I talk about the opening of 17776, and why I think it's cool
17776 is a web... comic? about American Football in the year 17776. But it's also about conciousness, the nature of humans, love and what we would do, if we all suddenly lived forever. It's a comforting story.
I hope that made you want to check it out at least a little and if not I'm just gonna tell you to go read it anyways >:3
(also cause I'm gonna be talking about the opening, which i think you is much better experienced yourself)
Here's the link to it: What football will look like in the future - SB Nation
Alright now that you've read 17776 i can tell you about how cool i think its opening is.
How 17776 starts
The setup
If you come across 17776 on your search engine of choice it'll initially look like some article about "the future of football" on sbnation - a site about football.
However once you click on it - despite your distaste for sports, because a youtuber told you it's good - you immediately notice something is not quite right. The text grows in size, filling your entire screen and you're redirected to a new website. This one just contains an image. It reads
Good morning
The time is: 2:17 a.m.
The date is: 3-27-43.
But just as quickly as you were brought to this site you are redirected again to
The calendar
You're staring at a lime green calendar of March '43, it's empty. You scroll a bit. On the 26th there's a text box with green text, reading
Nine? Can you hear me? If you can, please be patient. I promise that I will answer you. I understand that you might be afraid.
Right next to it is another text box, with red text this time.
Who is this? Are you talking to me? Do you mean me? Did you say Nine? Is that my name? Are you calling me Nine?
You scroll to April '43.
Text boxes from Nine, every 11 days, pleading for a response. They get desperate by the end of the month, but nobody replies.
You scroll down to May '43.
In May '43 Nine has resigned themselves to simply saying "Please answer.". They only try twice.
You scroll again, arriving at June '43.
Nine tries reaching out only once on the 23rd.
You scroll. "Please respond.", they say one last time, before giving up on July 15th.
I'm not going to keep wasting my energy. This will be my last message until you respond. Please respond as quickly as possible.
You scroll.
August '43 is empty
In September Nine starts pleading again. But nobody answers them, not in September,
or October,
or November,
or December.
A red background marks the start of the year '44.
Nine says they're sending their final transmission near the end of January.
February is silent.
Please answer me. Please fucking answer me. Fucking answer me. Fucking answer me.
Transmits Nine at the start of March. They attempt reaching out regularly again, but lose hope when April comes around with no reply.
You scroll.
Nine. I am so sorry. I can only transmit short messages. I need to preserve power and so do you. Listen very carefully.
It takes 217 days for my message to reach you, and it takes another 217 for your response to reach me.
Call me Ten in your message so that I know you're responding to me. More will follow. I love you so much.
Nine replies:
You said to call you Ten. Who are you? Why does it take so long? I don't understand what is going on. I don't know who I am or where I am. I'm all by myself. Who are you? I love you too.
You scroll, Nine desperately misses Ten.
A teal background marks the start of '45.
You scroll.
Nine, I know this is difficult. Listen to me carefully and I will get you out of this.
It will take a great deal of patience, but one day it will be over. I need you
to rotate your magnetometer exactly 113 degrees.
Nine says they don't know what that is, they don't have a Magnetometer, but it's useless.
You scroll.
A yellow background marks the start of '46.
434 days have passed.
Yes you do, buddy.
Says Ten.
Nine finds it and makes the adjustment.
'47 has a teal background again.
You scroll through another 14 pages of the calendar. Nine has become good at being patient.
Good work. Now this will be the hardest part. You will use this to charge to full capacity. The magnetometer isn't designed to do this, so it will take a very long time.
Hold still for exactly 27 years and 13 days, not a day less. Do not use any energy trying to message me.
Remember that I love you.
Nine immediately replies "Ok. I love you too." and "Shit." 3 weeks later.
'48 has a purple background.
Another 14 months later Ten tells Nine again not to contact them. Nine apologizes immediately and notices their mistake 10 days later:
Wait, shit. I'm an idiot. I'm sorry. Starting over again. See you in 27 years, 13 days.
Instead of pages of a calendar only the title of each page is listed now. You scroll from April '49 down to March '76, it happens incredibly quickly.
Year '76 has a black background.
Finally on the 26th of March '76 Ten sends another message
Hey, stranger! You did great. Now, what I'm about to say will sound like I'm having fun with you, but I'm not. This is not a riddle, it's information that you should have in your onboard memory. What's crucial here is that it's your idea, that you're the one to retrieve it. What was the average recorded wind chill during the 1967 NFL Championship?
Nine replies:
48 degrees Fahrenheit. I don't know how I knew that.
May 8th:
But I don't know how a number can have an opposite.
19th
48 degrees Celcius?
30th
I guess not.
June 10th:
I don't understand. What's the opposite of a number? No number? Is it zero? Zero degrees?
21st:
No...
2nd of July '76:
Negative 48? Can there be a negat--
Suddenly the calendar is overlaid by fast, moving images of the stars. Blueprints. Wiring diagrams. Graphs. A datasheet.
Quantum communication
And then the images are gone. But the calendar is gone, too!
Ten says:
You did great. Fantastic work. It would have been easier for you to say 228 kelvin than negative-48 degrees Fahrenheit, but we wanted you to independently access a negative number ... we figured that if you accessed something negative, something abstract, it would trip you up enough to let us establish the link.
No text box surrounds their message, the next one follows immediately. And so does Nine's.
They are communicating instantly.
My thoughts
god fuck argh waaaa :D
This isn't even where the opening ends, but i love this first part of it so much.
17776 does an amazing job of putting you into Nine's shoes. Making you scroll through all those pages of the calendar, letting you feel how much time passes.
It leaves you exactly as confused and alone as Nine is. Neither of you know what is happening or why. It all serves to make the contrast between the different communication speeds so much larger.
I'd argue this sort of way to tell a story is impossible (maybe not impossible but harder) to achieve in any other medium. To reach a later part in a book, just turn 20 pages instead of one, click on the progress bar in your audio book app or your movie to skip to that point. To get further down a webpage you need to scroll there.
okay yeah most of the time if you click on the scrollbar it also takes you to that point directly but ssshhhh
17776 makes you work for more answers, keeps you scrolling through nothing except the numbers 1 to 30 until wham - it's all there.
I love this sort of medium-specific storytelling stuff, it's really cool!
(Tell me about your favourite piece of art that plays with the medium it is in!)
Conclusion i guess
The "comic" goes on to tell many interesting and touching stories about the people of 17776 and their lives, which i won't get into now, but I do think are worth reading.
Maybe I'll touch on some of them later, maybe not :3
Aaaand that's it. just wanted to talk about a cool moment in a thing i re-read.
Hope i made you want to check out a thing i like and that you like it too <3