Feed

Anderson invented a vocabulary for his future — 'unit,' 'mal,' 'brag,' 'meg,' 'null.' What does each of these words replace, and what is lost in the replacement? Is this vocabulary inevitable, or is it a choice the characters are making?

Titus's father calls him 'unit' instead of his name. What does this tell you about how the Feed has changed family relationships? Is there still love in Titus's family, and if so, what does it look like?

Violet's strategy is to scramble her consumer profile by searching for random contradictory products. Is this actually resistance? What would genuine resistance to the Feed require?

The novel's four parts are titled Moon, Eden, Utopia, Slumberland. Each title is ironic. What does the irony of each title add to the section it names? Could Anderson have used literal titles instead?

Compare the language of the corporate warranty rejection letter to the language of Violet's father's appeal letters. What does the contrast in style tell you about who has power in this world and why?

Anderson wrote Feed in 2001-2002, before smartphones and social media existed. Which specific features of the Feed have since become real, and which have not? Does it matter whether his predictions came true?

Titus is the narrator and he fails Violet completely. Does Anderson want us to like Titus? Does he want us to forgive him? What is the effect of making the novel's moral failure also its narrator?

The Feed produces total conformity in Titus's friend group. Is conformity in Feed caused by the technology, or does the technology just amplify conformity that was already there? Is there a difference?

Anderson shows environmental collapse in detail — the sky needs suits, the oceans have lesions, the cattle have exposed muscles. But no character in the novel treats this as an emergency. Why not? What has the Feed done to the characters' relationship to the environment?

Violet asks Titus to tell her a story at the end of the novel. Why does she ask for a story specifically? What is a story that the Feed cannot provide?

Is Violet a hero? She resists the Feed, she chooses consciousness over comfort, she accepts the consequences. But she also fails to change anything. Does changing anything matter for heroism?

Titus does not open all of Violet's memory files. He lets them sit while consuming other Feed content. Is this the worst thing he does in the novel? Make an argument.

Anderson never names the corporations in Feed. They are called 'the corporations' or referenced by product names. Why doesn't he name them? What is the effect of their anonymity?

The novel was published in 2002 as a National Book Award finalist. Would it be published today exactly as written, or would certain elements feel dated? What would Anderson change if he were writing Feed now?

Violet's father is a linguistics professor. Why does Anderson make him a linguist specifically? What does his expertise in language mean for his relationship to the Feed and his inability to save Violet?

Feed is classified as young adult fiction. Does the 'young adult' label change how you read it? Is there anything in the novel that seems designed specifically for teenage readers rather than adult ones?

Compare Feed to Brave New World. Both are dystopias of pleasure rather than fear. In Huxley's world people are engineered for happiness; in Anderson's they are conditioned through advertising. Which form of control is harder to resist, and why?

Anderson uses parenthetical Feed interruptions during Titus's farewell monologue. Choose one of these interruptions and explain what Anderson gains by placing it where he does.

The hacker who attacks the group is arrested immediately and never heard from again. What is Anderson saying about political resistance in a world where the Feed is ubiquitous?

Titus's final monologue — telling Violet's story to her comatose body — is the most careful and complete language he produces in the entire novel. Why is he capable of this language now, when he wasn't before?

Anderson has said he was surprised by how quickly the technology in Feed became real. Does the novel work better as a satire or as a prediction? Is there a difference?

The moon is marketed as a vacation destination. What does the commercialization of the moon say about the corporations' relationship to human ambition and achievement?

Quendy at one point deliberately gives herself lesions — the skin condition caused by environmental collapse — because lesions have become fashionable. What does this detail say about the novel's treatment of conformity and the body?

If you had a Feed and could turn it off, would you? Anderson assumes most people would not. Is he right? What would it actually cost you to disconnect?

Violet is the only character who reads books in the novel. Anderson does not make this a major plot point — it is mentioned almost in passing. Why?

Anderson gives Titus no last name. Why? What does a last name provide that Titus does not have?

The corporations in Feed have colonized schools — education is delivered through the Feed, which means it is also advertising. What is the difference between education and advertising, and what happens when they are delivered by the same system?

Anderson ends the novel with the Feed still running, Violet comatose, and Titus unchanged. Is this a failure of the novel, or is it the novel's most important choice?

Anderson wrote Feed before social media existed. Now every major social media platform uses an algorithmic 'feed.' Is this a coincidence of terminology, or did Anderson's novel influence the cultural framing of these platforms?

Feed is a love story. At its core, stripped of all satire, it is about a boy who loved a girl and failed her. Does the love story make the satire more effective, or does the satire undermine the love story? Can you have both fully?