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The Future of Football #2
20020: An American football story
Unknown Binding
Published October 1, 2020
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 125 reviews
October 27, 2020
uh oh fellas I'm crying over football and satellites again
October 23, 2020
"All that time, all those threads, weaving through something that must have been far too confusing to enjoy."
"I think that's love."
"I know that’s love. They didn’t know what I’d be or who I’d be, but they loved me."
like all of bois' work, i find this absolutely staggering in the way he combs through data, american folklore, and sports history to create a new kind of storytelling that is truly impossible to classify and still manages to appeal to people like me who really don't care about football. i cannot begin to fathom the amount of research that went into this. it makes my head hurt to think about. i think this in particular is one of his best, and along with david byrne's american utopia (which is on my mind since i watched it last night) feels like one of the only pieces of media from this year that is equipped to actually meet the current moment. neither one tries to really be "What The World Needs Right Now," but instead try to begin to make sense of what's going on through their own brand of beautiful nonsense. bois and byrne are both very optimistic, but neither is denying the current reality, which is a really tricky line to thread and both of them mostly pull it off. i haven't read 17776 since it came out, but i think this works better working within a smaller scope and zeroing in on these smaller character moments (the extended conversation between nine and "the sharks" i love in particular and find really powerful.) it's also really funny and insane and genuinely thrilling. cannot wait for 20021.
"I think that's love."
"I know that’s love. They didn’t know what I’d be or who I’d be, but they loved me."
like all of bois' work, i find this absolutely staggering in the way he combs through data, american folklore, and sports history to create a new kind of storytelling that is truly impossible to classify and still manages to appeal to people like me who really don't care about football. i cannot begin to fathom the amount of research that went into this. it makes my head hurt to think about. i think this in particular is one of his best, and along with david byrne's american utopia (which is on my mind since i watched it last night) feels like one of the only pieces of media from this year that is equipped to actually meet the current moment. neither one tries to really be "What The World Needs Right Now," but instead try to begin to make sense of what's going on through their own brand of beautiful nonsense. bois and byrne are both very optimistic, but neither is denying the current reality, which is a really tricky line to thread and both of them mostly pull it off. i haven't read 17776 since it came out, but i think this works better working within a smaller scope and zeroing in on these smaller character moments (the extended conversation between nine and "the sharks" i love in particular and find really powerful.) it's also really funny and insane and genuinely thrilling. cannot wait for 20021.
October 23, 2020
I stumbled upon Jon Bois late 2015 and he immediately became my favorite online content creator. Clocking in at around 50,000 words, this is his third "novella" piece. 20020 is the sequel to Bois's piece 17776. (His first "full-lenth" piece, The Tim Tebow CFL Chronicles has similar themes to 17776 and 20020, but takes place in a different alternate universe. I reviewed Tim Tebow back in 2015, but somehow it went missing from Goodreads. My 17776 review might be missing too... Guess I better back this one up).
They all focus on one thing: the future of football.
20020 takes place in the titular year 20020. You and I are . And that's not about to change. The people in this world live to fill time. And, just like humans in 2020, many of them do so through college football. But boy, the game has changed.
Our sentient space probe friends from 17776 are back watching a very unique game of college football. Grab the clicker, chances are your favorite team is still playing in 20020. Yet in this massive clustercuss of a game, the satellites hone in on two players from a plucky underdog school as they try to pull off the most ambitious play in centuries.
Unlike 17776, 20020 follows a much tighter narrative. There are still vignettes, GIFs swooping across Google Earth, obscure newspaper clippings, videos with 1990s "easy listening" tracks and scrolling text, and a cast of oddball characters. But Nick and Manny are the main protagonists that 17776 never had.
Bois has built a world full of rich themes: time, productivity, humanity, immortality, purpose, loneliness, eternity, recreation, disaster, love. These themes are more apparent in 17776. The episodic nature of that piece lends itself better to the world-building. But the stories! Jon Bois has always been a masterful storyteller, but he dials it up a step here. The stories are evocative, quotidian, infuriating, hilarious, mesmerizing, and so much more in between.
