Spoilers & Narrative

Originally published at Now Is A Long Time Too. You can comment here or there.

I've been mystified for most of my life by the way in which people object to spoilers. And over the last couple of days, I've seen some fine examples of giving out, complaining, and outright temper tantrums over Serenity spoilers. It's becoming clear to me that other people don't watch films - or plays, series, novels, or anything else like that - in the same way I do. And, to be perfectly honest, I'm starting to think they're missing out.

I take on anything that has a narrative in a non-linear - or at least multi-dimensional - way. I sit there, and I suspend disbelief at the same time as I take note of everything. The order that elements arrive in my mind is not as important as the gestalt - and there's definitely a gestalt. I'll flip forward in a novel, then go back a few pages and read a segment again. I'll read the entire script of a movie - and two fan-written alternates - before I see it. I'll listen to a recording of a symphony before I go to hear it played live. I'll happily read up on the history of a set-designer before I see a play (ok, haven't done that last in years, but the principle's there).

There's the argument that the event should be arrived at without prejudice, so that you see it all as the author intended it. Which I have to label nonsense, because there is no work in existence that is perceived as the author intended. You can't do it. You enter any work with your own pre-conceived ideas, stereotypes, archetypes, and concepts. The tragic figure may be amusing to you. The comic relief may be tragic in your mind. The awe-inducing scene at the beginning may bore you. You may hate the theme music, and think it anachronistic, even as the author thinks it sets the scene perfectly.

And I have to ask, if the linear arrival of the elements in your mind is so important, what about preludes, cut-scenes, flashbacks, multiple points of view? There are plenty of fantastic books and films out there that tell you the ending in the first scene. The obsession with remaining spoiler-free, as far as I can see, does nothing but inhibit the enjoyment of the event itself, and give you all sorts of hassle in the process.

About the only place where I can see the argument for remaining spoiler free is the first-person experience - the videogame, the RPG, the LARP, where the very point is that you don't know what's happening next. In any other case, you reduce your experience of the event by not preparing for it.

Although as it happens, I don't yet know the spoilers for Serenity. I'm not going to go looking for them, because I've done my speculating and am now content to wait, but if someone tells me, I won't be in the least worried - and I'll be reading transcripts of Firefly and Buffy, and interviews with Joss and the crew between now and then.

Spoilers & Narrative

I've been mystified for most of my life by the way in which people object to spoilers. And over the last couple of days, I've seen some fine examples of giving out, complaining, and outright temper tantrums over Serenity spoilers. It's becoming clear to me that other people don't watch films - or plays, series, novels, or anything else like that - in the same way I do. And, to be perfectly honest, I'm starting to think they're missing out.

I take on anything that has a narrative in a non-linear - or at least multi-dimensional - way. I sit there, and I suspend disbelief at the same time as I take note of everything. The order that elements arrive in my mind is not as important as the gestalt - and there's definitely a gestalt. I'll flip forward in a novel, then go back a few pages and read a segment again. I'll read the entire script of a movie - and two fan-written alternates - before I see it. I'll listen to a recording of a symphony before I go to hear it played live. I'll happily read up on the history of a set-designer before I see a play (ok, haven't done that last in years, but the principle's there).

There's the argument that the event should be arrived at without prejudice, so that you see it all as the author intended it. Which I have to label nonsense, because there is no work in existence that is perceived as the author intended. You can't do it. You enter any work with your own pre-conceived ideas, stereotypes, archetypes, and concepts. The tragic figure may be amusing to you. The comic relief may be tragic in your mind. The awe-inducing scene at the beginning may bore you. You may hate the theme music, and think it anachronistic, even as the author thinks it sets the scene perfectly.

And I have to ask, if the linear arrival of the elements in your mind is so important, what about preludes, cut-scenes, flashbacks, multiple points of view? There are plenty of fantastic books and films out there that tell you the ending in the first scene. The obsession with remaining spoiler-free, as far as I can see, does nothing but inhibit the enjoyment of the event itself, and give you all sorts of hassle in the process.

About the only place where I can see the argument for remaining spoiler free is the first-person experience - the videogame, the RPG, the LARP, where the very point is that you don't know what's happening next. In any other case, you reduce your experience of the event by not preparing for it.

Although as it happens, I don't yet know the spoilers for Serenity. I'm not going to go looking for them, because I've done my speculating and am now content to wait, but if someone tells me, I won't be in the least worried - and I'll be reading transcripts of Firefly and Buffy, and interviews with Joss and the crew between now and then.