{"id":15113,"date":"2009-07-02T15:34:13","date_gmt":"2009-07-02T21:34:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/?p=15113"},"modified":"2009-07-02T15:34:19","modified_gmt":"2009-07-02T21:34:19","slug":"spoiler-alerts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2009\/07\/02\/spoiler-alerts.html","title":{"rendered":"Spoiler Alerts"},"content":{"rendered":"

Kate<\/a> shares a nice article on “spoiler warnings<\/a>” from Tor.com.<\/p>\n

\n

I understand the need for spoiler warnings and dislike the necessity. I\u2019m not quite sure who came up with the idea, but I\u2019d like both to thank and smack them. Thank, because it\u2019s kept me from finding out secrets I didn\u2019t want revealed. Smack, because there\u2019s something inherently absurd with thinking you can read a review of a book or film without something getting revealed. I mean, come on. It\u2019s a review<\/em>. <\/p>\n

[Don\u2019t know all there is to know about the Spoiler Game.] <\/p>\n

It\u2019s a simple enough thing to add a warning, and I almost always do. But there\u2019s a part of me that, when adding it, feels like a hypocrite. I wrote something and now I\u2019m warning you not to read it? Yeah, right.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

That’s a little goofy. There are, of course, reviews (the most common occurance) and there are reviews. If I am hyper-sensitive to being spoiled on a movie, I skip all reviews. If I’m less sensive, I might take a look, and avoid those reviews that are kind enough to provide spoiler warnings. Once I’ve seen the movie, then I’m actually kind of interested in those spoiler reviews.<\/p>\n

\n

A while back, John Scalzi proposed a statute of limitations<\/a> on spoiler warnings, as follows:<\/p>\n

Television:<\/strong> One week (because it\u2019s generally episodic, and that\u2019s how long you have until the next episode)
Movies<\/strong>: One year (time enough for everyone to see it in the theaters, on DVD and on cable)
Books:<\/strong> Five years (because books don\u2019t reach nearly as many people at one time)<\/p>\n

I think that\u2019s a fine system, but it\u2019s as arbitrary as anything else to do with spoilers. If a book has been out a hundred years and a faithful film adaptation is released this month, how much can you reveal about the film without warning? <\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Scalzi’s system is actually pretty good — and I say that as someone who often slips multiple weeks behind on TV (the DVR and the DVD season set are challenging this rule). And in the case of the question, the counter-question is, how likely is the person involved to know the book vs. the movie? I mean, an adaptation of Little Women<\/em>, if faithful, is unlikely to hold any surprises for people (I’m presuming that most people have either read the book (or seen another adaptation) or have been acculturated to the big plot elements in passing, so far as plot goes. On the other hand, Rose in Bloom<\/em> by the same author might less familiar and the big revelation in final chapter that the axe murderer is really Kindly Aunt Bess could be considered a spoiler to movie-goers.<\/p>\n

<\/div>\n

The article (there’s more in the same vein) is a nice review of the issues, though it doesn’t break any ground that people (including me) have debated on the subject for year. “Caveat lector <\/em>and don’t be a jerk” sum it all up pretty well. Sort of like life — be polite, but don’t assume that others will be.<\/p>\n

Or, as another rule of thumb, if you find yourself saying, “I can’t wait to see your reaction to seeing\/reading\/hearing X,” then maybe you should hesitate before telling them about X in advance (or even that there is <\/em>an X), since the build-up and reveal<\/a> is much the fun and impact of such a thing. <\/p>\n

