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Feed
The trouble is, all the citizens of this future state are connected to the global network with a direct neural link, called the Feed. The Feed connects its users directly to all others, allowing instant access to information and communication.
Like today's Net, however, the flow of information has grown disturbingly two-way: the Feed is owned by corporations, and their agenda to increase consumerism has led to such privacy-stripping "innovations" as predictive marketing (getting "bannered" by merely looking at purchaseable items) and constant interruptions (such as chats being broken by Google AdSense-inspired ads).
Even more sinister, those same corporations bought out the government's role in education, and so Titus and his friends attend School(TM) -- where literacy is not on the curriculum. Instead, students learn how to make purchase decisions and better use their Feed.
Titus' new girlfriend, however, is representative of a growing counter-culture. Violet's education is strictly home-based, and her objections to the mainstream grow increasingly strident, even as she becomes a victim of it. It is perhaps no coincidence that her lack of affluence in this society is tied to her resistance against it.
The citizens of this future America, weaned on the Feed, are shockingly illiterate. Their language is largely incoherent, riddled with "like"s and "thing"s. Poor verbal composition is combined with an almost complete lack of vocabulary, so characters are often caught referring to objects as "thing... uh..." -- pause while they look up the term through their Feed -- "table."
We often attribute poor language skills to teenagers, but the author's willingness to show adults with the same deficiencies is telling. Even the President of the United States appears unfocused and uneducated.
Not surprisingly, the inhabitants of this world are incredibly self-absorbed. Titus repeatedly demonstrates a callous disregard for the feelings of his dying girlfriend, although he has the good grace to feel guilty buying a sweater while she confesses her fear of death. It's a culture where citizens are trained to value only what's shiny and new, and to dispose of the old and used. How any relationship can survive in that environment is a mystery only philosophers and Slashdot commentators might dare address.
The author's handling of the characters is both realistic and sensitive. I found myself shaking my head at Titus and his friends, but my disgust was accompanied by a sympathy; like a baby raised by wolves, his behaviour is completely understood, if not acceptable.
In fact, the picture drawn of this future is all too clear, and the author's skill at connecting the dots between today and that time make for some serious introspection. After all, today's Internet is an obvious precursor of the Feed, and as commercial life makes ever-greater demands of our attention online, where does it end?
The gear that makes this future possible is incredibly empowering. It connects all people together, literally, to the sum total of all human knowledge, while providing a complete, instant telecommunications network. But corporate interest is clearly the villain here, with all technology perverted to consumerist ends, ripping away privacy, individual expression and true liberty. In the right hands, the Feed would be more powerful than the agricultural, industrial and communications revolutions put together; instead, the Feed is leading its users to an apocalypse, as the author strongly hints at the end of the novel.
Most savage of all, the citizens of this future America don't see the apocalypse coming. As they increasingly turn a blind eye to how their goods are manufactured and delivered (sound familiar?), they ignore the radiation-induced skin lesions that everyone has, the fact that couples can't reproduce without a "conceptionarium", the glowing green clouds, the dead seas, the ash falling from the sky. In their dome habitats, life goes on, in the malls and upcars and fake lawns underneath the Clouds(TM) -- while the other nations of the Earth vow to obliterate America's corporations by any means necessary.
It's a hell on Earth, but a hell that seems destined to come to a crashing halt. Like the best in science fiction, this novel shows us the worst-case scenario, so we can thoughtfully avoid it.
You can purchase Feed from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews. To see your own review here, carefully read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
Is that it kills the story. If there is a point that the story is trying to imply, it just kills it. Sometimes, the author is trying to leave something to the reader, but when you get it from another person, it just no longer is there.
Why do I get the feeling that if SF writers were in charge of the industrial revolution we'd still all be dairy farmers?
Why does the future always suck, why is that the natural consequence of progress along any dimension? Why do they embrace defeat?
It's always some dark dystopian future and the cure is always either free love or fascism isn't it?
That's why I like PK Dick so much. No happy endings, we all die alone tortured by our paranoias.
The consumers of today's America, zombified by television, are shockingly illiterate. That this trend continues doesn't surprise me.
