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Reged: Feb 16 2004
Posts: 1056
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This thread is for comments about On Spoiling the Plot, by Debbie Notkin
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Anonymous
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Aargh! Rosebud is a sled??? (Sorry, I just had to do that.)
I agree. If the only joy in a piece is the 'SURPRISE!' at the end, it must surely be a weak piece. The joy in a great piece is in the detail. I often find myself reading a story for a particular reason (Oh good, another Mars colony story!), and before long am all caught up in the characters, the texture, all the details. That's why we create these things in the first place.
If the whole point is the surprise ending, just read the first and last paragraphs, it'll save time. Then tell all your friends. It'll save them even more time.
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Anonymous
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Debbie Notkin wrote -
"So I guess I simply don't understand the importance of being protected from spoilers. As a preference, it makes as much sense as any other preference. As a mandated rule of netiquette, it confuses me... (SNIP) the person who posts a spoiler frequently gets more comments on the "rudeness" than on the content of their post. So why does it matter so much? Can you tell me?"
Of course I can't answer for everybody. But I can certainly answer for myself. It's the temorary things that make life so much fun. The constants we take for granted. We don't often think how wonderful it is that we can see, or that we have enough to eat each day, or that we have indoor plumbing. Those things are always there. We only notice them when we (or someone we know) suddenly is without them. They don't make us happy.
But stories do. Stories feed our imaginations. They nourish our humanity. The stretch our horizons.
I believe in the joy of anticipation. I have as much fun speculating with my kids what would happen in the final Star Wars movie or the latest Harry Potter book as I did experiencing the movie or the book. Even if it's a story I haven't anticipated, it's still fun to be surprised by what's coming next while I'm in the process of experiencing it. The spoiler (I'm using the term to describe both the person spoiling the story and the information the person reveals) robs us of that joy.
Life is hard enough as it is. We don't need spoilers stealing the joy of our anticipation. Life is too short to be shortchanged on a plot twist.
Layne
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Cheryl Morgan
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Well said Debbie. Absolutely spot on. I do worry about what sort of world we live in if people's lives can be devastated by finding out a few minor things about what happens in a book. I might suggest that such people read Karl Schreoder's new book, Lady of Mazes, but maybe that's giving too much away.
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James Schellenberg
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Reged: Mar 21 2005
Posts: 29
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Great column, Debbie! For some reason, I found your tagline that gives away the ending of Romeo and Juliet very very funny...
And in one of those weird coincidences, I read your column and then I read this discussion about the ending of Philip Pullman's His Dark Materials (Washington Monthly blog), with the question as to why the anti-God ending didn't cause more fuss. But most of the people end up complaining about spoiler warnings!
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Anonymous
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>As a mandated rule of netiquette, it confuses me. If you don't like spinach, don't eat it, and don't confuse your dislike with a life-threatening allergy.
The thing is, (at least in my kitchen and in the places that I haunt online) you're a lot less likely to eat spinach without realizing it than you are to stumble across spoilers for a book or movie you'd rather not be spoiled for.
I don't know that it does matter all that much in the grand scheme of things. I'm a bit of a spoiler hound myself and plot is not high on the list of things that I happen to read for. But I guess my question would be, why does it matter so much _not_ to warn people that you're about to give away a snippet of plot?
I don't think anyone is required to give spoiler warnings. Especially on (say) an individual's blog--if business as usual on that blog (or whatever) to talk about plot details, I think it becomes a case of reader beware. But at the same time...if you don't have a general policy (or if you're going to break with one), or you're out in public space, it only takes three words to give people a heads up and a chance to not read on--why not do it?
I guess I'm as mystified by this whole (not just this column) backlash against spoiler warnings as some folks are by the warnings themselves.
- Hannah
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