John draws 170,000 circles to grasp the US COVID-19 death toll (2020)
story · status: followed over 8 videos (2020–2021) · last event: update (2021-11-23 (said on 2021-10-28, implied))
In August 2020 John set out to draw about 170,000 circles to grasp the US COVID-19 death toll; he reached 17,000 by September, viewers drew circles too, and the drawings became the endpapers of The Anthropocene Reviewed, though in November 2021 he still had them to finish.
Told alongside: Vlogbrothers videos titled with Smash Mouth's All Star lyrics (2020) · John: The Anthropocene Reviewed will not be his last book (2021) · John writes his first nonfiction book, The Anthropocene Reviewed (2020)
About: COVID-19 pandemic, The Anthropocene Reviewed (book)
| date | event | what | video |
|---|---|---|---|
| 2020-08-18 | told | After a stressful week, John says he has a long-term plan to draw 170,000 or so circles. | what's wrong with taking the back streets? 00:00:00 |
| 2020-08-18 | update | In comments John updates that he has reached 3,400 circles and may livestream his progress; he counts in groups of 100, switching pens and making a tally mark each time. | what's wrong with taking the back streets? |
| 2020-08-25 | update | In a comment John says he has drawn 12,000 circles so far, and it has been very moving to see so many viewers also take up drawing circles. | Somebody once told me… |
| 2020-09-01 | update | John shows his circles: 17,000 drawn so far in his attempt to understand the number 170,000, perhaps enough to freak out YouTube's compression, yet only 10% of the total. | get the show on 00:02:26 |
| 2020-10-05 | update | John unboxes this year's (2020) items, starting with Circles Pizza John, which combines two of his favorite things, drawing tiny circles and having a mustache, then shirts, a hoodie, a tote, socks, pins, wrapping paper. (playful) | Thank God It's Over and PIZZAMAS IS HERE!!!!!!! 00:00:29 |
| 2020-10-07 (said on 2020-10-06, implied) | update | John loves seeing people draw circles in response to his circle drawings; a Pizzamas t-shirt is such a drawing, made by a nerdfighter named Kimmy. | The Golden Age of Vlogbrothers 00:01:56 |
| 2021-02-23 | mentioned | John makes drawings obsessively, like his drawing of 17,000 circles, or rather 17,000 failed attempts at circles. | A Little Joy and Color in an Otherwise Unbearably Bland Life 00:01:56 |
| 2021-04-27 | update | The book's endpapers are based on John's circle drawings. | What is my new book about? 00:00:00 |
| 2021-11-23 (said on 2021-10-28, implied) | update | Lastly, John needs to finish his ridiculously time-consuming circle drawings. | I have been playing a small trick on you. 00:02:55 |
Dates are upload dates, which set the order. Where the speaker gives a different recording date in the video, it is added as "said on YYYY-MM-DD, implied" (derived from the date said in the video).
What is said about it
10 statements, by date (the events above are the turns of the thread; these are the details).
- 2020-08-18 · what's wrong with taking the back streets? — In a comment John says he thinks he will then make an artwork with the death count since 8/16, then another, and so on until it is over. (speculative) — creator comment
- 2020-08-18 · what's wrong with taking the back streets? — John: Comparisons help some, but large numbers stay hard to contextualize, so John is making the circles to learn how to count to 170,000; this is circle 589. — 00:03:24
- 2020-08-18 · what's wrong with taking the back streets? — John: A pleasure of repetition is realizing even the smallest actions can't be repeated: each circle is non-circular in its own way, and he has signed his name half a million times, never the same twice. — 00:00:29
- 2020-08-18 · what's wrong with taking the back streets? — John: An Anthropocene Reviewed episode discusses the monumental circle drawings of Japanese artist Hiroyuki Doi, who began drawing after his brother's death because circles relieved his grief. — 00:00:29
- 2020-08-18 · what's wrong with taking the back streets? — John finds repetitive actions offer relief if he chooses them and they aren't too taxing; it's easy to chalk that up to his obsessive-compulsive disorder. — 00:00:58
- 2020-08-18 · what's wrong with taking the back streets? — John: Studies have found most people are more focused and retain more information when doodling than when not. — 00:00:58
- 2020-09-01 · get the show on — John notes he has less than 90% of the paper left for the remaining 90% of the circles and looks forward to finding out how that resolves. (playful) — 00:02:55
- 2020-09-01 · get the show on — John loves seeing viewers' circles, drawn to grieve a loss, understand their own large numbers or for the relief of doodling, and thanks those sharing them on the Nerdfighter subreddit and Discords. — 00:02:55
- 2020-10-05 · Thank God It's Over and PIZZAMAS IS HERE!!!!!!! — announcement: John: Buying all the t-shirts gives a discount and buying all of this year's (2020) Pizzamas stuff an even bigger one, to wrap as gifts that help friends through what may be a difficult winter. — 00:01:54
- 2020-10-05 · Thank God It's Over and PIZZAMAS IS HERE!!!!!!! — announcement: John says it wouldn't be 2020 without a Pizza John mask, joking that wearing it makes people keep their distance. (playful) — 00:02:28