In the days before OotP came out, I was looking at a Somethingawful.com photoshop contest for the most amusing 'Harry Potter and the...' cover 'shop and title.
One of them was entitled 'Harry Potter and the (CHARACTER) DIES!' with a picture of a phoenix for the cover art.
Even though it was a fake spoiler, it was stuck in my head the entire time I was reading. I kept waiting for that specific shoe to drop, and I had difficulty fully enjoying the book because my mind had partitioned off a little section entirely for watching for and analyzing the chances of that character's death.
The only thing I want to be thinking with the turn of each page is 'what happens next?!' not 'was that asshole right?!'
Even fake spoilers spoil things in their own way. That's why I never give 'joke spoilers' unless they're truly blatantly jokes (my favourite is Harry finding the last of the Horcruxes, and then he comes to an amicable agreement with Voldemort so they can keep going for another seven books), and I never let people tell me what they think is going on in a mysterious movie.
Those dangerous days are back again. I'm almost tempted to just unplug the internet and hook it back up once I've read book 7. Good luck to us all. Wands at the ready; people about to spoil are the one case where avada kedavra is actually forgivable.
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Date: 2007-07-16 07:48 pm (UTC)One of them was entitled 'Harry Potter and the (CHARACTER) DIES!' with a picture of a phoenix for the cover art.
Even though it was a fake spoiler, it was stuck in my head the entire time I was reading. I kept waiting for that specific shoe to drop, and I had difficulty fully enjoying the book because my mind had partitioned off a little section entirely for watching for and analyzing the chances of that character's death.
The only thing I want to be thinking with the turn of each page is 'what happens next?!' not 'was that asshole right?!'
Even fake spoilers spoil things in their own way. That's why I never give 'joke spoilers' unless they're truly blatantly jokes (my favourite is Harry finding the last of the Horcruxes, and then he comes to an amicable agreement with Voldemort so they can keep going for another seven books), and I never let people tell me what they think is going on in a mysterious movie.
Those dangerous days are back again. I'm almost tempted to just unplug the internet and hook it back up once I've read book 7. Good luck to us all. Wands at the ready; people about to spoil are the one case where avada kedavra is actually forgivable.