Real Food

The end of Feed was devastating to me.  I have definitely come to think more like a teacher over this course, because it occurred to me that this ending might not affect my students in the same way, and that it might be difficult to have them step outside of themselves and examine their own worlds - as it was difficult for Titus to accept the things that were wrong with his world, and as it is difficult for all of us in our way.

It might be particularly difficult because I come from a different generation; I know the pleasures of playing barefoot, hauling buckets of twigs and berries up to the tree house via a "rope" concocted out of twigs to make play "dinner."  I know the pleasures of imaginative play, with nothing but our brains and our bodies at our disposal to amuse us through the long summer.  My appreciation of this has to be tempered with an appreciation for the world of students today.  I have to remember my love for my iPhone, so that I can position myself squarely on their level and imagine how they might feel about the pleasures of the technology that narrates their lives.  Only then might I be able to get them to open up about what they may not like about it, and to get them to a point of self-reflection and cultural reflection, in which they are able and willing to be honest about the world they exist in, and all of its glory and all of its flaws.

This, of course, is an exercise is critical thinking.  It goes beyond an analysis of the novel, of the 21st century, and of the role of technology in our lives, socially, professionally and in every other way.  It is instead an exercise in the most coveted act of critical thinking of all - that of self-reflection and self-criticism.  If we can all agree that the amount of time that we spend on "screens" - our own feeds, though not yet implanted - is detrimental on any level, how can we forgive ourselves for pushing the entire population further down the road to a true "Feed" if we do not begin to limit our time on such "screens"?  To honestly self-restrict, as we would if we decided we had gained too much weight or had slacked or procrastinated too long on any project that meant something to us?  We all have responsibility for where we head culturally; nothing can actually be "done" to us without our consent.

Titus breaks my heart when he ignores Violet's list of things she wants to do at the end of the novel, and I think this may also affect the students, whether they have run barefoot on sand or not.  It brought to mind a song I heard recently which, for whatever reason, brought a bit of emotion to my day.  The chorus in the song talks about how it is always those simple and unaffected things in life that are most appreciated.  The chorus refers to some particularly simple things:  "a cold beer on a Friday night, a pair of jeans that fit just right."  And it resonates with the listener - or at least it sure did with this first-time listener.

Violet's list is composed of many such things:  dancing, sitting somewhere quiet (without the background noise of engines), seeing art, going to an old country store that "only sells beer and jerky," renting a hotel room, going :into the office" every day, getting older, calling the dog in and being called Nana. These are the things that have been lost in the culture that exists in Feed.  They are the simplest things; things we still look to today, things students might be able to relate to.   I think there is a lesson to be learned in literature, but as in the best literature, the largest lesson here is in life, and in making a commitment to maintaining the health and viability of our world - the one that we love and that we desire to live in.  I am designing a lesson plan to that end currently, centered around this novel.