"I just need to try something impossible. That’s what it is for me. I need to find one of the rules of the world and break it."
They all focus on one thing: the future of football.
20020 takes place in the titular year 20020. You and I are . And that's not about to change. The people in this world live to fill time. And, just like humans in 2020, many of them do so through college football. But boy, the game has changed.
Our sentient space probe friends from 17776 are back watching a very unique game of college football. Grab the clicker, chances are your favorite team is still playing in 20020. Yet in this massive clustercuss of a game, the satellites hone in on two players from a plucky underdog school as they try to pull off the most ambitious play in centuries.
Unlike 17776, 20020 follows a much tighter narrative. There are still vignettes, GIFs swooping across Google Earth, obscure newspaper clippings, videos with 1990s "easy listening" tracks and scrolling text, and a cast of oddball characters. But Nick and Manny are the main protagonists that 17776 never had.
Bois has built a world full of rich themes: time, productivity, humanity, immortality, purpose, loneliness, eternity, recreation, disaster, love. These themes are more apparent in 17776. The episodic nature of that piece lends itself better to the world-building. But the stories! Jon Bois has always been a masterful storyteller, but he dials it up a step here. The stories are evocative, quotidian, infuriating, hilarious, mesmerizing, and so much more in between.
"I just need to try something impossible. That’s what it is for me. I need to find one of the rules of the world and break it."
February 14, 2021
Oh, man. This one hit the feels, too.
A bit more technical (I was more aware of my lack of football knowledge) and harder to follow at times, but I enjoyed it a great deal. The research was incredible, the comedy was on point, and the characters felt real :) I loved it!
A bit more technical (I was more aware of my lack of football knowledge) and harder to follow at times, but I enjoyed it a great deal. The research was incredible, the comedy was on point, and the characters felt real :) I loved it!
May 1, 2022
Once again, an interactive multimedia fiction project about three sentient space probes and a never-ending game of absurdist American football has produced some of the most moving and heartfelt commentary on humanity I’ve read in recent memory. It’s gorgeous. Can’t wait for 2002[2].
March 20, 2021
Another charming, funny, philosophical interactive story of America at play in the future...playing a very unusual football game with a satellite as football commissioner.
September 10, 2021
not a book pt.2 but look my reading challenge is empty.
immortal husbands play football and make my heart ache.
immortal husbands play football and make my heart ache.
May 15, 2023
Deeply moving, philosophically interested story. Sequel that somehow tops the original. The all around human perserverance and time theme was really enjoyable, reminded me of the best chapters of Count The Monte Christo. If u re at all interested in a futuristic world like no other give it a shot, and u might just get emotional about satellites
May 16, 2021
So good! Cannot wait for the sequel. I'm really curious about the answer to the existential question set up here. I loved how the author's passions shone through in the stories told.
March 27, 2025
ik zal het nog maar eens zeggen, de VS is echt funky in de toekomst.
October 21, 2025
4.25
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and hang out for a moment (or a week or a century or a millennium) or two. You have all the time in the world to Despair.
Muuuch more football-y but also much dumber. In such an awesome way. How do you impose restrictions on your life when the biggest restriction of them all—time, death—no longer holds any meaning? This one was less philosophically-inclined and focused more on why we play sports/games. Because they're fun? Yes. Because they're something to do? Closer. Because what else are you going to do? Bingo. America is a country of stupid stories and stupider people and those stupid people's stupid stories are the foundations of everything. At what point does escaping from a maximum security prison go from wanting freedom to wanting to see how many times it can be done? Taught me about core rope memory, and the women who made it possible. I love you Little Old Ladies. Jon never asks nor answers the question "where are the goal posts in a country-wide game?" so I am asking it now. This is prettier than 17776.
There's nothing up there for us; it's always been down here.
Look on my Works, ye Mighty, and hang out for a moment (or a week or a century or a millennium) or two. You have all the time in the world to Despair.
