Comments on: What do we know and when do we want to know it?

By: Adele

Adele — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 08:39:24 +0000

Yup, I try to avoid spoilers of books in new releases but on old favourites(Good Omens for instance) I feel content to wax lyrical about all my favourite bits without guilt. There are some books and some movies that are spoiler sensitive, they tend to be the ones that don’t re read/re watch as well, but otherwise, not really seeing the problem.

By: Lise

Lise — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:37:58 +0000

One of the things about people using spoiler tags, or warning people of spoilers, is that means people care about a work enough to try and encourage people to experience it fresh they way that (we assume) they did.

Think about movies like The Happening… it had a secret but people relished in dishing the secret to people who hadn’t seen it.

By: Adam Heine

Adam Heine — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 03:11:19 +0000

I think not knowing the secret can affect how much one loves the work.

For example, I didn’t know the secret of Usual Suspects, so when I got there it was an OMG moment. And now it’s one of my favorite movies.

I had heard the secret of Sixth Sense (though I don’t blame those who spoiled it since it had been years and years since the movie came out), and while I thought the movie was good, I don’t remember it very well. And I don’t care to watch it again.

So I think, for those of us who watch movies over and over again even though they’re “spoiled”, a lot of it has to do more with remembering that first OMG moment. If we never had that moment because of a spoiler, would we love the movie just as much?

By: Mir

Mir — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:26:13 +0000

Coming from a storytelling culture, my most beloved tales I’ve heard and told dozens of times. I love the familar story arc, caressing it as I tell - but each time I, whether teller or listener, am changed from my previous hearing. I am in a different mood, I’ve had a different experience, I am ready to hear a different subtext or have a different angle on the tale. They are never the same to me.

By: Tom

Tom — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 01:28:01 +0000

Hasn’t Homer’s Odyssey been around since appr 400 BC or thereabouts? Hmmm, so I’d give it another century or two before it is safe to talk about it in public.

By: Doug Hulick

Doug Hulick — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 23:15:15 +0000

If I already know the snap/twist/one-off ending of a work, I apporach it differently. Rather than go along for the ride, I find myself analyzing the groundwork as it is being laid. Is this foreshadowing? Is it effective? Ah-ha, I can see how they will be able to circle back to event X later so that the ending makes sense. Wiat, how dos this apply to what I know is coming later? And so on.

So while I agree that spoilers can be a drag in some instances, as a writer, I also see them as an opportunity to study how someone else is performing their craft and learn from it (or learn how to avoid their mistakes, as the case may be).

By: Marie Brennan

Marie Brennan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:12:42 +0000

I’ve watched the movie Apollo 13 more than a dozen times, and I end up on the edge of my seat every. single. time. It isn’t like I don’t know what’s going to happen — hell, it’s history; there was never any doubt in the first place. But the story invariably has me empathizing with the characters, who don’t know, and so it is on their behalf that I’m holding my breath.

Having said that, I think some stories in particular (like twist endings) do deserve to be encountered for the first time without warning, even if they retain their worth once you know the secret. I tend to think along those lines more than a “statute of limitations” — I love the late-70s TV show The Sandbaggers, and will under no circumstances talk about a certain plot point around anybody who hasn’t seen it, because I think everybody should have the chance to be punched in the gut by it. Whereas I’ll much more freely spoil points from more recent work, if their first-time impact is of a different sort.

By: Elias McClellan

Elias McClellan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:47:14 +0000

Ms. Alexander, I agree totally. I read the devine trilogy in community college, at 25. Most in my class had already read it. I had an idea where we would be headed; same with Shakespear. Frankly, it was the journey. The beauty within the language. I’ve re-read (new translations) each book at least once since then. When I taught school, everyone of my kids saw Harry Potter and almost every girl in my class was working on the books; go figure.

CDragon, I get what you’re saying about the magic of the moment. But truly, I wish somebody had told me what ‘Remains of the Day,’ was really about. The trailer sold me a ticket to a different movie than the one I saw. Same for ‘Million Dollar Baby’ don’t get me started on that mess with SL Jackson and J Moore.

Commitment-shy, I don’t watch first-run TV shows; Top Chef aside. After season-one, I waited for the end of ‘The Wire.’ So I’m waiting to rent/buy Battlestar Galatica on DVD. Thankfully, I read a spoiler about the grand finale. Truly, I would’ve been… very unhappy, had I invested what little time I have into a show that ended on that note. Just my humble opinion.

By: Alma Alexander

Alma Alexander — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 19:39:52 +0000

Uh - fingers faster than mind as usual - I was thinking of the more commonly accessible parts of the Odyssey being available for a couple of hundred years. The original, of course, is considerably older than that…

And Clothdragon - data point - I’ve seen “Sixth Sense” after I knew the “secret” and enjoyed it as a nice mystery movie - but then I really did twig onto the “secret” in the first five minutes of my first run at it, so in theory that was the first time I watched it knowing the “secret. All the clues are right there for those who want to see them, actually. So I’m curious if you DID find out that it mattered, for you…

By: Clothdragon

Clothdragon — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 13:41:54 +0000

I have to say that I’m glad I watched Sixth Sense before I knew… well… the secret.

Other than that, I can’t think of another movie or book where it’s been that big a deal for me. And though I LOVED Sixth Sense when I saw it years ago, I just realized that I haven’t watched it again since. It’s even in our dvd cabinet. Odd. I know I watched Mystery Men (that came out the same time) multiple times.

Now I’ll have to watch it again and see if it matters, if it’s still a good movie without the surprise — because basing a story on one thing to the point it would be ruined if you knew in advance just doesn’t seem like a good idea. But I usually watch/read to connect with other characters not find out a specific idea or who killed someone I never knew. And I’ll read the next book because I like the characters.