘what happens to them once we discard them, once we throw them away.’ (Violet’s father) Part 4.19

‘Will you ever open your eyes?’ (Violet’s father) Part 4.19

I ordered the draft pants from Multitude. It was a real bargain. I ordered another pair. I ordered pair after pair. I ordered them all in the same colour. Part 4.19

4.6% (Part 4.20)

Titus returns to visit Violet one last time. He finally tries to deliver on his potential and give Violet what she wanted: to simply talk, not to be distracted by the feed, not to be shallow, but to talk about news and tell stories. He can’t find the words and his stories are sometimes just one sentence long but he is trying to communicate with Violet. He talks about the riots and the Global Alliance facing off against America. He talks about odd facts from history.

He then tells their story describing himself as a normal guy and her as a dissident, or rebel, with a heart of gold. He cries for the first time. This is the first sign of humanity that Titus has shown. He vows to keep telling their story after she has gone so that she will live on. The feed interlude following the narrative is a sale, everything must go, it underscores Violet’s father’s opinion that all things are disposable in this consumer-driven future.

4.6% Quotes (Part 4.20)

I tried to talk just to her. I tried not to listen to the noise on the feed, the girls in wet shirts offering me shampoo. I told her stories. They were only a sentence long, each one of them. That’s all I knew how to find. So I told her broken stories. The little pieces of broken stories I could find. I told her what I could. (Titus about Violet) Part 4.20

And for the first time, I started crying. I cried, sitting by her bed, and I told her the story of us. ‘It’s about the feed,’ I said. ‘It’s about this meg normal guy, who doesn’t think about anything until one wacky day, when he meets a dissident with a heart of gold.’ (Titus about Violet) Part 4.20

Everything must go! (Titus’ feed) Part 4.20