hw 13 feed b

“Art is not a Mirror with which to reflect the World. It is a Hammer with which to shape it." -Bert Brecht

This quote reminds me of another one, one about life imitating art or it being the other way around? In Feed, it is a reflection of our society and holds many parallels to it using an allegory. Its our world but different. The mirror is a reflection of something, that thing has to be there first for it to be created inside the mirror's image, much like art imitating life being a reflection or copy of something. I've decided that it was both. After all this book was created as a reflection for our current culture, but in being created, it also shapes it and the people who read it. I think art cannot help being both. All art to some extent is a hammer, even children's books because children often seek to follow the ideals displayed in the story sometimes even to adulthood. But the extent to which it influences the reader or culture depends on how much it touches them. The deeper the impact, the deeper the influence. So in terms of this, Feed is both the mirror and the hammer. It is a reflection of society but it shapes the perception of it as well.

I think Feed is art and the way Anderson chose to write the story was very well thought out. It depicts the lives of teenagers living in the 21st century and their daily trials that any teenager might face today, making it realistic in tone, even though its futuristic. Feed is about the advertising and technology in today's world and shows the harmful effects through its allegory of the "feed", a computer installed inside their heads. The allegory of the feed shows how people can no longer think for themselves and have to have things spelled out for them. They have an infinite array of knowledge available to them, like the Internet search engines, but they aren't really smarter for it. The characters of this book are dependent on their feeds. Anderson is able to use this allegory effectively to talk about what what he thinks about the modern use of technology with symbolism; the way the characters interact with the feeds and with each other through it.

I think though it talks about teenagers, it is a pretty adult book. It's probably meant for teenagers and adults to read but targets teenagers sinice its a Young Adult book. I think it might be more suitable for older teens because I remember reading it when I was in middle school and though I got the plot and everything I didn't really appreciate the story but younger teens can still read it. The way they'll read it will be different though. It's like how when you read the same book at different points in your life you somehow take away different things from it. Feed is one of those books where you'll probably take away more once you're older because you have experienced more to get what the book is trying to say.