On the nature of spoilers
... or why I am a not a spoiler whore, but am instead a cranky bitch about even the most seemingly minor of revelations.
I am not reading HP right now, though I could be. This is because at work, I got to thinking about spoilers and fore-knowledge and exactly why casually dropped spoilers bother me so much.
First, I am not above reading spoilers on my own. Generally, it's for something I know I won't watch or read to the end for a long time.
But.
I am not by nature a very reflective reader. I read for enjoyment, and though I do enjoy tearing apart a work later for deeper meanings and connective themes, the first time I read I just read. I get absorbed into the story. I do this to such a degree that I don't believe I've ever solved an adult-level mystery before the final chapters, simply because that would require surfacing above the work long enough to examine and reassemble the careful, casual clues left by the author. Mystery-solving requires a distance from the text that I do not maintain on a first read through. I am nearly always taken in by mysteries, by betrayals and double-crosses, by revelations and truths withheld until the end. And I like that.
This is not to say that I can't recognize foreshadowing, that I never catch on to anything before the characters, that I do not speculate on where a story will lead. I do. But I can become so immersed in the story that I follow the red herrings left by the author as often as I manage to piece together the truths of motivation and actions. Not knowing whether I am right is part of the charm.
I like being in there with the characters. I like the uncertainty -- and I like having my certainties turned on their head. I like being pretty sure of where a book or series is going without having the assurance that the author/writers will necessarily take the path I believe lies ahead.
The most obvious spoilers are the ones that turn pretty sure into certainty, one way or the other. Not too long ago, I held a conversation about an on-going anime series with a friend who had both seen fansubs of later episodes and whom I had told that I did not want to know any spoilers. This friend promptly told me that the characters had, by the episode she was talking about, already found the MacGuffin that drove the series, as a preparatory statement to an otherwise spoiler-free anecdote from the end of the show. When I expressed dismay about being told that the MacGuffin had, in fact, been found, her response was an incredulous, "But you knew they'd find it!"
Well, yes. For the type of show it is, finding the MacGuffin had far better odds than not finding it. But there had been no guarantee that it would be found, even though it was the driving force behind the show. The series had sufficiently dark moments that success had never been assured. And now, though I am not going to see the end for several months yet, I know more or less what that end will be. I do not know exactly how the journey will twist and turn, but I do know that the intended destination will be attained. And that's a bit disappointing. I had enjoyed turning over the possibility of an unhappy -- or open-ended -- ending.
If I wanted guarantees in my stories, I'd read more romances.
But I also react... poorly to relatively minor spoilers. I think it is because it jars me out of the story. If I am watching for an event, I scrutinize everything for evidence of what's to come. And as I stated before, I don't like that when initially reading. Early today, I was talking to someone about the second chapter of HP and tHBP and about which side I thought a character was really on. This was fine, when I thought we were both speculating, playing around with what we knew of the character from previous books and from what we saw in that single new scene. But later, I discovered that although I had technically read further than the other person, that person had actually read/skimmed the end of the book. So, when the person replied dubiously to my opinion, was it because I was really wrong, rather than because of a different assessment of the character? It seems likely, though it's possible that the parts that were skimmed didn't reveal the whole truth. So now as I read, a larger part of me is watching for confirmation of the character's true intents and motivations, and waiting to be disappointed.
Whenever I have read or heard a spoiler, I've given up a piece of innocence. By knowing what will or will not happen, I have lost part of my ability to be fully absorbed into the story, to trust in what I see and simply go along for the ride without weighing and double-thinking everything I am told. I am cynical enough in real-life; I'd rather be able to believe when indulging in fiction.
[Edited to add: if you happen to recognize either of the conversations I've refered to, please don't take it as evidence that I'm nursing an affront or a grudge or something. I've been subjected to unmarked spoilers that have pissed me off much more in the past. Much more. ^_^ These were simply relatively recent and relatively easy to remove the specific references from.]