On the other hand, I’m probably oversensitive to the matter, as my friends will well-appreciate (I can hear your eyes rolling, guys).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Kate shares a nice article on “spoiler warnings” from Tor.com. I understand the need for spoiler warnings and dislike the necessity. I\u2019m not quite sure who came up with the idea, but I\u2019d like both to thank and smack them. Thank, because it\u2019s kept me from finding out secrets I didn\u2019t want revealed. Smack, because … Continue reading “Spoiler Alerts”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3,36,41,40],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15113","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-blogging","category-media-books","category-media-movies","category-media-tv"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2009\/07\/usual-suspects.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":132386,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/19\/a-good-pretty-spoiler-free-rogue-one-review.html","url_meta":{"origin":15113,"position":0},"title":"A good, pretty-spoiler-free "Rogue One" review","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 19-Dec-16 10:35am","format":false,"excerpt":"I'm still working up my full review (which will likely have spoilers, because it's hard to talk in depth about the movie without them), but Scalzi manages to not go into anything that isn't already in the trailers and other marketing material, and makes some good points about how Disney\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129230,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/20\/a-short-non-spoiler-review-of-star-wars-the-force-awakens.html","url_meta":{"origin":15113,"position":1},"title":"A short, non-spoiler review of "Star Wars: The Force Awakens"","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 20-Dec-15 1:26am","format":false,"excerpt":"A worthy successor, with modern sensibilities and technology and technique, to the original trilogy. Not perfect, but quite satisfying, and a lot of fun. My hat's off to you, Mr Abrams.(We ended up, perforce, seeing it in 3D, which was done well -- not essential, but a nice add.)More to\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/image25-1050x7005B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/image25-1050x7005B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/image25-1050x7005B15D.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]},{"id":132290,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2016\/12\/13\/a-gritty-star-wars-tale.html","url_meta":{"origin":15113,"position":2},"title":"A "gritty" Star Wars tale","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 13-Dec-16 12:23pm","format":false,"excerpt":"Yes, the review is spoiler-free, aside from the broadest strokes of what it's about and a cursory look at the characters. And it sounds just like the Star Wars movie I'm looking for.Waiting for Sunday eagerly ... Originally shared by +The Disney Blog: \"Rogue One: A Star Wars Story\" is\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":146128,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2019\/07\/07\/a-non-spoiler-spider-man-far-from-home-quick-review.html","url_meta":{"origin":15113,"position":3},"title":"A non-spoiler “Spider-Man: Far from Home” quick review","author":"***Dave","date":"Sun 7-Jul-19 10:24pm","format":false,"excerpt":"A fun movie, very Spidey, with some interesting themes layered in","rel":"","context":"In "Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)"","block_context":{"text":"Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU)","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/media\/franchises\/marvel-cinematic-universe"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/spider-man-far-from-home-poster.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/spider-man-far-from-home-poster.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/spider-man-far-from-home-poster.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/spider-man-far-from-home-poster.jpg?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/07\/spider-man-far-from-home-poster.jpg?resize=1050%2C600&ssl=1 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":133622,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2017\/06\/06\/wonder-woman-as-disney-princess.html","url_meta":{"origin":15113,"position":4},"title":"*"Wonder Woman" as Disney Princess?","author":"***Dave","date":"Tue 6-Jun-17 4:42pm","format":false,"excerpt":"An interesting article (FULL OF SPOILERS) about the parallels -- and differences -- between Diana's story and the typical Disney princess, esp. in more recent years. To be honest, though, it's difficult for me to decide if the similarities are accurate, or simply indicative more general story-telling tropes that WW\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":129118,"url":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/2015\/12\/14\/omg-star-wars-force-awakens-spoiler-script-page-leak-not-really.html","url_meta":{"origin":15113,"position":5},"title":"OMG STAR WARS FORCE AWAKENS SPOILER SCRIPT PAGE LEAK! (Not really.)","author":"***Dave","date":"Mon 14-Dec-15 5:27pm","format":false,"excerpt":"But it would be awesome if it were so. Originally shared by +Asbj\u00f8rn Grandt: The Force Awakens Script page leaked \u00a0 View on Google+","rel":"","context":"In "~PlusPosts"","block_context":{"text":"~PlusPosts","link":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/category\/blogging\/plusposts"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/SW7ScriptPage.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/SW7ScriptPage.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/12\/SW7ScriptPage.jpgimgmax%3D660.jpg?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x"},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15113","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15113"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15113\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15113"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15113"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hill-kleerup.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15113"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}