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I have a very similar reaction to Levar's in many aspects. She puts herself on the line and her feelings on the line for other people. It is her mission to make everyone else's pain go away but can barely handle her own and that breaks her down. It is just crazy how that works.

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They are living in a world where most the earth's landmass is underwater, there is a formula to calculate the universe, and westerners are refugees in Africa. The story takes place in the future most likey close to the year 3000 where mathematicians are close to today's therapist and society hopes to achieve a utopia.

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Honestly, I don't really like to read about science fiction and fantasy books. I thought the story was going to be another book where they have magic and fight someone. I was blacking out some of the times while reading the book, but that's because the person reading it was boring and I prefer to read it independently. Anyways, I wasn't expecting this small story to be about one's pain. It was somewhat relatable and would've way more interesting if I had read it independently. I really like the irony that when you have a power, you're powerful. They aren't, instead they are in pain.

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The characters are living in a developed world in the future. The text states how Nneoma ‘s father experienced the death of his parents in the late 2030’s. The characters had different ways to identify theirselves such as print of their wrists that determined their citizenship and class level.

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Mathematicians in this story are categorized as the Problem fixers. their job is rids the grief of their patients. In the text, we see and hear a specific equation being used to take away people's grief. People attend to these Mathematicians to offer their responsibility to rid their grief. It leaves a heavy toll on mathematicians because all of the grief that their patients let out to them the mathematician remembers them. It's sorta like the internet, if you post something and delete it the post may not be there for you but it will stay on the internet. Kioni is one of those Mathematicians that is a victim of this back lash. Around the end of the story I remember reading Kioni breaking down and telling Nneoma something. She says, "They just come and they come and they come." It's sad that as a mathematician Kioni has to go through something so traumatic but this is the evidence that shows that what they do could mentally hurt them.

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Mathematicians in this story are categorized as the Problem fixers. their job is rids the grief of their patients. In the text, we see and hear a specific equation being used to take away people's grief. People attend to these Mathematicians to offer their responsibility to rid their grief. It leaves a heavy toll on mathematicians because all of the grief that their patients let out to them the mathematician remembers them. It's sorta like the internet, if you post something and delete it the post may not be there for you but it will stay on the internet. Kioni is one of those Mathematicians that is a victim of this back lash. Around the end of the story I remember reading Kioni breaking down and telling Nneoma something. She says, "They just come and they come and they come." It's sad that as a mathematician Kioni has to go through something so traumatic but this is the evidence that shows that what they do could mentally hurt them.

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Mathematicians are characterized as a group of problem solvers in the novel. The author states "2,400 Mathematicians like her who worked the globe and made their living calculating and subtracting emotions, drawing them from living bodies like poison from a wound. ". The readers can think of the group as nurses for human emotions and everything else in the universe. They take away grief and help "fix" people using formulas.

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Mathematicians as a group are characterized as independent thinkers and problem solvers. There job is to help others persevere in the story by fixing peoples emotional instabilities. The story talks about the mathematicians that discovered the equation for flight, again taking the burden off others and taking responsibility for all problems.

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Mathematicians in this story are categorized as the Problem fixers. their job is rids the grief of their patients. In the text, we see and hear a specific equation being used to take away people's grief. People attend to these Mathematicians to offer their responsibility to rid their grief. It leaves a heavy toll on mathematicians because all of the grief that their patients let out to them the mathematician remembers them. It's sorta like the internet, if you post something and delete it the post may not be there for you but it will stay on the internet. Kioni is one of those Mathematicians that is a victim of this back lash. Around the end of the story I remember reading Kioni breaking down and telling Nneoma something. She says, "They just come and they come and they come." It's sad that as a mathematician Kioni has to go through something so traumatic but this is the evidence that shows that what they do could mentally hurt them.

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Firstly, the setting and time. We know that she is one of fifty seven registered mathematicians. She lives calculating and subtracting emotions. In the story we are told that one mathematician dies committing suicide. With this, I believe that her job is very stressful and that she can't properly take care of herself

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As a group mathematicians were characterized as therapists or the "fixers." According to the excerpt, "the idea that the formula had no end, and perhaps, by extension, humanity had no end, was exactly what the world had needed" meant that an infinite string of numbers was the solution in explaining everything in the universe. As I mentioned previously, mathematicians are like therapists that can "calculate" things like pain or "negative emotions."

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Characters are living in the future

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Overall the story was a bit confusing to me but the question that I have when you brought up Afrofuturism ( since the girl grow up in Africa) in the beginning how would you classify it's type of story?

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How we know that all is not well in this world is that certain groups were exterminated by many causes, like " then came the camps, the raids, and the mysterious illness that wiped out millions," its as if the privileged survived and the weak not.

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Ok so, what the heck, I'm going to first start this off by being able to questions a part of the story that we just read. From what we read there was a part that  said society has figured out “the equation of a person.” which I believe would relate to the title of this short story, “What It Means When A Man Falls From The Sky.” So by the end of reading it, we kind of get left off with the main character, Nneoma (who is the “grief worker,”) that the math was too vast to calculate, or "Instinct took over and she raced to calculate it all. The breadth of it was so vast. Too vast." What exactly is Lesley Nneka Arimah trying to tell us by the end of the story?

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What it means to be a mathematician is to be a problem solver. Your job is to forgot equations that nobody else can.