Muuuch more football-y but also much dumber. In such an awesome way. How do you impose restrictions on your life when the biggest restriction of them all—time, death—no longer holds any meaning? This one was less philosophically-inclined and focused more on why we play sports/games. Because they're fun? Yes. Because they're something to do? Closer. Because what else are you going to do? Bingo. America is a country of stupid stories and stupider people and those stupid people's stupid stories are the foundations of everything. At what point does escaping from a maximum security prison go from wanting freedom to wanting to see how many times it can be done? Taught me about core rope memory, and the women who made it possible. I love you Little Old Ladies. Jon never asks nor answers the question "where are the goal posts in a country-wide game?" so I am asking it now. This is prettier than 17776.
There's nothing up there for us; it's always been down here.
June 28, 2025
after finishing it, i didn't quite think 17776 would stick around in my brain for too long. of course, it would. it has. sometimes things just fly by me, i read them, i watch them, i play them, they dissolve. when i was watching 30+ movies a month, i was hardly absorbing any of them. i don't think any of them stuck with me quite like the ones i was watching when i would just put something on every few weeks. i don't know. maybe i was just getting unlucky.
17776 feels kind of like house of leaves to me. also kind of like homestuck, but i feel like that's mostly just because of JUICE. see, i think that mark danielewski read a lot, and thought a lot, and learned a lot, every day. for years. just stuffed his brain full of information. history, philosophy, architecture, language, physics, literature, just anything he could get his hands on. and eventually his brain was going to burst, and it did, and house of leaves was born. i think 17776 is like this too. but looking more into jon's work, the videos he makes, i feel like i've found the benchmark for jon's wellspring- data. i feel that jon loves data more than history or space or even football. the eternity of 17776 is a way to explore probability. well, it's a way to explore a lot of things, but it really feels like it's about probability.
i'm scared of eternity. i'm scared of large numbers.
20020 is cool. it's exciting. it feels much closer to football than 17776. it takes a different approach, a lot less existential and a lot more... hopeful, i suppose? it feels like the other side of the argument. 17776 feels very morose. 20020 just... i dont know. it feels different ok. it's a lot more concerned with the past than the future. if this is jon's answer to us being stuck in a cultural rut, seeming to see the same things over and over again, endless reboots and hauling out our popular dead, it's a strange one. it's a gentle one. history (even the smallest, strangest moments of it, on a long enough timescale) repeats itself. that's something i thought about a lot reading 17776. how we'd just end up writing the same songs eventually. i thought a lot about cheapness. how long does something have to live, have to be reborn, before it becomes completely absent of novelty? if steely dan was around for another hundred, two hundred years, they would probably, eventually, write a better song or two. but would anyone care? at what point does it stop being original, and just being meticulous, marginal improvement? is it lesser because thousands of songs came before it? i don't know.
i should have written this after chewing on 20020 for a few days. clearly i have more to say about 17776 than i did a few days ago. i can't stop thinking about the guy walking in a line across the US preaching the word of god. i think i relate to him more than anything else.
fuck man, i don't know. jon seems cool. he probably likes a silver mt. zion's 'horses in the sky'. i feel like we could shoot the shit.
cried a lot at the end.
i love you all.
17776 feels kind of like house of leaves to me. also kind of like homestuck, but i feel like that's mostly just because of JUICE. see, i think that mark danielewski read a lot, and thought a lot, and learned a lot, every day. for years. just stuffed his brain full of information. history, philosophy, architecture, language, physics, literature, just anything he could get his hands on. and eventually his brain was going to burst, and it did, and house of leaves was born. i think 17776 is like this too. but looking more into jon's work, the videos he makes, i feel like i've found the benchmark for jon's wellspring- data. i feel that jon loves data more than history or space or even football. the eternity of 17776 is a way to explore probability. well, it's a way to explore a lot of things, but it really feels like it's about probability.
i'm scared of eternity. i'm scared of large numbers.
