Recently, I’ve been thinking a lot about plots, and spoilers thereof… Be warned: This post may contain mild/vague spoilers of things that have been around for many years. Nothing huge. Anyway, continuing…
So I’m taking this unfortunate film class that is regrettably made up mostly of film MA students. I’m sorry to offend you if you happen to be a film MA students, but this class has pretty much prejudiced me against anyone academically interested in film forever, even though it’s the fourth film class I’ve taken in college. Obviously, I’ve been dutifully chronicling my feelings on the subject…
But I digress.
A couple weeks ago, in that wonderful ( 
) class, we were talking about whether we preferred to do the readings before or after watching the movies. I was saying how I prefer reading after the movie, because that way I don’t accidentally read any spoilers. And this grad student ( 
) replied that she didn’t think that plot details were important to the experience of viewing a film.
The second event that got me thinking about plot and spoilers thereof was my first reading of Ender’s Game, which I finished on Wednesday. Never having heard anything at all about the book’s storyline, the twist ending was like an awesome slap in the face–I was totally shocked, and it took the book from good to great. The same thing happened when I watched Dr. Horrible–I was mildly pleased by it until the end, which hit me like a ton of bricks because I wasn’t expecting it. 
As you must know if you’ve ever even so much as glanced at this blog before, I’m kind of obsessed with Harry Potter, and I love Buffy. But my enjoyment of both of those fantastic, amazing series were slightly dampened by spoilers.
Of course, just hearing that “someone was going to die” in any given HP book didn’t ruin it in the slightest, but when those “leaks” did come out before books were released, I would end up reading the books with a little nagging feeling in the back of my mind, just waiting for someone to die. With Buffy it was a little more extreme, because I kept accidentally (because of my own stupidity, of course) seeing small spoilers online.
And that’s not even starting on the huge Final Fantasy VII spoiler that screwed with my youthful gaming experience.
Anyway, every time (something happens that I already knew/suspected), I feel like something was missing: the SLAP that I talked about before.
Reading/watching/consuming a lot of plot-heavy things has reintroduced me to the importance of consuming something the way it would have originally been consumed–without knowing anything about it beforehand. And having a really GREAT experience of reading something like some sort of culture-virgin (a la my reading of Ender’s Game), it just reinforces my regret about knowing things about other books/movies/games/etc.
So basically, I totally disagree with the obnoxious film student in my obnoxious class. Plot is important. And knowledge of the plot in advance can, if extreme enough, ruin the experience altogether. I guess that’s why they call them “spoilers”…
Hear hear!!! Stick it to those assholes. Any discipline in which disagreeing with popular wisdom is more important than whether said wisdom might be true is not worth anyone’s time.
The whole Twilight series has been given away to me because of loud mouths on the net (mostly on the Myspace bumper stickers app, which I was addicted to) so I’m really not in a huge hurry to read the the last 2 books because I already know how it ends.
Damn people…
BAAHAHAHA
I love that person’s totally assy pretentious quote “willfully obtuse”
Okay, bro, what Ebert and Roeper review did you steal that shit from? HAHA
I love stuff like that – they are so confident they know everything
Sounds like your film class is full of pretentious prats!
I agree with you about spoilers. Even if you don’t know who’s going to die when someone die it’s not a surprise.
The worst spoiler I ever got was when my friend was messing with me because I didn’t want to hear any spoilers about the last HP book and told me “Harry Potter is a horcrux!”. She probably didn’t think it was something important since she never read Harry Potter but like you know it’s like the most important thing in the plot! I was so mad!
Oh and you asked about my hair colour in the photos. Yes, the reddish blonde is my natural colour.
Oh dear, I hope I am never that pretentious when I do my MA. It sounds like some of those students are doing it to sounds better rather that knowing what they are talking about.
That grad student makes me want to hurt things. I too would want to see the film first, so I understood what the reading was about. Why would you watch the subject you are studying after hearing what people think about it. It’s silly. I suppose plot details may not be important to some students, those who study the aesthetics, but in my opinion they are vitially important to the meaning of a film (and why certain aesthetics are done the way they are) Can I hit her now please.
When it came to Harry Potter I HATED spoilers, it ruins the surprise. I never want to be spoiled when I am reading a book. TV shows though, I don’t really mind spoilers for those, I actively seek them out. I’m not sure why I have a difference there.
I think I may add a spoiler warning to all my book blogs now, after reading this. You make a good point.
Screw them, a lot of college students are nothing but hot air. Especially in the honors classes. They’re only “smart” because they’re not afraid to talk. If they throw enough words out there, it’ll eventually sound like they know something. They dazzle you with big words and most of the time people don’t really call them out. Plot is important. It adds to the experience, increases the drama and anticipation, and when done right makes the climax so much more rewarding.
Plot is not important to the viewing of a film? Wait, what? I always thought plot was the biggest reason people watch films. Apparently, I’ve been doing it wrong. Sigh… I can’t stand pretentiousness.
Luckily, nothing was ever spoiled for me in Harry Potter, mainly because I’m so in love with the series that I refused to expose myself to the rest of the world as much as possible until I’d finished the latest book.
I did accidentally spoil the first season of Dexter for myself, though. Avoiding spoilers can be a pain, and I totally know how you feel about being deprived of the SLAP feeling. I love the SLAP feeling. Please don’t take it away from me, world!
I feel so lucky to have avoided having FFVII spoiled for me. It seems like everyone else I’ve talked to knew about it beforehand. For the record, I cried my eyes out when it happened.
Wow, long comment is long.
Oh my GOD there’s no hate left in me for those pricks. I know the exact type of douchebag you’re talking about, but I’ve never had to sit through a class with them because I go to a cheap, shitty college. Basically, they love to argue. So my advice is to just never have an opinion around them, or they will argue for the alternative side. You: “Checkers is a boring game.” Them: “Checkers is a respectable game with a rich history. In fact, it is more of an art form… blah blah blah”
At least the semester’s finally almost over
FF VII I cried when Aeris died. I mean, here I was using her in my party for this entire disk and all of a sudden Sephroth comes out nowhere and stabs her. It was the first time in a video game I was so attached to the characters, though it was also my first RPG so it holds a very special place in my heart.
Hmmm, in a way I do like to know the plot of a movie, but NOT the whole plot. I just want to know what a movie is about. I guess I’m more into ‘teasers. I think you can compare it to reading the back cover of a book and contemplating if you want to buy the book or not.
With some movies I don’t really mind knowing much of the plot, because when I watch the movie I just very interested in how it’s executed … how it was translated in the movie. I guess that’s why I don’t have much problems when it comes to cliché storylines or plots. In movies it’s also about how it’s portrayed.
Uhh I hope I don’t sound like that grad student *eeeep* Maybe I’m somewhere in the middle. I love it when movies surprise me, but when knowing the plot I’m simply interested in how it’s portrayed. There are just too many movies I’ve seen of which I already knew much of the plot, but I still enjoyed the movie very very much.
But when it comes to books or videogames… media where you actually ‘actively explore’ the storyline. Knowing too much about the plot can truly spoil all the fun.