My high school English teacher posted a link on facebook yesterday to this article that claimed that knowing spoilers to movies and books doesn't actually spoil the story. They actually did a research study where they gave the ending to people at the beginning (without the people knowing it) and then had them rate how much they liked the story, and compared it to how much people liked the story when they read it the "correct" way.
Supposedly people rated the story higher if they had the ending first.
To which I say WHAT THE HECK IS WRONG WITH YOU?!!??!?!?!
Ahem.
Now, I realize that if you read a story all about a guy's daring escape from prison and then reach the end to find out it was all in his head and now he is being hung, that you are going to be dissappointed and upset...BUT THAT'S THE POINT. That's the experience the author intended. If he wanted you to know it was all a dream from the beginning he would have told you at the beginning. If you want the experience of reading it that way, then re-read it now that you know. Then you have both experiences. But if you read it knowing the ending first, you'll only ever get one experience from the story. You can't un-know the ending.
I read for the experience, not merely the joy of the written word. Who does that? The experience is not only a roller-coaster of uncertainty and expectation, but also reveals things about you, allowing you to learn and grow in a safe environment, preventing you from having to live through unpleasant events to get the same information about yourself.
For example: Harry Potter. (Of course.) If you started the series knowing Snape is a good guy you would merely scoff at the characters for thinking otherwise. You would never learn your own ability to jump to conclusions and misjudge people. You would never experience the horror of being betrayed by someone you trusted because instead you assumed the likely suspect was the culprit. You would never feel the fervor of protecting an innocent person that everyone else has condemned, or the tension of "maybe I am wrong but I am going to choose to trust this person anyway." You would never know the triumph of being proved right, the despair of the proof coming too late. And you would be cheated out of the ultimate revelation that love changes even the most hated people. You wouldn't gain those experiences....unless you had to actually live through them, which would be most unpleasant. My life is richer because of years spent waiting for the truth about Snape to be revealed.
Or take The Sixth Sense. I spent the whole movie on the verge of realizing he was dead, and when it was finally blatant I was filled with unnamable emotion at the mix of surprise and omg-I-knew-it-but-not-really. It's the only reason I liked it. A story merely about a kid who sees dead people and has a dead person to confide in is kind of stupid.
Darth Vader is Luke's long-dead father? Verbal is Keyser Soze? Norman Bates is his mother? The second time you watch these movies (knowing the end) the stories are still good, but not as good as the first time.
I watched Planet of the Apes already knowing the ending and it was only meh, but talk to the people who didn't know and they will cry "DAMN YOU SALAZAR!!!!" with such fervor you think they were Charleton Heston's body double.
So again, I must say: What the heck is wrong with these people???
No comments:
Post a Comment