20020 is cool. it's exciting. it feels much closer to football than 17776. it takes a different approach, a lot less existential and a lot more... hopeful, i suppose? it feels like the other side of the argument. 17776 feels very morose. 20020 just... i dont know. it feels different ok. it's a lot more concerned with the past than the future. if this is jon's answer to us being stuck in a cultural rut, seeming to see the same things over and over again, endless reboots and hauling out our popular dead, it's a strange one. it's a gentle one. history (even the smallest, strangest moments of it, on a long enough timescale) repeats itself. that's something i thought about a lot reading 17776. how we'd just end up writing the same songs eventually. i thought a lot about cheapness. how long does something have to live, have to be reborn, before it becomes completely absent of novelty? if steely dan was around for another hundred, two hundred years, they would probably, eventually, write a better song or two. but would anyone care? at what point does it stop being original, and just being meticulous, marginal improvement? is it lesser because thousands of songs came before it? i don't know.
i should have written this after chewing on 20020 for a few days. clearly i have more to say about 17776 than i did a few days ago. i can't stop thinking about the guy walking in a line across the US preaching the word of god. i think i relate to him more than anything else.
fuck man, i don't know. jon seems cool. he probably likes a silver mt. zion's 'horses in the sky'. i feel like we could shoot the shit.
cried a lot at the end.
i love you all.
January 16, 2021
A wonderful sequel to 17776!
There is palpable growth among the characters, and John Bois is absolutely incredible at showcasing time, space, and emotions through the various forms of media utilized in 20020. The visuals that I once found to be unfamiliar and empty now bring forth comfort and the realization that although the world may be full of mistakes, we are all meant to be here.
A read that can either be completed in one sitting or several, I'd recommend 17776 and 20020 to everybody, from the most passionate football fan to somebody who has never cared to watch a game.
There is palpable growth among the characters, and John Bois is absolutely incredible at showcasing time, space, and emotions through the various forms of media utilized in 20020. The visuals that I once found to be unfamiliar and empty now bring forth comfort and the realization that although the world may be full of mistakes, we are all meant to be here.
A read that can either be completed in one sitting or several, I'd recommend 17776 and 20020 to everybody, from the most passionate football fan to somebody who has never cared to watch a game.
October 26, 2022
It’s football. It’s science fiction. It’s all that is good and bad about humanity, narrated by robots. It’s not a book. Not in the traditional sense anyway. It’s an… experience. It’s emotional and silly and absurd. Bois will forever be the King of sports writers in my opinion, but he’s got a promising career in YA if he wants it. More than anything else I’ve read in the past two years, 20021 has captured my imagination and won’t let it go. I hope there is more to come.
October 26, 2020
Okay, y'all, I don't care if you, like me, don't care much about football. I'm going to need you to look up 17776 and read it because it's great, and this sequel was even more delightful. Job Bois knew exactly what we needed in this dumpster fire of a year, and apparently that is college football.
Content notes: swearing
Content notes: swearing
October 25, 2020
Jon Bois can tell a goddamn story, and the scope and ambition of this one was truly astounding. Yeah, it's about football, but it's also about the tenacity of the human spirit, and it is so beautifully told.
Read
December 7, 2025If you read human history up to the year 1868, you’d never imagine that people were just a hundred years from launching me into space with all these sophisticated instruments and experiments. I feel like I wasn’t “supposed” to happen that soon, that it should have taken hundreds more years to figure out something like me and send me into the cosmos.
I have about as much onboard memory as a dishwasher, maybe a little more. And they had to sew it by hand even to get that much. It feels like they shouldn’t have been able to do it.
MIMI: That’s how much they loved you, isn’t it? That’s how badly they wanted to bring you into the universe.
NINE: It is. I think about them a lot. I remember them all. Some made it to today, a lot of them didn’t.
They’ll always be a part of me.
- so basically I was trying not to cry reading this part
- besides that, I have discovered that if sports were actually about a shark veterinarian, grouchy pizza jock and (most importantly) an immortal couple who can’t really play normal football but make one of the most legendary plays of all time by virtue of being really fast and gay and unhinged—maybe I would tune in idk
I have about as much onboard memory as a dishwasher, maybe a little more. And they had to sew it by hand even to get that much. It feels like they shouldn’t have been able to do it.
MIMI: That’s how much they loved you, isn’t it? That’s how badly they wanted to bring you into the universe.
