(no subject)

[badstar]

Okay, so I totally get the whole thing about not wanting people to spoil the ending for you...but I am getting a little irritated with seeing constant reminders everywhere of people to warn about spoilers and "you'd better not ruin it for me" and all that, as if people have nothing better to write about and the world will end or something. I actually saw somewhere (no, no one on my friends list) where someone threatened to never again speak to anyone who spoiled the ending for the book or movie (they didn't seem to be joking, though whether they are or not, there are people that would seriously do such a thing.) Maybe it's not the height of politeness to purposely spoil the ending of the story for people, but there are far worse transgressions that one can make. For serious. There's a point where it stops being fun and starts being...I dunno, a bit excessive.

I'm really starting to feel the return of the "I hate the very idea of Harry Potter" sentiment that I felt back when I actively refused to read the books or see the movies. Because I'm just so sick of hearing about it, much like I was then. That whole Lancaster YMCA triathlon making news in Hong Kong debacle just instilled a very active disinterest in me for several years.

Yeah, I like the books and the movies, they're cool. But oh my gawds folks, there are plenty of other books and movies that are just as good and better. Go obsess about some of those for a few minutes.

Ya know, I knew who died at the end of Half Blood Prince before I read it. Ya know what? It didn't ruin the book for me...there was so much more to it than OMG! *name* died! If I happen to inadvertently find out about the ending of Deathly Hallows before I get to read it, it's not gonna spoil it for me and I sure as hell am not going to quit talking to someone over it.

Like I said, I like the books...but maybe now that the last book is coming out, the world can find something else to obsess over.

Comments

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

I think the reason that people are so extreme about it is because there _are_ people out there who get off on ruining it for the others. I think it's perfectly reasonable to explain that you will not take it as a joke if someone does that to you, even by use of exaggeration.

And frankly, I think the only reason someone would purposefully spoil this is to be an ass. Asses deserve to not be spoken to. It's not a question of whether the book itself is worth it, it's about disrespecting someone's requests. For you, it doesn't matter so much - more power to you. For me, it actually doesn't matter if I seek out the spoiler, but it can also really annoy me if I trip upon it by accident. And if someone spoils it, or anything else, _just_ to annoy me and get a reaction, then I'd consider them the sort of person who does things just to make me feel bad. That category does not intersect with the category of people I think of as friends.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

Conversely, I think that the main reason that there are some people who go out of their way to spoil it for people is because there are so many people that are that obsessed with it.

I'm not saying it's right and that they should do it. But when people go on and on about how people better not spoil it for them or they're going to be so pissed off, it's as good as a dare. I dare you not to spoil the story for me.

Sure, if there wasn't the massive media hype and all that stuff, there would be a few people who would still do such a thing...but it would be a very small percentage. Look at other fandoms. I was one of many people who were climbing walls for months waiting for Jacqueline Carey's most recent book, she has an extremely popular series going, but it doesn't get the huge media hype that Harry Potter does (it also doesn't have the same age 9-99 appeal, movies and six-squillion-dollar merchandise industry behind it.). Nowhere did I ever see people going on and on and on before hand about how they're going to be sooooo mad if someone posts unwarned spoilers, and I think I *might* have seen one person posting a "spoiler" which turned out to be completely made up anyway. Some people got annoyed because the Barnes and Noble website posted a blurb that included a fairly major plot point which could be construed as a spoiler, but other than some grumbling, people didn't have a massive cow about it.

One feeds the other. Similiarly, I am pretty sure that HP wouldn't get the bookbanning targeting that it does if not for its hype. But everyone and their dog is obsessed with it, so it's a huge target.

[leiacat.livejournal.com]

Perhaps. But, while I could really do without the hype about a lot of things, from TV shows I don't watch to sports I don't follow, I am never compelled to demonstrate that by making it less fun for others. I dare say, the drive to do that requires a bit of meanness of personality that I don't appreciate. (Threaten to, sure, it can be taken in fun. But to actually do it is pure unadulterated jerkdom.)

As for the banning, I'm pretty sure it's the other way around - there was no hype at first. If it hadn't been banned by someone, it'd have lived the small unnoticed life of the hundreds of other good juvvie fantasy series. A heck of a lot of people picked it up to see what the fuss was about when the ban got on the news. The merchandizing and the movies and the hype happened because enough people wanted it, not vice versa - of all the recent hypes, I dare say this one is the least artificial.

As fond as I might be of Carey, though, I think the fandom-comparison does not quite stand.

[fuego.livejournal.com]

Perhaps. But, while I could really do without the hype about a lot of things, from TV shows I don't watch to sports I don't follow, I am never compelled to demonstrate that by making it less fun for others.

I agree, though? I don't know of any TV show/book/movie/otherwise that has he same constant hype as the Harry Potter franchise. It's...incessant. As I said before, I thoroughly believe that there's a point where it departs from fun and becomes a whole lot of not fun for a lot of people. If it was more confined to HP websites and communities and places that I'd have to go looking for it to be exposed to it, it wouldn't be a big deal...but it drives me crazy that I can't join most fantasy communities on LJ because I have no desire to pollute my friends list with fanfic (though fanfic is a separate annoyance for me, it's pretty easy to avoid most of the time, therefore becomes a nonissue.) and everywhere I look are people posting twenty different sorting hat memes, and there are ads on every website that I visit and every store that I walk into, and on every newscast and....

As fond as I might be of Carey, though, I think the fandom-comparison does not quite stand.

One would be hard-pressed to find a fandom that does compare to HP. Other than maybe Lord Of The Rings, I can't think of any, and while LOTR has its obsessives, it's a lot more low-key and not in my face everywhere I turn- even when the movies were being released in the theaters, it wasn't all that bad. Carey was the one example of a book that was widely-anticipated, yet practically no-hype that I follow closely enough to be able to point to it and say "popular book, but people are reasonable about it".