English 10:
Literature and Culture of Information
Reading Questions

February 22

 

Feed by M. T. Anderson (Part 3: Utopia)
"The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction" by Walter Benjamin

Feed by M. T. Anderson (Part 3:Utopia)

Friends and Family
What is Titus's family life like?
Who are his parents? Does his brother have a name?
How does the family relate to one another? Is there a distinction between youth and adulthood?
Why the upcar? Where does Titus's sense of entitlement come from?
How is Violet's family different? How does her father speak?
Why is it important that Violet and Titus share stories?
How does Violet get along with Titus's friends and family? What causes tension?

Shop Til You Drop

Bun in a barrow?
Why does Violet go shopping for spotlights and home endoscopy kits?
What is Titus's response to her idea?
What is her goal? Does she succeed? What is the price of success?
How does Nina wanr to "help" Violet?
What does Titus's family do every night after dinner?
Why does the group get together to talk about Coke?

Violet

How is Violet's experience with the feed different than everyone else's?
How has this made her different from her peers?
What is going on with Violet's feed? What are the symptoms? Are they symbolic?
What is Violet's theory about self-control?

Earth and the World Around

What is earth like now?
Where do people live? How do the various neighborhoods differ?
How can the sky in Violet's neighborhood be peeling?
How are children born? Why?
What can you see on top of the suburb domes with the spotlights?
What has happened to the forests? To the ocean?
How does Titus think these problems will be solved?
What is beef country?

Sense of History / Sense of Style

What is the political situation? Why do we know so little about it?
What's up with riot chic? What inspires it? Why does Violet question it?
What makes Link's origins so terrible to Violet? What do you think?

On the Feed

Are Titus's dreams actually dreams?
What does it mean to go into mal?
What is School(tm) like?
What is Titus's solution to depressing news?
Does everyone have a feed? What do we know about those who do not?
How does Violet feel the feed has impacted people's ability to think for themselves?
Does the feed sedate people?

Lesions

What turns the lesions into fashion statements? Why is this messed up?
To what extreme does Calista go? How does Quendy top her?
How does Violet react?
How does she read the word feed?

"The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reproduction"
by Walter Benjamin

What is the aura? What kinds of things have aura?
What does it mean to interact with an object that has aura?
How does an object with aura also function as a subject?
How does the mechanical reproduction of a work of art threaten its aura?
How is interaction with a singular object different than interaction with one of a number of copies?
Does the quilt your grandmother made have aura (substitute family original here)?
Does the quilt from Pottery Barn?
How is aura created? How is it destroyed?
How does a play differ from a movie?
Do individual human beings have aura? Is it possible to lose this aura?
Is the loss of aura a good or bad thing?
Do things in Feed have aura? Does the RiotGear clothing?
Do people in Feed have aura?