Potterdammerung again: Public Service Announcement

[pegkerr]

A very irate ali_wildgoose reports:

PUBLIC SERVICE ANNOUNCEMENT

IF "HARRYPOOTER" FRIENDS YOU, DO NOT GO AND LOOK AT THEIR JOURNAL. IT IS A ^*&^*%@ GIANT SPOILER FOR HARRY POTTER.

Like me, she also recommends setting your comments as "friends-only" That troll also commented with spoilers to Ali's journal.

Comments

[buymeaclue.livejournal.com]

lol

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Wasn't the book released this past weekend? Do I have the schedule wrong?

B

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Nope. It's the movie that came out last week. The book is coming out at midnight this coming Friday (i.e., Friday/Saturday night).

But the problem is that the book has now been shipped and so unscrupulous people who have been able to get their hands on a copy (i.e., I suppose people like bookstore employees) have started to post spoilers to ruin it for fans, just like what happened last time. Some started posting these spoilers on LJ today.

I had the book spoiled for me three days before the last book was available for sale last time. I am determined to not let it happen to me this time.

[jimhines.livejournal.com]

Ah ... I wondered about that. I should have realized it had already shipped. Someone posted a link to the last chapter online, and I was trying to figure out how that could possibly be the real chapter.

Jackasses. Besides, anyone who's read the books at all closely knows that Snape turns into Darth Vader, and Dobby is secretly a Smurf.

[moony]

Someone on my flist said there's already copies in her Barnes & Noble.

I have to say, I'm REALLY glad I don't work for a bookstore right now.

*sits on her hands*

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Why? Why would you not want to read the book if you had access to it? Is there a benefit to waiting for release date?

B

[moony]

Well, there's the whole getting fired/possible jail time for cracking the pallet before the designated time. But there's also the whole I-want-to-read-it-at-the-same-time-as-my-friends thing, too. Being a part of something like this is, to me, 50% of the fun of Harry Potter.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Interesting.

B

[pegkerr.livejournal.com]

Why would you not want to read the book if you had access to it?

That's quite a bit different from "why wouldn't you want to read the book if you have access to it and then go and ruin the fun for thousands of strangers (who never did anything to hurt you) who only want to read the book the way that it's meant to be read (with the surprise unspoiled)?"

That's what happened last time. Someone posted a photograph of the critical page, with the critical phrase underlined, with no cut tag (so that there was no chance to avoid it: you took in the information with a mere glance), in found_objects, a non-Harry Potter community (so people weren't in the least bit expecting it), days before the book was due to be released, in order to spitefully and deliberately spoil the reading experience for as many people as possible.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Right. I remember the scan of the critical page. That impressed me: it's one thing to post a spoiler, but it's waaaaay better to post proof. (I'd be even more impressed if someone faked the typeface, layout, and text and posted a fake spoiler page.)

And yes, I understand that the only possible motivation to do this is malice.

B

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

But how do you know if a "spoiler" is real or not? Any idiot can make up a handful of plot points and post them on a webpage somewhere. Real or not? You don't know. (The person who posted a scan of several pages was more clever, of course.) So, if you don't know a spoiler is real, then you don't know if it is a spoiler.

I guess the real problem is that if the spoiler consists of seveal sentences and, as you're reading, you notice that the first few are exactly correct.

Interesting.

In any case, I'd love to hear a plot summary after you've read it. Your plot summary would probably be more interesting than the book itself, since you'll provide context as well as plot.

Good luck staying clean for the week.

B

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Here's my spoiler:

After some trouble with the irritating Dursleys, Harry arrives at Hogwarts. A new Defense Against the Dark Arts techer causes difficulties for him and his pals, Ron and Hermione. Some new magical objects and magical animals play a role in the looming threat. Quidditch happens, perhaps offstage or not very importantly. Christmas happens. There's a showdown with Voldemort, in which Snape proves ones and for all that he's one of the good guys. Harry triumphs. Somebody important dies, possibly several people. The end.

Someone tell me how I did.

B

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

I should have added: One of McGonnigal and Hagrid dies. One of Ron and Hermione dies. Dumbeldore remains dead, although he still interacts with Harry in the book.

I'm going off to mimic the book's typeface and layout now....

B

[ascian.livejournal.com]

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.

[minnehaha.livejournal.com]

Interesting. Makes sense, especially because it was visual as well as verbal.

On the other hand, I've been hearing Book 7 speculations for as long as it has been the next book. Maybe the solution is to read all the spoilers, so the overlapping effects of them all nullifies their cumulative effect.

B