NINE: It is. I think about them a lot. I remember them all. Some made it to today, a lot of them didn’t.
They’ll always be a part of me.
- so basically I was trying not to cry reading this part
- besides that, I have discovered that if sports were actually about a shark veterinarian, grouchy pizza jock and (most importantly) an immortal couple who can’t really play normal football but make one of the most legendary plays of all time by virtue of being really fast and gay and unhinged—maybe I would tune in idk
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 3, 2021
Holy fuck. Absolutely blew me away. ITCHING for the next!! Gimme gimme gimme.
March 26, 2022
F***ing brilliant, no two ways about it.
April 25, 2022
Wow. Love is real. Again taking the top spot as most insane multimedia story I've ever read. Wow. The epic highs and lows of college football...
July 18, 2025
Criminally, criminally underrated
April 3, 2024
Give Juice his Lunchables. Nick and Manny are marriage goals. My three space probes who love each other across space :) UGH! Who would have thought that I'd be crying over sentient space probes at 2 am? Such an interesting and creative story, interlacing football with existential dread and sprinkled with fantastic humour. Jon Bois, please bless us with the 20021.
- melodious
- melodious
April 25, 2021
I don't know how Jon Bois so perfectly blends everything: absurd and mundane, satire and slapstick, humor and poignancy, future and past. This story, like 1776, is difficult to describe (they must simply be experienced).
I only have two slight critiques. One is that there were maybe a couple too many detours. The chess scene was fun in its own right but I can't say it "belonged" with the rest of the story. And following that, I was a little disappointed that it ended with a to be continied given that there were so many detours. I think you can detour or you can end with to be continued but doing both feels excessive.
Still, these critiques are small and overall this was still an amazing project that I hope many people will have the opportunity to experience.
I only have two slight critiques. One is that there were maybe a couple too many detours. The chess scene was fun in its own right but I can't say it "belonged" with the rest of the story. And following that, I was a little disappointed that it ended with a to be continied given that there were so many detours. I think you can detour or you can end with to be continued but doing both feels excessive.
Still, these critiques are small and overall this was still an amazing project that I hope many people will have the opportunity to experience.
July 27, 2023
This little sequel to 17776 isn’t as good as the original, but it’s still very good. Pioneer Nine wakes up in the year 20020, when the craziest college football game ever is being played across the USA, and has been played for 2000 years. The shock of the future football games, everyone chatting about extreme lengths of time like they were weeks or months, the space probe humor, and all the philosophy this story shares with its predecessor got old and repetitive, but this story introduces enough new things that it is distinctive and interesting.
Unlike 17776, this story has a plot. I was skeptical about whether a plot, even a loose one like it turned out to be, would work on this story. But it does. It is strange that I would be so interested in a football game from 18,000 years in the future, so sucked in by the suspense, but I was. The characters driving the plot helped. They are Nick and Manny, a couple motivated by one purpose: to have their college football team win the game. They are endearing and you really want them to succeed. They have little character outside their motivation, but that is kind of the point.
Unlike the original, when there were a bunch of crazy little football games, there is one giant crazy game of college football. There are 111 fields, each a regular college football stadium with the boundaries extended, and the playing is less football and more Capture the Flag. When I read that JUICE created the game, I laughed because of course that crazy space probe did.
I like the little digressions into Americana, often accompanied by old newspaper articles, that complement the plot. They are interesting and affect the way this mega-football game is being played. Florida is sunk, and their flag is now funny. This makes me very emotional as a Floridian. While I do like the little bits of American history, and the landmarks on the football fields that affect the plot, I kind of want to see what is happening elsewhere on Earth. Are Englishmen playing soccer underwater? Are the Japanese playing baseball in dormant volcanoes?
I have a lot of questions just like those above, and they would best be answered in a sequel. This story ends on a cliffhanger, and there was supposed to be a sequel, called 20021. It wasn’t released in 20021, and it doesn’t matter if it will ever be released. 20020 stands up on its own, a worthy successor to 17776, even if it isn’t as good.
