Spoiler warnings

[hedda62]

Over a piece of toast before heading out to the community garden (which I will do in just a moment) I read this story about spoilers in Sunday's Washington Post, which I guess counts as a spoiler in itself (much of the Sunday paper gets delivered on Saturday).

Warning before you click: contains spoilers for a number of TV shows you may not have watched. Also calls the spoiler epidemic that follows from adoption of new technology a "first world problem," which, you know, it totally is. But people have strong feelings about this sort of thing.

I tend to be spoiler-averse, though I'm not panicky about it and it depends on the context. I'm amazed and glad that I managed to remain mostly unspoiled about "Lost" until watching the remainder of it this spring (I did know about a few of the deaths, because you can't help seeing people's OH NOs all over the internet, but not the details, and not most of the plot). Which is part of why I try not to reveal its spoilers myself, so the remarkable number of people I know who haven't watched it can enjoy going ACK! just as I did if they so choose. But most of the time I recognize that if I'm watching a show years after it aired (or months, or days even) I'm going to hit some spoiler bumps, and sometimes (see "Angel") I just want to read a summary and get on with betaing people's fics. (Someday, penwiper26, I will watch the rest. Maybe while you're watching "Lost.")

So I try to remember to warn if discussing or writing fic for something other people may not have seen or read, whether for minor insignificant spoilers, spoilers that really matter, or spoilers that will be so incomprehensible they may not matter but you won't get anything out of reading the thing they're in. (A lot of things are in that last category, including the story I posted yesterday. Well, it's in categories two and three, I guess.)

I know some people care more than I do, and some much less. I'm also the sort who likes to approach book series or TV episodes in order, and I'd think that goes with wanting to avoid spoilers, although the two may not overlap completely. There's the jolt of discovery at important plot junctures, and then there's just wanting to learn about characters and happenings in a logical progression. Sometimes I can deal with "I know this character dies in season 3, but aside from that I want to view his arc as it's presented, with all the details that make him real and will make me regret him when he goes." And of course sometimes you want to anticipate big deaths and betrayals so they won't hurt so much. I certainly like going back and rereading/rewatching while knowing that the Big Reveal is coming, because foreshadowing's better after the fact. :)

The point of the article, I think, is that we're going to have to deal with this, more by getting used to be spoiled than by developing new etiquette for letting out secrets - though as usual the fan community is well ahead of the water cooler community in both these respects. I've done spoiler space and spoiler cuts and taking communities off the reading list, and I've also developed a quick-skimming gaze and a thicker skin, but in the end you just have to learn to be polite, tolerant and accepting, which is a good way to get through life in general. (Spoiler: we all die in the end, and it doesn't matter terribly much that you found out about Lady Sybil by reading the Health section.)

Comments

[philomytha]

I'm pretty laid back about spoilers because I find that What Will Happen is rarely my focus of attention when reading/watching things, so knowing that so-and-so dies doesn't make much difference to my enjoyment. Also even fairly detailed and comprehensive spoilers don't really replicate the experience of the story as a story, for me. The only time I seriously try to avoid spoilers is when people repeatedly say some particular thing is better unspoiled, like Code Name Verity was.

And yeah, the pleasure of rereading is that you don't have to worry about what may come and can settle down to enjoy the ride :-).

[hedda62]

Ah, that's interesting. And I know from previous conversation that you don't at all mind reading things out of order, so probably the two perspectives are related. I always do want to know What Will Happen - but preferably not ahead of time!

[mmegaera]

I have learned the hard way that Certain People who read my LJ/DW will jump down my throat with both feet if I so much as breathe anything that might possibly be construed as a spoiler, no matter how tiny.

My attitude is that if I was posting spoilers anywhere but my own virtual living room it would be different, but in my own space I will not be censored (or go to great elaborate efforts to warn people, either -- a simple "here be spoilers" is as far as I'm willing to go), thxmch. Which is what I tell them. Some of them have learned to see it my way. The others have left. And that's the way it is.

[hedda62]

I have been known to annoy people with spoilers in my actual living room, but yes, I agree, though I usually throw in a spoiler cut for the sake of diplomacy. Though I also sometimes post cloaked reactions that avoid spoilers but probably bother some people just because of tone and hinting, and I'm not willing to give up the fun of those.