Extra Reading- Buddy Powers

The adolescent novel Feed by M.T. Anderson is a dystopian science fiction about a hyper techno-economic, hyper consumerism America of the future. The novel asks, what if the western world does not have a happy ending? Anderson's goal is to challenge adolescents to question the materialistic and social networking trends they are bombarded with through the media. Lewis' idea of myth connecting the reader to landscape may play an important roll in adolescents broadening their ecological perspective and challenging unhealthy popular trends. According to a cnn.com report, some teenagers have developed sleeping habits from excessive cell phone use. The novel Feed explores what it would be like if people had cell phones, the internet, and all the marketing that comes along with each in your head. The natural world in Feed is non-existent. The last forests of North America are torn down to make room for a new air factory, and suburbs are stacked on top of each other, each layer with its own artificial days and seasons. Most startling of all is most people don't seem to care about all this environmental degradation because they are more concerned with the next trend, the coolest new clothes, or the nicest car which they can purchase directly through their feed. Anderson effectively challenges the materialism and unhealthy social trends of today in his dystopia. Once the challenge is made, Lewis' stories are a wonderful venue for adolescents and children to reconnect with the land through literature.