Unlike 17776, this story has a plot. I was skeptical about whether a plot, even a loose one like it turned out to be, would work on this story. But it does. It is strange that I would be so interested in a football game from 18,000 years in the future, so sucked in by the suspense, but I was. The characters driving the plot helped. They are Nick and Manny, a couple motivated by one purpose: to have their college football team win the game. They are endearing and you really want them to succeed. They have little character outside their motivation, but that is kind of the point.
Unlike the original, when there were a bunch of crazy little football games, there is one giant crazy game of college football. There are 111 fields, each a regular college football stadium with the boundaries extended, and the playing is less football and more Capture the Flag. When I read that JUICE created the game, I laughed because of course that crazy space probe did.
I like the little digressions into Americana, often accompanied by old newspaper articles, that complement the plot. They are interesting and affect the way this mega-football game is being played. Florida is sunk, and their flag is now funny. This makes me very emotional as a Floridian. While I do like the little bits of American history, and the landmarks on the football fields that affect the plot, I kind of want to see what is happening elsewhere on Earth. Are Englishmen playing soccer underwater? Are the Japanese playing baseball in dormant volcanoes?
I have a lot of questions just like those above, and they would best be answered in a sequel. This story ends on a cliffhanger, and there was supposed to be a sequel, called 20021. It wasn’t released in 20021, and it doesn’t matter if it will ever be released. 20020 stands up on its own, a worthy successor to 17776, even if it isn’t as good.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 16, 2024
Is it weird to say that you can learn a lot about humanity from reading one person's works? Because that's how I feel about Jon Bois' stuff.
He has a true understanding of people, and even when we are observing humanity from a non-human character, we're still getting an undiluted look regardless. There's... a lot to 20020. In a lot of ways it's a smaller, more personal story than 17776 ever was, as it chooses to largely focus on 2 player's journey in an impossibly chaotic game of football that is (naturally) dreamed up by JUICE. The ensuing game is hilarious, beautiful, and genuinely tear-jerking. I feel like I should've expected that too, after 17776 hit me right in the heart, but this one feels like it sneaks up on you more, and it hits hard when you don't expect it to.
Bois' writing style is still as fresh as it was in 17776 and has multiple laugh out loud moments too. Nine, Ten, and JUICE are such wonderfully diverse characters and it's always amazing to see them interact with each other and others. Ten's arc in this story especially was a ton of fun to watch and it would be hard to find a piece of written work that covers the chaotic unity of siblings this well.
I loved it, and even when it feels like it falls off course it never takes long for the story get back on track. The pacing and illustration make it so damn pleasing visually, and the writing is just as superb as 17776's. If you have any love for science fiction then this is a must read. Really hoping we get to see 20021 some day.
"I don’t wanna do a hundred years without you."
He has a true understanding of people, and even when we are observing humanity from a non-human character, we're still getting an undiluted look regardless. There's... a lot to 20020. In a lot of ways it's a smaller, more personal story than 17776 ever was, as it chooses to largely focus on 2 player's journey in an impossibly chaotic game of football that is (naturally) dreamed up by JUICE. The ensuing game is hilarious, beautiful, and genuinely tear-jerking. I feel like I should've expected that too, after 17776 hit me right in the heart, but this one feels like it sneaks up on you more, and it hits hard when you don't expect it to.
Bois' writing style is still as fresh as it was in 17776 and has multiple laugh out loud moments too. Nine, Ten, and JUICE are such wonderfully diverse characters and it's always amazing to see them interact with each other and others. Ten's arc in this story especially was a ton of fun to watch and it would be hard to find a piece of written work that covers the chaotic unity of siblings this well.
I loved it, and even when it feels like it falls off course it never takes long for the story get back on track. The pacing and illustration make it so damn pleasing visually, and the writing is just as superb as 17776's. If you have any love for science fiction then this is a must read. Really hoping we get to see 20021 some day.
"I don’t wanna do a hundred years without you."
June 12, 2023
"A consequence of stealing land is that you will never find the significance of it. Whatever lies you made up to justify your crimes will fade away. There are lots are people who grew up down there in a society that was missing spirit, purpose, anything sacred. Some feel that they've found it in this eternal paradise. Others have concluded that they'll never find it, and have come to peace with that."
