I hate spoilers (both the facts themselves and the people who disseminate them), especially when it comes to Harry Potter. It's one thing to ruin the ending of Star Wars: Episode III (Anakin goes to the Dark Side!), and quite another to ruin the end of the sixth Harry Potter book (Snape kills Dumbledore!). Harry Potter books, especially the last three, are taught and suspenseful tales with unexpected endings. This, coupled with their extreme popularity, make Harry Potter books a spoiler's dream.
This year, I know that digital copies of the book are already turning up on the internet. I'm not sure why people would want to try to spoil the ending of the book for fans. Then again, I'm also not sure why people egg houses. Or knock over snowmen. Or break the gate arm on the HCA trail. Is the immediate satisfaction of ruining something for someone else greater than the of reading the book? I would say no, but then again, I wouldn't try to get on national television holding a spoiler for the seventh book (WARNING: this link contains a possible spoiler - I personally think this guy was just trying to be a wise-ass, and didn't actually know anything, but you still might want to avoid watching it).
As I'm writing this, it's come to my attention that even the venerable New York Times has stooped to publishing spoilers, this time in the form of an early review of the book. This isn't a traditional spoiler (the goal is still to review - not ruin - the book), but it reveals several plot points I wanted to find out for myself, most notably the meaning of the title.
I've yet to meet a fan of the books who was also a spoiler. I don't know if spoilers are jealous that fans find something in Harry Potter that they don't, or whether they just want to destroy something that makes other people happy. Either way, I plan on avoiding spoilers (both facts and people) at all costs for the next two days, and I hope you do the same.
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3 comments:
it's interesting that you go off on people who spoil the ending of books, and then clearly spoil the ending of the sixth book yourself in this post. what if someone hadn't read the sixth yet?
Given that it's been two years and that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince was, like this book, a cultural phenomenon, I thought it would be safe to assume that anyone reading a Harry Potter blog would know the ending already. If I spoiled it for you, anonymous, then you have my sincere apologies.
I have to say that I agree that putting the spoiler for the sixth book out there is kind of like the exact thing you profess to not understand.
There are a *lot* of people who haven't read all of the books, let alone the 6th one, but who still want to, and will.
If you are sincerely sorry about possibly spoiling the ending for some people, I think you ought to edit you post to remove the spoiler.
P.S. Although I'm anonymous, I'm not the same anonymous as your first comment. :-)
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