One night, while partying on the moon, Titus, along with Violet and a group of his friends are violated by a “hacker” who disrupts the integrity of their feeds. For Violet, this hacking does more than just put her temporarily “out of service”, it damages her physical health, eventually killing her. While Violet has been continually struggling with the commercialized society she exists in, Titus has not. Violet shows him that it is important to question what the feed tells you; she does not take the information she receives from the feed for exact truth.

In Titus’ world, people are valued not as freethinkers, but as consumers with buying power. Their money is more important than their independence or personal identity/role.  This relates to a communist/Marxists definition of identity in that, the individual has been dissolved and replaced with a mass identity. Instead of making decisions based on what is best for them, the characters in feed act solely based on what their feed tells them. They don’t search for answers as to why societies are disappearing; they ignore it, because the feed tells them it is not a problem

I think this book would deeply intrigue the youth of today because of the technology drenched society we currently live in.  Face to face communication is slowly becoming obsolete; instead online, or wired communication is being supplemented for real time experiences.  This is interesting because I originally thought that having excess amount of information at your disposal would encourage a more critical view of yourself and the world, but in M.T. Anderson’s feed, it does not.   People do not reference multiple sources to find the “truth” or to help support/challenge their systems of beliefs.  They rely on a single, unreliable, market driven voice, the feed.

On another note, I thought this article by Nicholas Carr articualted some interesting ideas surrounding our societies intense relationship and reliance on the internet…

Because each character narrates their own chapter, readers are granted a unique inspection into the minds and identities of these women. Each woman is struggling with an identity that is in intense tension, being pulled on by their past (China), present (America) and unknown future. The mothers are afraid their daughters will not only forget their roots, but them as well and get lost in the culture of America. The daughters do not feel like they fit into their surroundings; they are not Chinese enough for their families but also not American enough for their peers.  Tan supplies us with an intense insight into struggle with (cultural) identity many immigrants and children of immigrants experience.

Don has a Stingray corvette that he lets Jordan help maintain. The lure of the car is intoxicating and one night while Don is on a business trip, Jordan steals it for a joy ride. While out, Jordan meets up with Becka, the most popular and pretty girl at school. Jordan continues to steal the car to take Becka out on dates. Their romance blooms, and everything is perfect, until Becka finds out that Jordan has been lying to her about the car, and other things about himself as well.

Becka (and Don) eventually forgive Jordan, and along with a punishment, Jordan receives an important lesson; be yourself. Jordan thought it was impossible for someone like Becka to like him without something like a cool car or exciting personal history, but he was wrong. To succeed, all he needed to be was genuine. His assumption of a fake identity or façade helps solidify his real sense of self and increase his confidence.

First off, the movie is not like the graphic novel. I think it’s better, and though I’m not alone there, not everyone would agree.

The story takes place in a fascist England (the U.K. is no longer “U”) after a world-wide nuclear semi-apocalypse in which the government controls what you see and hear, listens to what you say (in ways you wouldn’t like), and watches everything you do. All of this is stored in a computer, FATE, who you believe controls yours. Minimal comforts. strict curfews, and draconian enforcement leave most of your fellow citizens up in silent arms until a vigilante exacts his vengeance on the government under the guise of a “Vicious Cabaret.” Proclaiming Anarchy (“no leaders”) as his new mistress over Justice.

In the movie everything builds to an operatic crescendo whereas the graphic novel ends with a somber, somewhat destitute rubble-strewn blank canvas on which a new society can begin… maybe.

There’s a lot going on, so it’s hard to say a lot about any one thing without starting on another. Perhaps the most striking–the most ironic–is that fascist leader Adam Susan, the man at the Head of the machine falls in love with the FATE computer, which is hacked by the vigilante/terrorist V. Susan perceives FATE as being sexually unfaithful. V speaks to a personification of Justice on top of the Old Bailey building and describes her as being sexually unfaithful with Adam Susan. V then moves on to bed with (a personification of) Anarchy. So you end up with a tryst between unfulfilled but meek men, an unfulfilled but formidable man, two abstractions, and one computer. A virulent vivisection of viable modern values!