20020 is the sequel project to 17776, also by Jon Bois. Taking place a whopping 2424 years after the event of 17776, JUICE (a real life space probe that has gained sentience in 17776) has organized the largest game of college football possible both player and size-wise. For reference, each of the lines on the cover is a field. With fields spanning across the country, the normal concept of football has been stratched and warped to something unrecognizable. It has become a literal cross-country scavenger hunt for football hoarding. Though much less existential than its predecessor, 20200 explores more about the world post-scarity and post-death. With Jon Bois' signature sense of humor, sports knowledge, and obscure history trivia, he weaves an incredibly detailed and somehow emotionally moving experience in spite of the absurd plot. Like in 17776, the usage of the Internet only works to 20200's behavior, as it's used to its full extent structurally and is an exemplar in Internet literature.
20020 is the sequel project to 17776, also by Jon Bois. Taking place a whopping 2424 years after the event of 17776, JUICE (a real life space probe that has gained sentience in 17776) has organized the largest game of college football possible both player and size-wise. For reference, each of the lines on the cover is a field. With fields spanning across the country, the normal concept of football has been stratched and warped to something unrecognizable. It has become a literal cross-country scavenger hunt for football hoarding. Though much less existential than its predecessor, 20200 explores more about the world post-scarity and post-death. With Jon Bois' signature sense of humor, sports knowledge, and obscure history trivia, he weaves an incredibly detailed and somehow emotionally moving experience in spite of the absurd plot. Like in 17776, the usage of the Internet only works to 20200's behavior, as it's used to its full extent structurally and is an exemplar in Internet literature.
January 6, 2023
"These imperfections will persist until the end of time, and there's nothing I can do about that. My life will never be a perfect one.
Those lakes, and the ruins that stick out of them, remind me that it's not supposed to be. This is not Heaven. Waters rise and batteries fail.
This is a universe in which things can still fuck up. And that's where I belong."
20020 proved to be another incredible work by Jon Bois; fan-favorites Nine, Ten, and JUICE all return to convey a touching story (perhaps even a parable) about the indomitable human species. Though 20020 is rich in jargon, it's an easy story to understand and enjoy - even for those who don't know anything about football.
Bois cleverly utilizes the rules and limitations of the sport to create a new challenge for the immortal humans inhabiting 20020's Earth. I was impressed by how enthralling the game was, especially since I'm not a football fan. I was rooting for Manny and Nick, while also expecting their failure.
20020 is, perhaps in alignment with its own message, imperfect. It isn't as emotionally cathartic as its predecessor, and I feel as though less is at stake for each character. 20020 sometimes gets away from itself, especially during expository moments. However, it's still a worthy continuation of Bois' previous work.
I can't wait for 20021!
Those lakes, and the ruins that stick out of them, remind me that it's not supposed to be. This is not Heaven. Waters rise and batteries fail.
This is a universe in which things can still fuck up. And that's where I belong."
20020 proved to be another incredible work by Jon Bois; fan-favorites Nine, Ten, and JUICE all return to convey a touching story (perhaps even a parable) about the indomitable human species. Though 20020 is rich in jargon, it's an easy story to understand and enjoy - even for those who don't know anything about football.
Bois cleverly utilizes the rules and limitations of the sport to create a new challenge for the immortal humans inhabiting 20020's Earth. I was impressed by how enthralling the game was, especially since I'm not a football fan. I was rooting for Manny and Nick, while also expecting their failure.
20020 is, perhaps in alignment with its own message, imperfect. It isn't as emotionally cathartic as its predecessor, and I feel as though less is at stake for each character. 20020 sometimes gets away from itself, especially during expository moments. However, it's still a worthy continuation of Bois' previous work.
I can't wait for 20021!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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October 5, 2023Once again I am going to count a piece of experimental web fiction towards my Yearly Reading Challenge because I said so. I loved 17776 when it first came out, and had an enjoyable dreamlike afternoon exploring a world that explores the question of "What if everyone was immortal and decided to spend thousands of years getting real weird with football".