From Merriam-Webster online:
Spoil (verb) 2 b. the act of damaging : HARM, IMPAIRMENT
I am not reading HP right now, though I could be. This is because at work, I got to thinking about spoilers and fore-knowledge and exactly why casually dropped spoilers bother me so much.
First, I am not above reading spoilers on my own. Generally, it's for something I know I won't watch or read to the end for a long time.
But.
I am not by nature a very reflective reader. I read for enjoyment, and though I do enjoy tearing apart a work later for deeper meanings and connective themes, the first time I read I just read. I get absorbed into the story. I do this to such a degree that I don't believe I've ever solved an adult-level mystery before the final chapters, simply because that would require surfacing above the work long enough to examine and reassemble the careful, casual clues left by the author. Mystery-solving requires a distance from the text that I do not maintain on a first read through. I am nearly always taken in by mysteries, by betrayals and double-crosses, by revelations and truths withheld until the end. And I like that.
This is not to say that I can't recognize foreshadowing, that I never catch on to anything before the characters, that I do not speculate on where a story will lead. I do. But I can become so immersed in the story that I follow the red herrings left by the author as often as I manage to piece together the truths of motivation and actions. Not knowing whether I am right is part of the charm.
I like being in there with the characters. I like the uncertainty -- and I like having my certainties turned on their head. I like being pretty sure of where a book or series is going without having the assurance that the author/writers will necessarily take the path I believe lies ahead.
The most obvious spoilers are the ones that turn pretty sure into certainty, one way or the other. Not too long ago, I held a conversation about an on-going anime series with a friend who had both seen fansubs of later episodes and whom I had told that I did not want to know any spoilers. This friend promptly told me that the characters had, by the episode she was talking about, already found the MacGuffin that drove the series, as a preparatory statement to an otherwise spoiler-free anecdote from the end of the show. When I expressed dismay about being told that the MacGuffin had, in fact, been found, her response was an incredulous, "But you knew they'd find it!"
Well, yes. For the type of show it is, finding the MacGuffin had far better odds than not finding it. But there had been no guarantee that it would be found, even though it was the driving force behind the show. The series had sufficiently dark moments that success had never been assured. And now, though I am not going to see the end for several months yet, I know more or less what that end will be. I do not know exactly how the journey will twist and turn, but I do know that the intended destination will be attained. And that's a bit disappointing. I had enjoyed turning over the possibility of an unhappy -- or open-ended -- ending.
If I wanted guarantees in my stories, I'd read more romances.
But I also react... poorly to relatively minor spoilers. I think it is because it jars me out of the story. If I am watching for an event, I scrutinize everything for evidence of what's to come. And as I stated before, I don't like that when initially reading. Early today, I was talking to someone about the second chapter of HP and tHBP and about which side I thought a character was really on. This was fine, when I thought we were both speculating, playing around with what we knew of the character from previous books and from what we saw in that single new scene. But later, I discovered that although I had technically read further than the other person, that person had actually read/skimmed the end of the book. So, when the person replied dubiously to my opinion, was it because I was really wrong, rather than because of a different assessment of the character? It seems likely, though it's possible that the parts that were skimmed didn't reveal the whole truth. So now as I read, a larger part of me is watching for confirmation of the character's true intents and motivations, and waiting to be disappointed.
Whenever I have read or heard a spoiler, I've given up a piece of innocence. By knowing what will or will not happen, I have lost part of my ability to be fully absorbed into the story, to trust in what I see and simply go along for the ride without weighing and double-thinking everything I am told. I am cynical enough in real-life; I'd rather be able to believe when indulging in fiction.
[Edited to add: if you happen to recognize either of the conversations I've refered to, please don't take it as evidence that I'm nursing an affront or a grudge or something. I've been subjected to unmarked spoilers that have pissed me off much more in the past. Much more. ^_^ These were simply relatively recent and relatively easy to remove the specific references from.]
From Merriam-Webster online:
Spoil (verb) 2 b. the act of damaging : HARM, IMPAIRMENT