Feed: Dystopia

This progress was most present in the chapter “A Day in the Country’ (139) when characters Titus and Violet visit “Filet Mignon” a meat farm in which there Is no livestock but rather plantations of synthesized meat growing, with blood filled tubes running In and out of the factory. Titus’ narration explains “we could see all these miles of filet mignon from where we were sitting, and some places where the genetic coding had gone Furthermore this sense of arbitration is shown again while Titus’ father is describing his most recent whaling trip.
He explains how whales are forced to be encased in a synthetic form of protection, as described earlier the seas have become highly toxic due to ignorance f the damages of pollution. In many ways Anderson demonstrates qualities of an artificial society that has resulted in the elimination of natural components of a modern functional world. In Feed, society depiction of human Interaction/communication was through the installation of the computer software known as the feed.
The purpose behind this new product was merely a corporate opportunity for companies to market their advertisements geared toward the user’s emotional state, recent thought topics and for the government to send information. It provides access to any online resource: hopping, television and most often used in the novel “M Chatting”. A form of communication similar to instant messaging via a cellular device, except from within the feed in the brain.

Character Violet was one of the first to express her feelings toward the new era of the Feed installation, she showed resistance to the one product 73% of Americans had been consumed with. She was subject to malfunction after the group had been hacked by Euro-tourists on the moon, which then caused her to develop a theory that if she were to create a fake customer profile on the feed that the corporations wouldn’t be able to market to. Violet stated “I’m not going to let them catalog me. I’m going to become Invisible. (98) Earth as described In the novel leads readers to believe that this generation Is being controlled by the feed, a product approved by the government. Technology has changed modern society drastically, it lead characters like Titus to a state where he does not remember life achieving. Lincoln “Link” Reworked one of Titus’ best friends is perhaps the best example of the advancement in technology that society has reached. His parents went to a clinic where they were able to choose desirable traits from one of the most influential men n American history, Abraham Lincoln.
Growing up in a gated community unlike Violet’s or Titus’, Links family is very wealthy, they were able to afford this form of genetic selection in which the government provides. This clone is ironic actually since Link is far from ‘Honest Abe’ other than being quite tall, Link is not very intelligent, makes hasty decisions and could not be more opposite than the man who freed the slaves. This error in the genetic cloning system reveals a flaw that society has yet to overcome, malfunction. As said in the feed Mimi can’t spell ‘danger’ without DNA. “(28).
Malfunction has been present in the characters feed when they were hacked, when Violet’s efficiency decreases and when the group engages in consuming alcohol and their system slows down. It proves that the technology created is not perfect, this society does have flaws and these flaws are a direct translation to the decay of human nature. In contrast to Part 3: Utopia (73), Feed is about two teenagers Violet and Titus living in a dyspepsia society full of malfunction, hackers, feed broadcasts and trademarked franchises. With houses that have their own weather/season, their own sun and drop bubs.
Up-cars that can take you on vacations to the moon, synthesized meat factories and little of what’s left of nature. “Earth” as the feed users know it is far from Utopia. A perfect world is not defined by success in technology, but the overall bliss and happiness that is not ideal; unachievable. The resistance towards the feed is a clear reflection of how modern society has changed. This future world as described in Feed might become a reality if we are subject to consumption. “The natural world is so adaptable… So adaptable you wonder what’s natural. ” (191)