Student Question

What is the tone of M.T Anderson's novel Feed?

Expert Answers

An illustration of the letter 'A' in a speech bubbles

Feed is a dystopian cyberpunk novel by M.T. Anderson which predicts a future in which government corporations directly influence and connect the minds of its citizens through a mental implant. The tone of the novel is one of satire, depicting a very bleak future in which people have little influence on their own lives.

We went to the moon to have fun, but the moon turned out to completely suck.

We went on a Friday... for the last like hour we'd been playing with three uninsulated wires that were coming out of the wall. We were trying to ride shocks off them... after your first few times there, when you get over being like, Whoa, unit! The moon! The goddamn moon! and instead there's just the rockiness, and the suckiness, and the craters....
(Anderson, Feed, Google Books)

The bored youth of this world "ride shocks," from wall electricity, and are unimpressed with the Moon because it is so commonplace. Today, a trip to the Moon would be a once-in-a-lifetime event, and people don't play with electricity because it will kill them; in Feed, everything is so accessible that novelty has worn off. By showing a trip to "The goddamn moon!" as just something to be bored with, Anderson satirizes current-day obsessions with new experiences that ultimately serve little purpose.

See eNotes Ad-Free

Start your 48-hour free trial to get access to more than 30,000 additional guides and more than 350,000 Homework Help questions answered by our experts.

Get 48 Hours Free Access
Approved by eNotes Editorial