17 minutes.

11:19-11:36am. Before that is prologue and after that is mostly epilogue.

Pondering this event, what blows my mind is that so much of the narrative is packed into those 17 minutes. All those stories, all those little shreds of dialogue and detail. I think in analyzing the event we tend to draw it out, as if E&D stalked their way into the library after an interim period... but from their perspective, was it all one streamlined rush from minute one? Did all the taunting and carnage in the library feel to them like they had just gotten started?

Do you think E&D had any idea NBK would be so focused and brief? That at 11:19am - before which the situation is still reversible - it's "go go go"; that 17 minutes later, the killing's done (13 dead); and that within 48 minutes, your brains are all over the library.

The sense of time is what I try most to process.

Very interesting question. It really makes you think about how everything played out time wise.

I honestly think everything was a blur to them. I'm not sure they were aware of how much time had passed, because they were on such an adrenaline rush that they were likely viewing things in hyper mode.

Yes. Also, after the library massacre they went down to the commons to check the bombs in the hopes they still would go off. Then when they didnt they lost all hope, went back to the library (to be killed by cop? or otherwise suicide) but only after 12.00am because at that time the bombs in their cars should've gone off, but didnt. They felt so miserably I guess and killed themselves.

So they had a sense of time, but at the same time (no pun intended) every second would have felt as an hour or vice versa.

Interesting stuff!

I think Dylan actually said that in the Basement Tapes. “I’ll be shaking like a leaf and seconds will feel like hours”

TheBigLebowski wrote:

Yes. Also, after the library massacre they went down to the commons to check the bombs in the hopes they still would go off. Then when they didnt they lost all hope, went back to the library (to be killed by cop? or otherwise suicide) but only after 12.00am because at that time the bombs in their cars should've  gone off, but didnt. They felt so miserably I guess and killed themselves.

So they had a sense of time, but at the same time (no pun intended) every second would have felt as an hour or vice versa.

Interesting stuff!

Yes... I remember someone wondering recently whether they considered the event a success or a failure before killing themselves. I think, when you consider how quickly it passed in real time, they likely considered it a failure. It must have seemed so quick and localized compared to what they had in mind. 17 minutes, and mainly limited to one room! Even though we know how much cultural resonance this event had, I'm not sure they would have at the time.