The first time around, I had a hard time articulating what I liked so much about Bois' relentlessly imaginative universe and commitment to his EXTREMELY weird bit. But a few years have passed, so maybe I can explain now. There's this approach that this story takes to American geography that allows for endless exploration of the land, not only as a physical reality (like when football players get stuck in a canyon or trying to ford a river) but as a site of meaning and history, one whose stories are as part of its present as its past.
But anyway-- as a sequel, this absolutely delivers. There's something delicious about seeing the story set up a game with ridiculous parameters and then create novel scenarios within that game. There's a lot more continuity here than in the prequel. It's so fun to see the narrative actually get to play around in the sandbox it spend so much of "17776" setting up. WKU gets mentioned. Also yes the satellites are funny yes funny dialogue yes lunchables.
The first time around, I had a hard time articulating what I liked so much about Bois' relentlessly imaginative universe and commitment to his EXTREMELY weird bit. But a few years have passed, so maybe I can explain now. There's this approach that this story takes to American geography that allows for endless exploration of the land, not only as a physical reality (like when football players get stuck in a canyon or trying to ford a river) but as a site of meaning and history, one whose stories are as part of its present as its past.
But anyway-- as a sequel, this absolutely delivers. There's something delicious about seeing the story set up a game with ridiculous parameters and then create novel scenarios within that game. There's a lot more continuity here than in the prequel. It's so fun to see the narrative actually get to play around in the sandbox it spend so much of "17776" setting up. WKU gets mentioned. Also yes the satellites are funny yes funny dialogue yes lunchables.
December 6, 2021
URGHHHHHHHHHHH I love this series sooo much you all don't even know. I really like how this one focuses on a single story while also weaving in other bits as well and I love all the characters and ohhhhhhh..... I'm not sure when 20021 is coming out bc it got delayed but I would wait forever for it bc it's just that good..
im going to try to insert a pic of one of my favorite quotes because it made me so crazy but idk if itll work? if it does work the context is the red text is a space probe talking about how they were built... yeah
image:
anyway yeah this series... its such a nice little shot of humanity i really like it it makes me a little less doomercore and juice is obviously my favorite ok i have to go now so ill beam the rest of my thoughts in to all of your heads directly byee
im going to try to insert a pic of one of my favorite quotes because it made me so crazy but idk if itll work? if it does work the context is the red text is a space probe talking about how they were built... yeah
image:
anyway yeah this series... its such a nice little shot of humanity i really like it it makes me a little less doomercore and juice is obviously my favorite ok i have to go now so ill beam the rest of my thoughts in to all of your heads directly byee
December 20, 2024
"I said it’s really difficult.
I have some practice with it. When my sister woke me up for the first time, I got plenty of practice. Lots of time to sit and think, and a lot of things came to me, but a lot hasn’t yet.
It’s difficult to feel so old, to BE so old, and feel like I have so little wisdom. A lot of things keep me happy, though.
Ten and Juice, I don’t know what I’d do without them.
I don’t know what I’d do without all of you, either. I love you all for building me, for sending me here, even though you didn’t know what I would become. I love you for being yourselves, and for welcoming me like you have.
Sometimes I hear some of you wonder whether this is Heaven. I think it is. It’s in Heaven I’ll grow up and grow old.
I can’t believe my fortune."
I'm crying over satellites and american football.
I have some practice with it. When my sister woke me up for the first time, I got plenty of practice. Lots of time to sit and think, and a lot of things came to me, but a lot hasn’t yet.
It’s difficult to feel so old, to BE so old, and feel like I have so little wisdom. A lot of things keep me happy, though.
Ten and Juice, I don’t know what I’d do without them.
I don’t know what I’d do without all of you, either. I love you all for building me, for sending me here, even though you didn’t know what I would become. I love you for being yourselves, and for welcoming me like you have.
Sometimes I hear some of you wonder whether this is Heaven. I think it is. It’s in Heaven I’ll grow up and grow old.
I can’t believe my fortune."
I'm crying over satellites and american football.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
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