'Round where I live, there's this amazing place called a library, that lends out books for free. You may like to investigate the existance of something similar in your area. They may even be able to furnish you with a copy of this particular book.
I read this in a few days, with only about 150 pages long during the school year, about 4 months ago. It's diction is pretty light, and is on a 8th grade reading level.
*Tries to remember the story more*
From what I do remember, it was pretty prophetic in describing the commercialization of schooling and teenagers. The reviewer touched on this point a little too. Speaking from a teenage geek's perspective; it's often sickening to see how invasive advertising is becoming in teenagers' lives.
Unfortunately, the advertisers seem to have already won - as I and many others are already 'casted' by other peers as 'outsiders' for not being as consumptious or brand-loyal as them.
Both the main character and I feel torn, as we do not like to befriend/hang out with such a 'phony' crowd [I hate to use Holden's word, but it fits here]; and there's little alternatives for us.
We are seeing in the debates over the Japanese and Singaporean education systems the pressures being brought to bear by modern information, science and technology based industries upon the education system to turn out more creative, less regimented, adults.
If the mass illiteracy future happens, it ain't going to be because that's what companies want.
Douglas -- All speeling mistaks shoud be consedered intentionel irony
To answer my own question, the reviews on Amazon suggest that the end of the story is that his girlfriend dies and life goes on. Well whoop-de-do. This sort of ending can be acceptable in a short story where the author wishes to bring attention to an issue, but is completely unacceptable in a novel. One of the core points of good literature is the struggle of human-kind to improve himself. How does this novel meet that goal if the author provides no solution to averting this future? The very literary purpose of dysotopian futures is to demonstrate that such a future is possible, and demonstrate how it might be avoided. Leaving the reader with no hope is not the way to accomplish this.
To me it sounds like this book would have been far better had the author taken the opportunity to "awaken" the main character and allow him to learn about his humanity.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Because I do not feel like filling my head with such drivel. Shouldn't the point be to avoid a future like this instead of merely accepting it? What kind of lessons are we teaching our children if their literature tells them that there is no hope?
Personally, I find this book rather disgusting. The fact that the "girlfriend" dies while attempting to obtain an implant only furthers the idea that life is cheap and emotions are pointless. The author should have more carefully chosen his pen name. "M.T. Anderson" is not synonymous with "M.T. Soul".
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
"while the other nations of the Earth vow to obliterate America's corporations by any means necessary." - wonderfull. At the core it's another America bashing work. Like the US is the only country with powerful corporations... What's the part about people not seeing what goes on around them. Oh ya, it's all the United State's fault.
And for the president... I don't hold the problems that he sometimes has with speaking against him. I often stutter, say the wrong word... I realize everyone is not perfect and I don't want an actor as president. His intelligence is shown by his ability to delegate, pick good advisors, and choose amongst all the possibilities they present. I wish I had even a fraction of that ability.
Apparently you have never read "A Brave New World".
Happy endings are not by any means a necassity of literature of any sort. Steinbeck is an example of a very successful and accomplished author who didn't seem to believe in happy endings.
To me it sounds like this book would have been far better had the author taken the opportunity to "awaken" the main character and allow him to learn about his humanity.
Maybe by not doing so, he hopes to "awaken" his readership instead? There's something to be said for books that don't follow standard formulae too, especially in the all-too-genre young adult section.
You're special forces then? That's great! I just love your olympics!
Damn to late the future is now. You do use some big words, googled for them? Pity you can't google grammar eh?
Just messing with you, not like I could do much better but then english ain't my first language.
As for advertising and american education, the rest of the world is just a few years behind, I once saw a documentary on kids in an american school being forced to watch commercials. The companies who owned the ads had paid for the lessons so if you didn't watch you were BANNED from class. It was a few years ago and I only saw half of the program so it could have been a spoof. It was supposed to be in one of the more depressed areas of big city.
Anyway we have long since passed the point of sponsored kantines and sponsored school books. We can bitch all we want about it but as long as we allow campaigns that promise tax cuts and don't gas people that vote based on this we can't expect anything else. He who promises the biggest cuts gets the power, to make the cuts he needs to cut money to schools. Then "industry" steps in but they don't do it for free.
