God Bless You, 2011

 

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“God Bless You, 2011” focuses on the relationship between a bear and their human neighbor on their outdoor excursions in a post-nuclear fallout riverside town. The network graph above focuses on the types of radiation experienced by each character mentioned in the story – Sunglasses and Long Gloves being two characters of whom were only briefly mentioned, but were crucial in introducing the plot device of radiation poisoning.

This graph illuminates the dichotomy present between human and animal susceptibility to different types of radiation poisoning. The narrator, Sunglasses, and Long Gloves, who are all human, are susceptible to Uranium. However, it is implied in the story that both Sunglasses and Long Gloves have been affected by Plutonium and Strontium, as they are actively complaining about the ability of the bear to accept higher exposure to the stuff and not suffer from health complications. However, the narrator, who is in a suit, is never explicitly mentioned as having any direct contact with either Plutonium or Strontium. Thus the narrator is clearly seen as being an outlier in the types and amount of radiation poisoning they are exposed to.

The bear is directly mentioned as having exposure to Plutonium and Strontium, through the complaints of Sunglasses and Long Gloves. It is implied that the bear may also have been exposed by Uranium as well, but this sentiment was not reflected in the chart because it was only implied and not explicitly stated.

This network of poisoning is further complicated by a coloring system which represents each character versus each type of radiation poisoning they have been affected by. Orange denotes the type of radiation, whereas blue denotes the name of the character. The limitations of this chart are many, but the most glaring restriction is the ability of the chart to define the actual radiation amount of each character (e.g. the narrator’s exposure is 30 micro-sieverts in one afternoon alone). This information may be better reflected in a categorical chart, which can accept both the data types of numbers and multiple columns of text, instead of only text, or single columns of text.

8 thoughts on “God Bless You, 2011”

  1. This sounds like a somewhat strange but interesting story! I like the idea of using the network graph to show which characters have been exposed to which radiation. I agree that a categorical chart would be useful in showing the actual amounts of radiation each character was exposed to, but I also think that this network is useful as it allows the viewer to easily visualize which characters were exposed to the most radiation as well as which type of radiation is more prevalent.

  2. I thought that using a network graph to illustrate characters connection to radiation was a very cool idea. I agree that a chart including how much radiation each person was exposed to would also be useful but I think that this graph helps the viewer visualize the connections between different types of radiation better. Great job!

  3. Fascinating insight here! I love that you used two different colors to represent different things and make the graph a lot more clear. This graph shows an excellent representation of how the characters were influence by what substances, and I commend you for that. I agree with you that a categorical chart may be slightly better for showing exactly how much radiation was experienced by whom. Overall, very unique graph!

  4. Nice work! This shows some of the possibilities of a network analysis to track cause and effect, and the ways that poisoning might propogate.

  5. This graph is so interesting! You didn’t use characters but I thought it was intriguing how you used the graph to illustrate something central to the plot of the story. You really took the assignment a step further and adapted it to fit your story, which I think is a great application of the lessons we have learned in this class.

  6. Love the use of network analysis and color coding to clarify cause and effect systems and the variable levels at which poisoning affected characters from human to non-human. Weaving this particularly strange plot into the steps you to took to visualize such was also a fun read !

  7. Very interesting read! I liked that you used inanimate objects as nodes, as well as actual characters in the story.

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