Shawn McDaniel is an above average high schooler; he loves smelling whatever’s around him, watching whatever movie he sits in front of, reading  whatever comes across his face, listening to conversations people don’t mean for him to hear, remembering everything he experiences, and having seizures. Shawn has CP (cerebral palsy) a brain disorder that runs the gamut of brain malfunctions, in his case, he can’t control any of his muscles. Shawn has a good life–not because he has no responsibility, but because he is okay with himself and finds joy in living. Shawn goes to school, takes rides in the car, has one-sided conversations, and takes in the scenes, but he is on some level pitied by each of his family members, which is a cause of some distress: Shawn’s father left his wife and two (other) kids in order to escape looking at Shawn. The pain it caused him to see Shawn have seizures, which looked painful, we a big part of that. Shawn’s father is also a Pulitzer Prize winner who wrote a famous poem about his son, a poem that is almost self-aggrandizing in the sense that it consistently objectifies Shawn and creates him as a piteous wretch. Thus, and with other bizarre developments, Shawn determines that his own father plans to kill him!

This book was very, very unique not because it was told from the first person, or because it included dialogue, or the protagonist is in high school, but because the protagonist is unable to communicate in absolutely ANY way other than the magical means through which the story is told. It’s a story we could never hear outside of fiction, even though fiction is the least “authentic” place for it.

Robin Merrow Macready – Buried.

The story develops around a teenage girl, who goes by “Claude.” She deals with her high school life living in a trailer and living in a poor part of town. She also has had some past issues with hygiene that caused her be teased throughout grade school. She carries these self-conscious worries all through high school. Claude’s mother had her when she was only 17, and seems to have a hard time getting her life on track. She spends more time drinking, partying, and running off with men – leaving Claude to raise herself.

The story begins with Claude’s mother who has gone missing once again, leaving Claude to deal with being alone. Claude deals with her anxieties by becoming OCD over cleaning and washing her hands. She seems to feel wanted only when she is able to “help” her friends. She spends more time on her classmates homework than her own. Because Claude feels the need to assist everyone else, she seems to forget about her own problems, and that she, needs help once in awhile too.

The story continues with Claude’s downwards spiral as she becomes more and forgetful, and more and more compulsive with her obsessive cleaning and hand washing. She forgets to eat, takes multiple showers a day, and forgets to change her clothes. Often during the story, we learn that throughout Claude’s life, she has buried her problems in the yard. For example: a snow globe her mother told her was a babies toy, her soiled bedsheets from an accident, and her mothers beer. She begins to feel organization is her key to survival, and becomes obsessed with creating charts and diagrams of her daily chores. She feels overwhelmed and distraught if she does not complete her tasks on time.

The story shows how a young girl deals with such drastic and often unsettling changes in her life. She learns that she does need the assistance of others just as much as she feels the need to help them. It was a very powerful, and moving story. The items that she has “buried” only come back to haunt her because she has never truly dealt with her own personal issues.

I really enjoyed the book. I think it would be a good book to use in the classroom, or even with an after school extracurricular activities. I think it would be good for students to analyze Claude’s antics, her obsessions, and her past “buried” issues.

The book was well written, from her point of view.  It showed her feelings toward how people reacted to her, and how her close friends and family accepted her change.

The reference to the parrot fish – was that they change genders when needed for survival.

Grady deals with a lot of repercussion from her choices, but also learns that many teacher understand, and help her.  She makes some new friends, and just learns to become “her.”  She is finally brave enough to make her change, despite what others think.

Kevin Richter is the example of Murphy’s Law.  “His shoulders sagged slightly.  He took a deep breath.  “You now Murphy’s Law?”  he asked softly, “the one about if anything can go wrong, it will?”  I nodded.  “Well,” he said, “I reckon I must be Murphy’s boy.”

He was known as ‘zoo boy.’   Silent, traumatized, afraid of everything – from water to a stick on the floor.  He locked himself under the table, surrounded by chairs, caging him in, and rocked.  This is how he stayed until Torey Hayden, a child psychologist helped bring him out of his silent world.  Kevin was abused, neglected, and unloved.  His mother gave him up as ward to the state voluntarily.  Here he was left alone, suffering from his own fears. He stopped talking.  Kevin slipped farther and father into despair, fear, and depression. When Torey first started working with him, she knew early on that the boy held more than what he let on. The other doctors thought he was ignorant, unable to be saved.  Torey kept her faith in Kevin, continued to work with him, and eventually helped him to talk. With talking, Kevin was able to bring out his fears and work through his issues.  Torey learned that Kevin held very violent ideas and passions because of the life he was accustomed to before he was put in the states care.  With time, Kevin was also able to work through these issues, and let go of his past.  Kevin will no longer have to live in a world of silence.

During this story, he learns that some people have a very violent and otherwise shallow reaction to his choices.  The story tells about the abuse he endures in the school, yet he still does not back down in his choices.

In the end, his peers do not necessarily understand him, but they do become more tolerant, and even support him for his final bravado act.