Sunday, July 22, 2007

Spoiler?!

I’m frustrated. Furious. More than that, I’m enraged. I feel like killing somebody. And I’m surprised that some people have the audacity to show their stupidity where the whole nation can see them.

The thing is… I was reading the paper today when a headline of an article caught my eye. Really caught my eye. As you probably know, the last of the Harry Potter books have gone on sale. I haven’t bought it yet. If you read my previous posts you’ll also realise that I’ve only read the sixth novel recently. Since I read it so late, I’ve known who died in that book before reading it. Not anybody’s fault; I was having dinner with some friends when the subject of Harry Potter slipped into the conversation and somebody inadvertently mentioned the spoiler. Perhaps because we were really into it, that that person thought that everybody there had read it; and almost everybody had read it anyway. So it was alright, sort of. And she did apologise to me afterwards.

However, this time, it was not forgivable. The books were just on sale for a few days. Regardless of whether millions of people are reading it right now, or the fact that you’re covering the news of fans rushing to the bookstores to buy the books, you just don’t put a spoiler on the newspaper. And most definitely NOT on the title! You don’t say “Fans are [insert emotion here] because [insert spoiler here]”. This is not some kind of amateur journalism, this is one of the most widely read broadsheet paper in the nation! What was the writer thinking? In fact, what was the editor thinking? Gee, thanks. You just spoil the ending for thousands of people. Such professionalism.

Sigh… in some other countries they take spoilers seriously. The fact that a spoiler like that can be published in a major newspaper shows that the mentality of people, at least some of them, in this country is not mature enough, at least where books are concerned. I wish they’ll be bombarded with tons of letters of complaints. The least of the satisfaction that I can get.

Yaz.

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hehe..Telegraph put out the spoiler on the day the book was released. I read it because I don't know when I will get the opportunity to read the book.
Anyway, I think...though you know what the ending is going to be, you will still feel excited when reading the book itself. I don't know..but that's me. Hehe.

Anonymous said...

And sorry to hear that others had spoiled it for you.

yazid jay said...

Well, I suppose that's true. Unless it's some kind of a detective story, the most enjoyment is gotten out of the reading not just the ending itself.

Still, I hope to know as little as possible about the plot since I am going to get round to reading it, probably in a year or so when it is published in paperback and has become cheap. And if you think that's a long time, well, let's just say I have experienced a longer wait.

Anonymous said...

well, the publisher is not considering a reprint for the time being. So..yeah..it's going to be a long wait for you.