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Jul. 10th, 2007 07:35 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
wook77I've been reading a few discussions about spoilers on various people's journals. There are those that are leaving until a month after the book. There are those reading on filters and then there are those that aren't changing their habits. I'm in the third camp and I admit to having a few thoughts about the first two.
Warning: Usage of current canon in the guise of fake spoilers. I can promise, out of respect for those that do not wish to be spoiled, that you will not find any real spoilers for DH here. Then again, if you don't know that Hermione is supposed to have bushy hair, then, well, you just might be out of luck.
First – I find real life to be even more cruel about spoilers than the online fandom culture. I'm not a huge fan of the Simpson's so I'll admit that my judgment is skewed on this but – my favorite episode is the one where Homer comes out of the theater at the end of Empire Strikes Back and, in front of the entire line of people waiting to see it for the first time, incredulously announces that Darth Vader is Luke's father. It's a pivotal moment in the movie and one that would be a spoiler to those that hadn't seen it.
Sure, the Simpson's is a cartoon but it's based on countless experiences that happen in real life. Whether it's the morning dj greeting you with the news that Hermione has bushy hair or the nightly news on your local channel discussing the various current spoilers (which shall not be discussed here), it's going to happen. Getting offline isn't going to limit your contact with these insidious spoilers. How is leaving LJ going to protect you from that?
On a personal note, I like the idea of having a culture here that understands and commiserates about being greeted with spoilers IRL. We sympathize, we support and we communicate.
Second – There's the whole idea that the entire experience will be ruined by being "spoiled". Aren't we all here for more than the ending? If we were all here just to find out who lives and who dies, we'd just wait until the reactions showed up and read about it then. We're here for the experience, for the enjoyment of the words (let's not debate whether JKR can really write or not, yeah?) and for the community.
If someone tells me that Boba Fett makes it out of the Sarlacc Pit and lives a long fruitful life, I'm still going to wonder "how does he do it? How long of a life? What does he do with it?" It's about the story, not just the ending.
Quoting from a Time magazine, "The idea that someone could ruin a novel by revealing its ending is like saying you could ruin the Mona Lisa by revealing that it's a picture of a woman with a center part. Spoilers are a myth: they don't spoil. No elaborate secrecy campaign is going to make [DH] better than it already is and no website could possibly make it useless and boring." (Time, July 9, 2007)
My point is the spoilers only ruin the experience if you let them. It's your journal, do what you want. I'm here for the long haul. I'm not reading on filters and I'm going to enjoy the book just as much as I've enjoyed every single other one of them, regardless of whether I know that Peeves and Filch argue about bubblegum or Moaning Myrtle moans in the loo.
As I will be at work until later with no access to LJ, comments are screened until I get home.
Warning: Usage of current canon in the guise of fake spoilers. I can promise, out of respect for those that do not wish to be spoiled, that you will not find any real spoilers for DH here. Then again, if you don't know that Hermione is supposed to have bushy hair, then, well, you just might be out of luck.
First – I find real life to be even more cruel about spoilers than the online fandom culture. I'm not a huge fan of the Simpson's so I'll admit that my judgment is skewed on this but – my favorite episode is the one where Homer comes out of the theater at the end of Empire Strikes Back and, in front of the entire line of people waiting to see it for the first time, incredulously announces that Darth Vader is Luke's father. It's a pivotal moment in the movie and one that would be a spoiler to those that hadn't seen it.
Sure, the Simpson's is a cartoon but it's based on countless experiences that happen in real life. Whether it's the morning dj greeting you with the news that Hermione has bushy hair or the nightly news on your local channel discussing the various current spoilers (which shall not be discussed here), it's going to happen. Getting offline isn't going to limit your contact with these insidious spoilers. How is leaving LJ going to protect you from that?
On a personal note, I like the idea of having a culture here that understands and commiserates about being greeted with spoilers IRL. We sympathize, we support and we communicate.
Second – There's the whole idea that the entire experience will be ruined by being "spoiled". Aren't we all here for more than the ending? If we were all here just to find out who lives and who dies, we'd just wait until the reactions showed up and read about it then. We're here for the experience, for the enjoyment of the words (let's not debate whether JKR can really write or not, yeah?) and for the community.
If someone tells me that Boba Fett makes it out of the Sarlacc Pit and lives a long fruitful life, I'm still going to wonder "how does he do it? How long of a life? What does he do with it?" It's about the story, not just the ending.
Quoting from a Time magazine, "The idea that someone could ruin a novel by revealing its ending is like saying you could ruin the Mona Lisa by revealing that it's a picture of a woman with a center part. Spoilers are a myth: they don't spoil. No elaborate secrecy campaign is going to make [DH] better than it already is and no website could possibly make it useless and boring." (Time, July 9, 2007)
My point is the spoilers only ruin the experience if you let them. It's your journal, do what you want. I'm here for the long haul. I'm not reading on filters and I'm going to enjoy the book just as much as I've enjoyed every single other one of them, regardless of whether I know that Peeves and Filch argue about bubblegum or Moaning Myrtle moans in the loo.
As I will be at work until later with no access to LJ, comments are screened until I get home.
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Date: 2007-07-10 04:34 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2007-07-14 12:09 am (UTC)I think part of it is how people treat the spoilers. I'm thinking there are those who treat each spoiler as true and there are those that treat them as false. I'm in the second camp so I've been "spoiled" by spoilers but I still reacted to the different parts of the movie.
I do a fairly decent job of spoiling myself in movies (during one movie, I guessed who the killer was because of the jazz music they used to intro the movie. Yeah, it was a total guess but there it was). I still enjoy the journey along the way. There is no way anyone can spoil every detail.