In a nightmarish novel of the future, the human body is directly and irreversibly connected to a live corporate feed that pours forth an endless stream of information and advertising meant to stimulate consumption. Things - cars, clothes, hairstyles - go from "in" to "out" in a matter of days. Every situation and circumstance brings a relevant feed that advertises a new product to purchase. The teenagers are superficial stoners and the parents aren't much better. The environment is toxic (because of endless consumption) and the teenagers all wear their skin lesions with pride.
When lesions prove to be blasé, one girl pays for cuts to be made in her skin, capped off in plastic, allowing her insides to be seen as she moves. Violet, who had her feed implanted later in life, responds in disgust and screams to a crowd of kids fawning over the cuts: "Look at us! You don't have the feed! You are feed! You're feed! You're being eaten! You're raised for food! Look at what you've made yourselves!" (160). Violet sees through the smokescreen of the feed: "The only thing worse than the thought it may all come tumbling down is the thought that we may go on like this forever" (154).
Eventually, she finds out her feed has not taken to her body, and is going bad. Because it is connected to every bodily system, it cannot be removed. If it is not fixed, she will die. She seeks to have it fixed, but the corporation that provides the feed responds, "We're sorry, Violet Durn. Unfortunately, FeedTech and other investors reviewed your purchasing history, and we don't feel that you would be a reliable investment at this time" (195). As Violet dies, she confesses to her boyfriend Titus, "Everything I think of when I think of really living, living to the full - all my ideas are just the opening credits of sitcoms" (174).
When Titus abandons Violet, her father confronts Titus, "We Americans are interested only in the consumption of our products. We have no interest in how they were produced, or what happens to them"--he pointed at his daughter--"what happens to them once we discard them, once we throw them away" (228).
This book is intended for teenagers, but I think this haunting parable of the dehumanizing aspects of consumerism is better suited for adults.
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