Someone else commented how this kinda of future requires a lot of people to overcome their ethics. No it doesn't, it just requires everyone to make a tiny little adjustment of their ethics every couple of years. That is presuming people have ethics anyway. Look at how easily people turn to butchering their neighbours and perhaps the human race has about the same amount of ethics as a cat.
The book review talks about the "hero" having little feelings about his girlfriend dying while he is shopping. But as we shop for candy and luxury goods and speculate on the latest ship or bitch how camera phones are crap PEOPLE ARE DYING FROM HUNGER. Do we give a damn about them? I don't. Oh sure when you corner me on the street and shove a tv-camera in my face I will say I care but really I don't. If I did I would do something about it and I don't. None of us do. Well at least not enough of us to make any difference.
Oh well at least you and I feel torn about it. Better then some of the posters who prefer books that say "everything is going to be alright". We are all consumer slaves but at least some of us are aware of it. Like alcoholism the first step is admitting you got a problem. The real problem is all the steps that come after it. Looks like a long journey, better have a drink first to encourage us.
MMO Quests are like orgasms:
You may solo them, I prefer them in a group.
Very strong sarcasm aimed at the author. Perhaps its a result of having a family to protect, but I simply find it difficult to believe that anyone can be so callous as to write a story ending with no real concern over a pointless loss of a loved one. I'm even more disgusted by the fact that the author chose to present this garbage to impressionable young adults who lack a solid enough grasp on the depth of reality to effectively judge the content for themselves.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
I always hope comments like these are meant as sarcasm. It really makes me wonder if today's generation has any idea of the author's from generations ago that did very similar work. For instance:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyberpunk
I guess I'm getting old when I've actually read the books that current movies are based on, but when I try to discuss them with people I get a blank look. Sometimes I wonder if the thought process is 'what is a book?' Of course this would segue into Bradbury....oh nevermind...
Ok, I'll dare to address the question of how any relationship can survive in such an environment: Frankly, it doesn't need to. In The Future®, relationships are superflulous and unnecessary as all human reproduction is handled by a corporation formed from the merging of the sperm bank, planned parenthood, and artificial insemination clinics. Certain males, selected from the gene pool after application and carefull screening, are permitted to make a 'deposit' in the sperm bank, where their 'funds' remain anonymous but are catagorized by physical characteristics. Certain select females are granted a license to reproduce when deemed necessary in light of population statistics, the desired qualities of new members, etc (do we need more scientists, hair stylists or equipment operators) and permitted to conceive (unlicensed conception is severely punished). After birth the newborn begins to spend more and more time in corporate training centers (day care) where s/he is raised to fulfill the role in society ordained for him/her.
So, all the sentiment about 'love', 'relationship' , 'romance' is completely unnecessary and dangerous to the established order and prone to produce troublemakers who don't 'fit in'. The only relationship necessary is that between the individual and the corporation.
And they have flying cars.
try { do() || do_not(); } catch (JediException err) { yoda(err); }
I dunno, I think a lot of young folk (of the age who'd read a sci-fi book, say 8 to 16, older being non-young anymore) would have enough builtup morals to be absolutely appalled by the ending, and that's apparently the point. Society had reached a point where one character's death didn't make much more of an impact over another beyond vague guilt. I believe that is the entire point of the book infact.
-Jesse
Nothing says "unprofessional job" like wrinkles in your duct tape.
It must be rough knowing someone with different interests. I recommend spending all your time with your "pack of friends all thinking about much of the same things" to avoid such difficult encounters in the future.
Society had reached a point where one character's death didn't make much more of an impact over another beyond vague guilt. I believe that is the entire point of the book infact.
Then this is a failure of the author to *study* the liberal arts. The very idea behind those arts is that some things are inherent in the makeup of mankind. This things are both his strengths and weaknesses. A great deal of literature has been produced on both of those concepts. In other words, *society* may not give a damn (not a good situation), but why doesn't the individual? If he had a personal tie to this person, where was his humanity when her life was on the line? Did anyone take it from him by force? No, the author pretends that this humanity does not exist.
An example of a better ending would be that the character DOES care about her death, but no one around him can understand or care about his feelings on the issue. THAT would serve as a warning against such a future and warn others to not so easily part with their concern for others.
