How we cite our quotes: (Chapter.Paragraph) or (Feed Chatter #.Paragraph)
Quote #1
Of course, everyone is like, da da da, evil corporations, oh they're so bad, we all say that, and we all know they control everything. I mean, it's not great, because who knows what evil s*** they're up to. Everyone feels bad about that. But they're the only way to get all this stuff, and it's no good getting pissy about it, because they're still going to control everything whether you like it or not. Plus, they keep like everyone in the world employed, so it's not like we could do without them. And it's really good to know everything about everything whenever we want, to have it just like, in our brain, just sitting there. (10.6)
Sound familiar? Even in our world, corporations make products and provide necessary services. For example, the computer you're reading this on right now was made by a corporation. After all, there aren't too many independent craftsmen making electronics. But maybe it's possible to find a balance between buying into corporations and opting out. We sure hope it is.
Quote #2
"What I'm doing, what I've been doing over the feed for the last two days, is trying to create a customer profile that's so screwed, no one can market to it. I'm not going to let them catalog me. I'm going to become invisible." (22.16)
This is Violet's way of rebelling against the feed and the corporations that control it. But not buying in comes at a high price, when FeedTech and other corporations refuse to repair her hacked feed. And the reason they give? They can't get a handle on her consumer habits, so she's not a bad investment risk (49.17). Folks, this is called irony.
Quote #3
"They have charts that show which chords are the most thumbs-up. Music is marketing. They have lists of key changes that get thirteen-year-old girls screaming. There's no difference between a song and an advertising jingle anymore. Songs are their own jingles." (22.34)
And M. T. Anderson wrote this without ever hearing One Direction. Seriously, though, it turns out that this is actually possible: researchers have figured out how to predict whether a song will be a hit. You just know music execs are peeing their pants over that.
Quote #4
"In object-oriented programming, discrete software objects interfaced more freely, in a system of corporate service provision that mirrored the emergent structures of late capitalism." Who the hell knows what he meant, but suddenly, he seemed kind of powerful, like someone who shouldn't necessarily be wound up in a cocoon of pink insulation and hidden in a basement somewhere. He was like a different guy. (29.3)
We agree, Titus. Who the heck really knows what that crazy old professor's on about. The takeaway here is that language is power: it can be used as a way to resist the feed and the corporate power structure. Titus can't understand what Violet's dad is saying, but he knows it's powerful. Words matter, Shmoopers!
Quote #5
She had this whole thing about self-control, okay, and the importance of self-control. For example, she said, when she bought something, she wouldn't let herself order it for a long time. Then she would just go to the purchase site and show it to herself. Then she'd let herself get fed the sense-sim, you know, she'd let herself know how it would feel, or what it would smell like. Then she would go away and wouldn't look for a week. Then she would go back finally and order it, but only if it was on back order and wouldn't be shipped immediately. Then finally when it was ready to ship, she'd be like, oh, hey, I don't want it shipped hour rate, I want it slow, slow rate. So it would take like three days to get to her, and then she'd leave it in the box. Finally, she'd open the box just enough to see like the hem of the skirt or whatever. She would touch it, just knowing it was hers. She'd run her fingers along it kind of delicate. Just along the edge of it, not even really letting herself touch it completely, just gently, with her fingertips, or maybe the back of her hand. She would wait for days until she couldn't stand it anymore to take it out and try it on. (29.13)
One way the corporations manipulate consumers in this novel is by constantly telling people they just have to have it now. Now! (Or at least with two-day Prime shipping.) Here, we see Violet's way of resisting this instant-gratification drive that make so many of her peers into rabid, mindless consumers. Hey, more power to her. We sure couldn't do it.
Quote #6
"Whispering makes a narrow place narrower." (30.2)
Titus hears this creepy little message when someone hijacks his feed while he sleeps. The message here is pretty simple: there's danger in resisting, so secrecy matters. We also get some effective imagery, here: whispering requires people to lean in to hear, so space gets more confined. There's a sense, then, that the figurative spaces for rebellion may not be very big—and that rebellion might bring them closer together.
Quote #7
Then came all these pictures, and I was seeing all over the world, and there were explanations, but I was still asleep, and I couldn't figure them out. I saw khakis that were really cheap, only $150, but I didn't like the stitching, and then I saw them torn and there was blood on them. It was a riot on a street, and people were screaming in some other language, they were in khakis or jeans and T-shirts, and they were throwing stones and bottles, and the police were moving forward on horses, and a man in the crowd waved a gun, and then the firing started. They were in front of factories, and clouds of gas drifted through them and the American flags they were burning started to spark big, and the gas got darker and darker, and the people sped up, like a joke, grabbing at their necks and waving and sitting and slapping the ground. They fell down. I saw a sign with a picture of a head with a little devil sitting in the brain, inside the skull, with these like energy bolts coming out of his mouth. (30.3)
This is one of the few places where we see that not everyone is so gung-ho about the feed and the web of corporate influence and power. Titus doesn't quite get the connection here, though: he doesn't seem to realize that his purchasing power is in a way responsible for this riot. No way this could happen? One word: Foxconn.
Quote #8
"It's Riot Gear. It's retro. It's beat up to look like one of the big twentieth-century riots. It's been big since earlier this week." (31.6)
This is Loga, talking about the newest craze to sweep the high school set. The high school cool kids, that is. These kids are either completely oblivious to what's taking place around the world, or (like Titus) they just don't get it. Plus, we get the impression that the corporations are doing their darndest to commercialize these riots by producing and marketing these hip new clothing lines. Notice, though, how the look is "retro," which means it's from the past. By calling it "retro," the corporations are downplaying the fact there are riots taking place right now. Clever, clever.
Quote #9
It felt good. Really good, just to scream finally. I felt like I was singing a hit single. But in Hell. (40.30)
This fit or spasm or whatever is one of the prices that Violet pays for her resistance to the feed—but it's not all bad. In fact, something feels kind of good about it. But notice how, even when she's resisting, she still explains it in terms of consumerism and marketing.
Quote #10
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. No one could get what we call a "handle" on your shopping habits, like for example you asking for information about all those wow and brag products and then never buying anything. We have to inform you that our corporate investors were like, "What's doing with this?" Sorry—I'm afraid you'll just have to work with your feed the way it is. (49.17)
Oops. Violet's attempt to remain invisible to the feed and to mess up their profiles of her comes back to bite her in a big way here, when FeedTech refuses to repair her feed. This is the ultimate in control: the power of life and death over someone.