Juho Pohjalainen's Blog: Pankarp - Posts Tagged "jekyll-and-hyde"

What with how pretty much every living human being knows the twist in the relation between Doctor Jekyll and Mister Hyde, reading the original book - where it's still treated as some big mystery - feels a little surreal. And not in a bad way. The book prompts me to revisit the issue of spoilers, and why I never thought much of them.



Say you're reading a book with some big twist towards the end - a character dies, reveals they're a traitor or somebody's dad, whatever - that completely redefines everything you'd read so far. Having managed to remain unspoiled by the twist, when you finally do get to this point, what do you feel? Surprise, likely shock, possibly betrayal, a great stab in the heart, rage and tears, deep suffering.

Genuine and gripping emotions, for certain... but none of these feelings last. They're all based on the surprise, and surprise fades away quite quickly - and then you can never be fooled by it again. You know what happens now, and cannot forget. And in order to pull this off, you likely had to go out on your way to avoid them - insisting your friends and fellow forumgoers to not spoil them for you, closing your eyes or ears if it looks like something's up, even isolating yourself from all human contact until you've read the whole thing through. It's such a huge effort for such a short-term thrill.

So what if you were spoiled in advance?



You'd likely be pretty pissed about it for a while - but that too is a transient emotion. Eventually, while still perhaps fuming a little, you would pick up the book... but the whole thing will have changed for you, compared to your friend who was not spoiled by it. There's a new kind of tension there now. New perspectives. A thrill that lasts you throughout the entire reading, however long it will take you, rather than stabbing you in the heart once and then letting you be.

If you know a character is going to die - then he does not have plot armor, and every time he engages in something deadly you will fear for his life. Is this where he will fall?
If you know a character is a traitor - then everything he says throughout the book will have an entirely new meaning to you. You can see beyond the facade he's putting for the rest of the cast. You're on to his lies.
If you know these two characters are brother and sist-



Hoo boy.

I've also found myself being taken far more off-guard by the other, lesser twists when I know of a big one coming. Maybe it's because I focus on the one I know about, thus letting myself be blindsided by the others. Or maybe because I subconsciously think I already got spoilered for the whole thing, and that no other twists exist, and... you get the idea. I get more out of them anyway.

I do not fear spoilers. I often read about books or games on the internet while halfway through, without being horribly fussed if I learn of a big twist before it happens. I've even considered spoiling something of my own books, well in advance, if I ever got a big enough of an audience that it would make any difference. Perhaps one day.

That being the case, it's still everybody's own choice. If you've read this far, given what I've said due consideration, but still think you wouldn't want to be spoiled about anything and will try to avoid them, go for it. And if someone insists on spoiling for you anyway even though you've specifically told them not to, then they're just being a dick.

I guess what I'm trying to say is that everyone just should relax a bit about the whole thing. But that's just me.



Take it easy, kitty. Put down the knife.