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In Nneoma’s world, we are well aware of the problems and issues in which conflicts the world around her. It can be seen that, there had been political, scientific, societal, as well as natural conflicts (nature issues) within this story. “When the floods started swallowing... for help that was answered... the Britons had insisted on having their own lands and their own separate government...resulted in the Biafra-Britannia Alliance. Shared lands, shared governments, shared grievances.” The text clarifies the foundation in which was set for this story in which was built upon from natural disasters such as the flooding in which took place and the political/governmental growth that arose from these problems. With these natural problems, it comes with Nneoma’s problems as well due to her profession. As she takes the grief from the people in the world it harms her emotionally also with her astray friend, Kioni, in which is shows us the further damage in which can come from their profession. It causes for these people to lose themselves completely within the already falling world around them, filled with grief.

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Nneoma lives in a world ravaged by climate change and geopolitical conflicts. As a mathematician living in this world, she try to apply a formula to explain everything that is happening in the universe.

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Very fleshed out, I liked listening to the story, however I had fallen asleep about halfway through the reading, and when doing so, I often have dreams influenced by the audio being fed into my ears. When I awoke I was confused and lost in the story, it seemed like a lost cause, so utterly confusing, I became to question how anyone had understood it. Then, an attempt at reading it personally cleared this fog that had seemed to cover my understanding and I gawked at the storyline as I read along, some segments of phrases showing familiarity to me as I went along. And the more I read, the more invested I became. It leaves you thinking, and in fact, to my disliking, it leaves you with too much thinking. I crave for more, a second short story perhaps. The understanding is vast, yet untouchable, and leaves you questioning what it all means. It rolls over and over in your mind, and you find yourself rereading, researching, thinking in absurd ways, obsessing over every detail; what does it all mean? You find your mind spinning if you delve too deep, and you have to scramble for solid ground, otherwise you'd keep slipping and become immersed in the story as if it were your own life. You often have different perceivings of these stories, others sit their blankly as you explain your thoughts. "It's not that deep" but who are you to say? Were you the one to write it? Then how are you to know that it tis but a shallow story, when you were not the soul that put thought into it, and released those jumbling words onto a page?

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These characters are living in the future. From the text we see how her father " was only a boy when it happened, but held bitterly to the idea of Biafran independence, an independence his parents had died for in the late 2030s. " Also another thing would be how the characters are known as, like the cashier at the store   had a " tattoo on his wrist indicated his citizenship—an original Biafran—and his class, third." These characters are most definitely living in an advance world.

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We are made aware that all is not well in Nneoma's world from the beginning. The story starts off with the description of protests, and news conferences. This is the first clue. As the story goes on, we also learn that Nneoma has lost her girlfriend, her mother, and her father in some way. Eventually she even loses herself, as shown in the last paragraph which says that the last clear thought she had was of her father before everything faded.

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The author shows that all is not well in Nneoma's world by giving the readers details about the setting of the story. We learn that the world is in an inadequate state. The world has gone through climate change and geopolitical conflict,  "Most of what had been North America was covered in water and a sea had replaced Europe. Russia was a soaked grave." We also learn about the Elimination, "then came the camps, the raids, and the mysterious illness that wiped out millions. Then the cabinet members murdered in their beds." Violence is taking place in this world, which has created grief for many of the people still alive.

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As a 14 year old, Nneoma was  before her time. "To most of the other students, it was an impenetrable series of numbers and symbols, but to Nneoma it was as simple as the alphabet." Nneoma exceeded at "math". She was a different type of student, "she could see a person’s sadness as plainly as the clothes he wore" She had a gift; however, didn't care much for it.

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Mathematicians are characterized as "fixers" their job is to take away people's grief. In the story, we hear about an equation that mathematicians use to take away people's grief. Instead of people dealing with it and talking to people, the responsibility of the mathematicians is to take it away. Having this ability puts a burden on the mathematicians because they remember these griefs. At the end of the story, Kioni is broken down and injured she tells Nneoma “They just come and they come and they come.”  From this quote, we see the burden that mathematicians go through to fix others.

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I do have a similar reaction to Levar. I find it very interesting how someone's power is what causes them pain. And also a bit ironic how she is someone that fixes other peoples pain but can't fix her own

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"Now the newscast then jumped to the Mathematicians who had discovered the equation for flight. They were being ambushed by gleeful reporters at parties, while picking up their children in their sleek black cars, on their vacations, giving a glimpse of luxury that was foreign to the majority of the viewing public..." This tells us that Mathematicians are an elite and privileged class of society that enjoy luxuries that the majority of people can only dream of.

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What is your reaction to the story? Think about the way Levar Burton reacted at the end of his reading. Do you have a similar reaction? Different?

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What is your reaction to the story? Think about the way Levar Burton reacted at the end of his reading. Do you have a similar reaction? Different?

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What are the signs in the story that all is not well in Nneoma’s world?

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What are the signs in the story that all is not well in Nneoma’s world?

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Nneoma only has three contacts in her phone: her assistant, her father, and Kioni. What is her relationship like with each of these people? What does this tell us about Nneoma?

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Nneoma only has three contacts in her phone: her assistant, her father, and Kioni. What is her relationship like with each of these people? What does this tell us about Nneoma?

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"There were six grief workers in the Biafra-Britannia Alliance, where Nneoma now lived, the largest concentration of grief workers in any province... Well, the largest concentration that could pay." From this, we learn that the world they live in is still one of inequality. Those with money can afford to have their grief taken by a grief worker like Nneoma. It seems like others (the Senegalese girl, for example) just have to continue grieving.

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What kind of world are these characters living in? [Setting]

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What kind of world are these characters living in? [Setting]

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How is Nneoma characterized specifically?

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How is Nneoma characterized specifically?

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How are mathematicians characterized (as a group)?

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How are mathematicians characterized (as a group)?