kerrikins

[kerrikins]

Neil Gaiman’s response.. 💀

Screenshots for those who don’t want to click on his blog.

[kerrikins]

[kerrikins]

sometimes talented people are monsters. it does no good whatsoever to smugly crow about how you never liked their work anyway after the 'monster' part comes out.

[kerrikins]

Anyway, more verified reporting on Neil Gaiman is out and it's real bad, folks, it just is. I'm not going to link it here, but there are plenty of free links floating around.

I cannot stress this enough, if the topic of sexual assault and graphic details are going to be severely distressing for you, please do not read it. That is not something you have to do to yourself. You do not have to do penance for finding his work meaningful, previously praised it, or enjoyed interacting with him on Tumblr. This is not on you. No one needs that from you, no matter how it may feel.

If this is personally devastating, you can (and should!) take some time to process it. You don't owe the internet a hot take or force yourself to feel the right emotion. Just take a break until you find the right headspace to be in. Please take care of yourselves.

[kerrikins]

This tweet lives rent-free in my head now. Hands-down the best comment about the relationship between art and artist.

[kerrikins]

If the paywall comes up, try to put the link into this: https://www.removepaywall.com

Posting in the spirit of not staying quiet about this.

I strongly suggest you read this—all of it, because it’s long. Lila Shapiro is the journalist who wrote the investigation into Joss Whedon btw and won an award for it, so maybe people can finally stop making this all about Tortoise Media.

[kerrikins]

From what everyone has seen from the label president's personal Instagram. We confirm that the clip is a real event that happened at our past outing and was witnessed by more than 40 actors and crew members.

[kerrikins]

source

[kerrikins]

I've actually found it really fascinating, in part because I went into 4 Minutes rather fresh off of the memory of the DFF fandom and what that was like. And the discourse regarding THAT ending was a lot louder and more toxic than it has been surrounding 4 Minutes...

But what's interesting is that I've seen some people, who were very insistent on listening to something that Sammon said about DFF, now insisting that they should be able to interpret the ending otherwise for this show.

Which just goes to show why the concept of 'death of the author' is still debated, because whether or not people want to hold to it depends on what they want to take away from a show!

Personally I will say that people should be able to debate the ending in terms of what they think is being demonstrated by what was shown on screen. Like I am quite decided on how I think 4 Minutes ended and I've made posts about that. But I also get why some people are interpreting it another way, or want to.

Bruh I hate the whole discourse going around where people on twt (x) are fighting over the "real" storyline out the "correct" interpretation of 4 minutes and the fact that even the author and the people involved came out to explain it...

That defeats the whole purpose of stories doesn't it? Three coming coming together and discussing, people being confused, people remembering the mystery.

I hate that.

I hate hate hate hate hate hate hate that

It's like taking antibiotics, it's kills the band AND THE GOOD

Who taught these people to witness stories?

I'm not angry

Just disappointed. Have we come to the point where we're supposed to console stories like medicine? With instructions and swallowing it down with a second thought? Because the doctor said and the doctor is right...

Idk. Maybe I'm too sentimental and a firm believer that stories are never meant to be seen one way... Anything one dimensional is lost

[kerrikins]

[kerrikins]

Oh, I have no idea why it has a mature flag on it either? I wrote it on my phone while half asleep so that might be why, lol. I'm actually a pretty big believer in the idea that people should be able to take away from art what they see/get out of it. That's why I've tried to focus my posts about how I perceive the ending on what was in canon rather than anything Sammon's said, because a lot of people will watch the show without ever reading what she had to say. When I wrote this I was more just thinking about intentions vs audience perception as DFF also had a lot of people interpreting the ending differently than what she said she was going for.

If there’s one thing that DFF and 4 Minutes are teaching me, it’s that Sammon needs to work on making sure her desired intentions connect with the audience. Because just like with DFF, a lot of people are taking away from the ending a different outcome than what she states she was going for.

