Feed Chapter 22 Summary

lose the chemise

  • A couple of days after the party, Violet tells Titus that she wants to show him the project she'sworking on. So, he heads off to meet her at the mall.
  • At the mall, people are buying all kinds of ridiculous items, like super white snap-on teeth that go on over your real teeth, and make it look like you have one big tooth.
  • Plus, since the stars of Oh? Wow! Thing! are now getting lesions, they're super cool. So, Violet's showing off her lesion in a low-cut top.
  • The two laugh about all the dumb things people are buying, but Violet points out that Titus is totes not immune to this, since he's pushing around a "giant hot cross bun from Bun in a Barrow" (22.6). OK, this seems like pushing around a ginormous Cinnabon in a wheelbarrow, which would be (1) Difficult and (2) Idiotic.
  • Violet's project involves resisting the feed and the corporate power that lies behind it. She explains to Titus that the goal of the feed is to create customer profiles so people are easier to sell to. Because they make products that are simpler and appeal to the broadest range of stereotypes, people get used to this and therefore become less varied.
  • She, though, wants to resist this by making a really screwed up customer profile so that the feed can't try to sell to her. She wants to be "invisible" to the feed (22.16).
  • We're getting some really creepy shades of Amazon.com, here.
  • So, Titus and Violet proceed to go into several stores and ask about merchandise that they have no intention of buying.
  • They end up at a J.P. Barnigan's Family Extravaganza for dinner, and Titus asks if he should take her home. Violet says no, which prompts Titus to ask her about her family.
  • She reveals that her family doesn't have very much money, compared to the others. Her dad saved his money for a year for her to go on that Spring Break trip.
  • Titus almost can't believe that it took that long to save up the money.
  • The two lovebirds make out in his parents' car for a bit, and then he drops her off at the feed technician's for an appointment.