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Meditations on "spoilers"
Oct. 6th, 2005 08:01 pmSeeing as the subject has been broached, I suppose it’s about time I posted this one publicly.
I think fandom needs a new word.
Because the word spoiler is far too specific to cover what a large number of people seem to want, which is total information blackout.
A spoiler, traditionally, is information about some pivotal plot or character development, given out before the source material is openly available or very soon after: a character death, if it is of significance and not just the week’s Ensign Redshirt; a character’s past, if some mystery has surrounded it; some significant alteration in behavior or, more than that, the explanation for that alteration. This is information whose concealment from the reader/viewer plays some significant part in the story. Trivial or general information does not constitute a spoiler. No, really, it doesn’t. Fight the brainwashing! Reclaim your common sense!
Ahem. *pulls self together*
Thus (to take an example whose statute of limitations has run out) in the first Harry Potter book the fact that Hermione’s parents are dentists is not a spoiler, nor is the fact that Harry is an orphan. The fact that Harry’s mother died to protect him is a spoiler… or would have been, lo these several years ago before everyone and their cousin’s dog heard it on the Today Show.
(There’s another post about my opinion of the Harry Potter Industry, and the way they’ve encouraged pathological spoiler frenzy in the HP fandom, but that is, as I say, another post.)
So, for example.
Not Spoiler: There’s a tough character named Thusandsuch.
Spoiler: There’s this character, Thusandsuch, and he almost kills the hero’s girlfriend but she gets saved at the last minute.
Not Spoiler: We find out more about Soandso’s past.
Spoiler: We find out that Soandso is really the child of Deity X.
Not Spoiler: Y’s loyalties are ambiguous.
Spoiler: Y starts on side X, switches to side Z and winds up making his own side M. Maybe because he keeps losing.
If it could reasonably be expected to appear in the jacket blurb, supposing the source text were a book, or in the Next Week On, supposing it were a television series, it is not a spoiler. (I don’t include movie trailers since those seem to run more to actual spoilers lately.)
Note of interest: in the current, hair-triggered atmosphere of many fandoms, it is not uncommon for a not-spoiler to be identified as a spoiler by people who have already read/viewed the book/episode/movie in question. This appears to be an honest, if not particularly bright, mistake. Because the person who has already read/viewed knows exactly what the not-spoiler refers to, they immediately assume that the post itself gave that information away, and do not pause to reflect that it was their own prior knowledge that supplied the spoiler-grade details. The ironic twist is that such a not-spoiler only becomes a spoiler if the reader already knows the details of the characters or events alluded to… in which case it is not, of course, a spoiler.
Moving along, though.
Many fans like to avoid spoilers. This is understandable.
However, many fans also like to avoid any information whatsoever. This is also understandable, I suppose, especially if you worry about the people you’re talking to slipping up in their enthusiasm. The trouble comes when this desire is expressed as a desire to not read spoilers. Because while that statement is true, it does not effectively convey the extent of their desire for ignorance.
The most long-standing and well-recognized expression of wishing to avoid spoilers is “Don’t tell me how it ends”. And then there’s the next level which is “Don’t tell me anything!”. The distinction between spoiler-free and blackout is a useful one to keep, and trying to make “spoiler” count for absolutely everything just makes for extra confusion and ire.
Some people like knowing everything; some people like knowing the basics; and some people like knowing nothing. Fandom needs to learn how to a) tell the difference and b) say which one they want.
And then, if we’re lucky, people will stop hollering “That’s a spoiler!” when what they really mean is “That’s information!”. If the comm rules say blackout cut, rather than spoiler cut, then that may, at least, take care of the instances of people innocently posting a not-spoiler only to be belabored for a crime they did not, in fact, commit.
As for the idjits who knowingly post spoilers and just can’t be bothered to figure out how to make an lj cut, well they’re a lost cause anyway.
I think fandom needs a new word.
Because the word spoiler is far too specific to cover what a large number of people seem to want, which is total information blackout.
A spoiler, traditionally, is information about some pivotal plot or character development, given out before the source material is openly available or very soon after: a character death, if it is of significance and not just the week’s Ensign Redshirt; a character’s past, if some mystery has surrounded it; some significant alteration in behavior or, more than that, the explanation for that alteration. This is information whose concealment from the reader/viewer plays some significant part in the story. Trivial or general information does not constitute a spoiler. No, really, it doesn’t. Fight the brainwashing! Reclaim your common sense!
Ahem. *pulls self together*
Thus (to take an example whose statute of limitations has run out) in the first Harry Potter book the fact that Hermione’s parents are dentists is not a spoiler, nor is the fact that Harry is an orphan. The fact that Harry’s mother died to protect him is a spoiler… or would have been, lo these several years ago before everyone and their cousin’s dog heard it on the Today Show.
(There’s another post about my opinion of the Harry Potter Industry, and the way they’ve encouraged pathological spoiler frenzy in the HP fandom, but that is, as I say, another post.)
So, for example.
Not Spoiler: There’s a tough character named Thusandsuch.
Spoiler: There’s this character, Thusandsuch, and he almost kills the hero’s girlfriend but she gets saved at the last minute.
Not Spoiler: We find out more about Soandso’s past.
Spoiler: We find out that Soandso is really the child of Deity X.
Not Spoiler: Y’s loyalties are ambiguous.
Spoiler: Y starts on side X, switches to side Z and winds up making his own side M. Maybe because he keeps losing.
If it could reasonably be expected to appear in the jacket blurb, supposing the source text were a book, or in the Next Week On, supposing it were a television series, it is not a spoiler. (I don’t include movie trailers since those seem to run more to actual spoilers lately.)
Note of interest: in the current, hair-triggered atmosphere of many fandoms, it is not uncommon for a not-spoiler to be identified as a spoiler by people who have already read/viewed the book/episode/movie in question. This appears to be an honest, if not particularly bright, mistake. Because the person who has already read/viewed knows exactly what the not-spoiler refers to, they immediately assume that the post itself gave that information away, and do not pause to reflect that it was their own prior knowledge that supplied the spoiler-grade details. The ironic twist is that such a not-spoiler only becomes a spoiler if the reader already knows the details of the characters or events alluded to… in which case it is not, of course, a spoiler.
Moving along, though.
Many fans like to avoid spoilers. This is understandable.
However, many fans also like to avoid any information whatsoever. This is also understandable, I suppose, especially if you worry about the people you’re talking to slipping up in their enthusiasm. The trouble comes when this desire is expressed as a desire to not read spoilers. Because while that statement is true, it does not effectively convey the extent of their desire for ignorance.
The most long-standing and well-recognized expression of wishing to avoid spoilers is “Don’t tell me how it ends”. And then there’s the next level which is “Don’t tell me anything!”. The distinction between spoiler-free and blackout is a useful one to keep, and trying to make “spoiler” count for absolutely everything just makes for extra confusion and ire.
Some people like knowing everything; some people like knowing the basics; and some people like knowing nothing. Fandom needs to learn how to a) tell the difference and b) say which one they want.
And then, if we’re lucky, people will stop hollering “That’s a spoiler!” when what they really mean is “That’s information!”. If the comm rules say blackout cut, rather than spoiler cut, then that may, at least, take care of the instances of people innocently posting a not-spoiler only to be belabored for a crime they did not, in fact, commit.
As for the idjits who knowingly post spoilers and just can’t be bothered to figure out how to make an lj cut, well they’re a lost cause anyway.
