Why I Love Spoilers
A spoiler is an element of a disseminated summary or description of any piece of fiction that reveals any plot elements which threaten to give away important details.
-Wikipedia.org
When I'm on Goodreads or IMDb and I see the little precautionary "SPOILERS!" warning at the beginning of a summary, I get a thrill. I love knowing what I'm getting myself into. Partially because it helps me discern if what I'm about to read or watch is worth my time, and partially because I love imagining and reliving potential plot moments over and over again in my head. For me, spoilers don't spoil anything. They give me something to look forward to. The anticipation of when something important is going to happen is way more exciting for me than the anticipation of if something important is going to happen.
It's not that I dislike surprises. I love surprises! In fact, knowing spoilers and being preoccupied with thinking about what exciting thing is going to happen often leads me to being more surprised by the little things I hadn't anticipated or known about ahead of time.
I remember the first time I heard that my friend G's grandma wouldn't start reading a book until she'd read the last page. I thought she was insane, disgracing the sacrament of a book. But then I thought about it, and decided I actually liked the idea. I don't usually read the very last page of something, I'm not that specific, but when I pick up a book at the library, I don't just read the flyleaf. I usually read the first few sentences, and I definitely flip through the rest of the book trying to spot key words or snatches of dialogue. In school we always learned that the climax of a piece of literature usually occurs about 3/4 of the way through, so I'll often turn in a book to where I think that point might be. I love catching a glimpse of something exciting and intriguing, it makes me want to read the rest of the book up until that point to understand why that exciting thing is happening and if it's really as important as it seems to be. When I'm watching a TV show, I'll usually look up the list of episodes from that season and read the summaries for all of them so I know when a particularly pivotal episode is going to be coming up. Then I spend all the episodes up to it thinking about how exciting it's going to be when it finally happens!!!!! Maybe I'm crazy and weird for loving to know when all the vital plot points of a story are going to happen, or maybe it's something in my nature. I love stories, I love what makes a good story, I love writing the exciting parts of a story first and filling the rest in later, and I translate that same love to my watching and reading experience.
There's just something so thrilling about knowing what's to come, and getting closer and closer to it. It's like anticipating Christmas! Which, of course, is also at the forefront of my mind right now. Only one more week of classes, then finals, which I'm not too worried about, and then home again home again. Isn't that such a great spoiler?? That I'll be home soon.
Have a wonderful (or at least not too stressful) week.
-VaughnDL
-Wikipedia.org
When I'm on Goodreads or IMDb and I see the little precautionary "SPOILERS!" warning at the beginning of a summary, I get a thrill. I love knowing what I'm getting myself into. Partially because it helps me discern if what I'm about to read or watch is worth my time, and partially because I love imagining and reliving potential plot moments over and over again in my head. For me, spoilers don't spoil anything. They give me something to look forward to. The anticipation of when something important is going to happen is way more exciting for me than the anticipation of if something important is going to happen.
It's not that I dislike surprises. I love surprises! In fact, knowing spoilers and being preoccupied with thinking about what exciting thing is going to happen often leads me to being more surprised by the little things I hadn't anticipated or known about ahead of time.
I remember the first time I heard that my friend G's grandma wouldn't start reading a book until she'd read the last page. I thought she was insane, disgracing the sacrament of a book. But then I thought about it, and decided I actually liked the idea. I don't usually read the very last page of something, I'm not that specific, but when I pick up a book at the library, I don't just read the flyleaf. I usually read the first few sentences, and I definitely flip through the rest of the book trying to spot key words or snatches of dialogue. In school we always learned that the climax of a piece of literature usually occurs about 3/4 of the way through, so I'll often turn in a book to where I think that point might be. I love catching a glimpse of something exciting and intriguing, it makes me want to read the rest of the book up until that point to understand why that exciting thing is happening and if it's really as important as it seems to be. When I'm watching a TV show, I'll usually look up the list of episodes from that season and read the summaries for all of them so I know when a particularly pivotal episode is going to be coming up. Then I spend all the episodes up to it thinking about how exciting it's going to be when it finally happens!!!!! Maybe I'm crazy and weird for loving to know when all the vital plot points of a story are going to happen, or maybe it's something in my nature. I love stories, I love what makes a good story, I love writing the exciting parts of a story first and filling the rest in later, and I translate that same love to my watching and reading experience.
There's just something so thrilling about knowing what's to come, and getting closer and closer to it. It's like anticipating Christmas! Which, of course, is also at the forefront of my mind right now. Only one more week of classes, then finals, which I'm not too worried about, and then home again home again. Isn't that such a great spoiler?? That I'll be home soon. Have a wonderful (or at least not too stressful) week.
-VaughnDL
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