Javascript + Nintendo DSi = DSiCade
Maybe he doesen't like cars and fast women!
God, is this the Fifties again...?
Just because you're "antisocial" doesn't mean there's something wrong with you!
Congratulations.
I'm 20, and I've only really though about getting a car for a year or so now.
So he's a DSL-absorbed teenage male.
Have you talked to him about music, and why he doesn't listen to it?
Ditto for reading.
As for going outside and sweating...sweatings not fun.
Especially if one doesn't have friends to share the pain with.
Sounds like you, as step-father, need to take the poor fellow out for a talk and get a actual /.
relationship going instead of whining on
Especially as his real father has abdicated responsibility.
If he enjoys computers that much, why don't you buy him a compiler and a introduction to
programming and a intro to game programming book?
That way he can start putting his enjoyment of computer games into something educuated.
Well I haven't read the book, but in the review it says that his friend was home schooled and was not satisfied with society until she was beaten down enough to give in. And it sounds like the book makes it obvious that the world it portrays is not something that would be desireable. I doubt the author was really trying to instill in our youth that we should do what the powers-that-be say, even if it means terrible health conditions and wanting to have cooler lesions than your classmates. Just think about how brainless the reader (young adult or not) would have to be to not get the obvious point of this novel.
But why was he let out into the open if he was going to die? explain this...
In Soviet Russia, there is no such thing as "open". Neither in Oceania, mimicking the Stalinism as Orwell knew it. During the stalinist purges in late 30's - the ones that shocked Orwell so deeply - it was a common practice to first break down a man, and execute him only afterwards. They arrest you and they torture until you confess to anything they told you to confess in exchange for release. Obviously, even the strongest ones break down after just few weeks of torture. Then you are free... but they will still get you in a matter of months, this time a completely broken ex-man. You won't escape anywhere, you can't leave the country and NKVD will trace you everywhere within the country, even on Arctic station or somewhere in the Siberian wilderness. So you just wait for the last knocking at your door, drinking "Victory" gin and loathing yourself.
I am sure you could do something similar for radio, books, etc.
This is an old problem: how to get a kid out of the house doing things. Good luck. Its a hard but important task. It is MUCH harder to become active as an adult than as a kid. I know from personal experience.
There is a place for George Bush The 5th in The White House.
Just out of curiousity, have you had a therapist talk with this kid? I ask this because it sounds as if the kid could be clinically depressed.
;-)
The fact he's your stepson & lives half of the time with his dad suggests that he's gone thru some serious trauma: he's seen his family break up & getting bounced back & forth could be undercutting his sense of a home & security. This would make a case of depression understandable.
Then consider your following paragraph:
> He doesn't even mention cars or driving and to the best of my knowledge doesn't know what a girl is (and I check his
> browser cache when he leaves so we're not even talking about hitting the porn here). He doesn't read, he doesn't listen
> to music, and he doesn't even want to go outside much less actually do something that might require sweating.
> Friends? Hell if I know.
Lack of interest in things like cars, sex, any activities or friends are all textbook indicators of depression. And doctors have only admitted in the last 5 years or so that children _can_ suffer from depression.
When he's not around sometime, use Google to find some webpages on depression, & compare a couple of the tests against his behavior. If they suggest he might have depression, get him some medical help: depression is a disease. And once he starts coping with it, & starts to show an interest in those things, he will be glad for the help.
On the other hand, if you have had him examined by a medical professional, & he's not depressed --just lazy -- then it's well within your rights to talk to his mother about sending him to a military boarding school.
Geoff
I think I see a trend here. Maybe for them it really would be easier to muzzle the entire internet than to produce p
I have actually read this book, and disagree completely about the motives of the author. The characters are portrayed to enjoy their empty, meaningless lives. But the writing is such that the reader realizes that the world they are livining in is not happy at all. By the end of the book, the reader is desperate for the characters to realize what is happening to them and learn to think for themselves. But this will never occur. The message of the book is not that man should become sheep, it is that we can end up in a nightmarish situation in which we are sheep, and cannot help but bleat and graze along with the rest of humanity.
Let's make a difference