Feed is set in a future time when most Americans
get their news, entertainment, and shopping tips
from electronic transmitters implanted into their
brains. In what ways are current technologies
similar to the feed? How are they different?
Titus attends School™ but can barely read. What
are students taught there? How would these lessons
be useful to students?
What is happening in the world outside the feed?
Is it, as the old man on the moon insists, a “time
of calamity”?
In Feed, product information flows directly, and
unceasingly, to the brain. How deeply have commercial
messages penetrated your own day-to-day
life? Does the presence of that advertising bother
you? Are there things about it that you like and
that you would miss?
When Titus and his friends are disconnected
from the feed for several days, how do they
entertain themselves? What does Violet mean
when she wonders: “Maybe these are our salad days”? If your life is routinely spent
online, what happens when you go offline for an
extended period?
Violet gets very angry and bitter with her newfound
friends. Do you agree with all of her accusations
about their lifestyle, or do you think she
goes too far? For example, Violet complains to
Titus, “Because of the feed, we’re raising a nation of
idiots. Ignorant, self-centered idiots.”
Do you agree?
“We are a new people,” the feed reports.
“It is now the age of oneiric culture, the culture of
dreams.” What does it mean to live in a culture
of dreams? Would you want to?
Feed is always provocative and thoughtful, but it
is often very funny, too. What are your favorite
comic moments in this novel?
When Violet is gravely ill, Titus mostly ignores
her messages and rejects her pleas. What does
Violet need from Titus? Why doesn’t he give it to
her? Why does she believe he’s different from his
friends? Is he?
The word feed can be a noun or a verb. Why is it a fitting title when used either way?