| Latest revision |
Your text |
| Line 8: |
Line 8: |
| | | | |
| | ==Explanation== | | ==Explanation== |
| − | [[Cueball]] is meeting [[White Hat]], who is probably not in the same household. White Hat asks how Cueball is, which is normal small talk, but Cueball responds by expressing his anxiety that they're inhaling one another's "gross lung air". Cueball then repeats a common joke regarding how impossible it is to connect with people when our conversation norms discourage honest communication, switching to a more socially acceptable "fine". | + | {{incomplete|Created by a RESPIRATORY DROPLET. Please mention here why this explanation isn't complete. Do NOT delete this tag too soon.}} |
| | + | [[Cueball]] is meeting [[White Hat]], who is probably not in the same household — hence the (awkward) attempt at a typical smalltalk greeting. He could be indoors, which normally carries a higher risk of respiratory disease transmission than outdoors. The lack of any other drawn elements could also mean that it's a "safe" meeting outside — either in anticipation of the imminent internal meet-up of the title, or a sincere check upon wellbeing after having fled such an encounter — and White Hat may be within the same trusted bubble but personally not so overcome with anxiety. |
| | | | |
| − | "Gross" here may be a pun on the term {{w|gross anatomy}} (i.e. anatomy at the macroscopic level) and "gross" as a synonym for "disgusting."
| + | Like many of us, he has become primed to worry about spreading or receiving COVID-19 from the other person. Cueball may have [[2459: March 2020|already been vaccinated]], but that is still not considered perfect guarantee against Covid, newly emerging Covid variants or non-Covid illnesses in general. |
| | | | |
| − | A recurring theme in xkcd is characters expressing an uncomfortable awareness of realities that most people tend to ignore, particularly for experts in a particular field (examples include [[2057: Internal Monologues]], [[913: Core]], [[203: Hallucinations]], and [[1839: Doctor Visit]]). In this strip, likely as a result of being primed by awareness of the {{w|COVID-19 pandemic}}, Cueball finds it difficult to be in the same building with other people without being aware of the fact that they're breathing the same air, meaning that particles of biological material are being freely exchanged. In an earlier era, such concerns might have been dismissed as being extreme, but the pandemic has demonstrated that there's very real reason to be concerned. Even if everyone involved is vaccinated, that doesn't entirely remove the risk, nor does it protect against other diseases, which can spread in similar ways.
| + | People like him may be now oversensitive about taking insufficient precautions related to the various amorphous risks, possibly because [[2395: Covid Precaution Level|it is impossible to find a precaution level that feels just right]]. |
| | | | |
| − | The title text reinforces the idea that knowing more about any subject increases the likelihood that you'll become disturbed by some constant and basic reality of life. In this case, studying biology tends to be disturbing, since the field involves in depth knowledge of our own bodies, as well as all other organisms we encounter, and which makes one uncomfortably aware of all the risks and flaws basic to being alive. | + | The title text shows how although Biology may be interesting, it can be disgusting. Unfortunately, everyone IS biology. |
| − | | |
| − | Normally, inhaling unfamiliar biological organisms from the bodies of others is one way the immune system learns its environment, to prepare for possible diseases like seasonal colds. With the advent of common distant travel, culture has adapted to the onslaught of new organisms people are exposed to, giving us strong senses of hygiene to protect our health beyond the adaption of our immune systems. Diverse cultures of hygiene have evolved deadly superbacteria, produced sets of people with very good hygiene and very weak immune systems, as well as saving millions of lives, providing for treatments like safe open surgery and normalizing novel piercings. Often learning of the realities of the pervasiveness of micro-organisms and the details of biology can clash with one's culture of hygiene.
| |
| | | | |
| | ==Transcript== | | ==Transcript== |