[kerrikins]

[kerrikins]

Just a small correction - he didn't strictly say that he didn't like the ending, he said that as an ACTOR he didn't like it, but as a viewer he did. I understand the distinction because the boy seems to have a preference for tragic endings, lol.

So, I had some time to step away from the post-finale discourse by taking a nap. And I have some thoughts -

The JesBible interview where Bible said that he didn't like the ending shouldn't have happened. That is just a PR nightmare. Not blaming Bible, ofcourse, but sometimes actors really gotta keep their opinions to themselves until the audience had a chance to watch the final product.

The finale wasn't perfect and it never was gonna be. It was always gonna have its detractors, but some of y'all are so fucking mean online. Do I thinking the ending was perfect? No, but don't just be spreading hate because you expected the show to be something else. What aired yesterday was the vision of the team behind the project, if you didn't like it and you are entitled to your own opinion, don't ruin it for everyone else.

[kerrikins]

I'm going to go against what seems to be a common sentiment in the tag and say that I think that Tyme and Great live in the end, and also that I think that the story is much more poignant and beautiful for this fact. Stories don't always have to end in tragedy to be meaningful.

It's actually kind of making me laugh a little because I think that the scene at the end was intended to state quite clearly to the audience that they lived, but instead people are taking it to mean otherwise - but that's where art subjectivity comes in. Just because an author intends one thing, doesn't mean that's how the audience is going to take it. (And this is twice now that Sammon has had people questioning her ending, and ironically enough I wonder if this ending was intended to be clearer than DFF and still failed...)

Contrasting to DFF's ending, I think the messaging that they survived is quite clear. The characters are not questioning at the end, there's no moment of ambiguity (like there was with Inception, for example). There was no lingering shot of a location like there was with DFF.

Plotwise, i also think that the two storylines were set up as a deliberate contrast to each other. Korn, Win and Tonkla were there not only to fill out the story and explain what had happened to Tyme and Great, but they were also there to show the reality of not getting that precious second chance, not being able to reconsider or change decisions.

It's also laid starkly clear in the moment where Korn is dying, where we get a glimpse of his 4 Minutes - an alternate timeline where he would have chosen to leave with Tonkla way back at the start, rather than following along the path that doomed them both.

But the watch - blood-spattered - moves on and then unlike with Great & Tyme where we see them still alive and happy, we instead see Tonkla and Korn lying together in death, making their fates painfully obvious.

It's a tragedy - and a deliberate one. The two stories augment each other, because their ending is all the more painful for the happy ending that Tyme & Great tentatively get, and Tyme and Great's ending is all the more beautiful when we realize what a miracle it is.

4 Minutes is a story about getting the chance to reconsider your behaviour and your decisions, getting the chance to reconsider your motivations and actions - and then getting the chance to follow through on everything you learned. I saw someone say that they would have preferred that Korn and Tonkla lived, but for me that would have missed the mark if Tyme and Great had died simply because of the fact that Korn & Tonkla hadn't gone through that process of reconsidering who they were and what they had done. (I would have been fine with all of them living but I also think the story is richer this way).

So those are my thoughts, based solely on canon interpretation.

[kerrikins]

If there’s one thing that DFF and 4 Minutes are teaching me, it’s that Sammon needs to work on making sure her desired intentions connect with the audience. Because just like with DFF, a lot of people are taking away from the ending a different outcome than what she states she was going for.

[kerrikins]

So . . . Dr. Sammon, when are we getting a second season of 4 Minutes with Tonkla because we all saw that second-hand slow down once it hit nine?

And we know Tonkla was already in his own little 4-Minutes-Universe since I don't think this really happen but was instead what he wanted to happen.

Come on, girl. If Tan got out of the house in Dead Friend Forever (he did because Phee was already dead, so the fight with Tan never happened and Phee heard Tan lighting his cigarette in limbo) and Bun survived a fall in Manner of Death, I KNOW Tonkla is going to come out of this the same way Tyme and Great did, so . . .

4 Minutes 2 when?