A Different World: Spoilers!

There are a lot of things I just don't understand about American culture. Crocs? Not looking good, my friends. But something that miffs me more than even bad shoe phenomenons is the obsession Americans seem to have with spoilers.

The LOST season finale was ruined for me three days before it aired by some jackass on the subway in Boston. The only thing that surprised me about (SPOILER ALERT!) Walt's return was the puberty that had happened since he escaped from the island at the end of the second season. Remember that time Rosie O'Donnell gave away the twist to Fight Club on her talk show? Edward Norton and I were not on the same page when he finally put it all together. As I appreciate any opportunity to feel that I'm on the same page with Ed Norton, I was not impressed. There are websites and message boards dedicated to getting the inside scoop on what's going on in movies, television and books before they air or premiere or sell, and being the first person to know and tell these facts to unsuspecting and often unwilling bystanders is apparently some sort of adrenaline rush to a lot of sad little people.

Case in point - the last installment of Harry Potter. The release date is midnight, July 21st. However, sometime early Wednesday morning, it showed up on the internet. Now, if you want to know what happens and you choose to seek out these spoilers, I can't stop you. But why can't you just keep it to yourself!?

The New York Times published a book review that included the (unconfirmed, but most likely true) information provided by those who put the illegally obtained book on the internet. One would think, as many unsuspecting readers did, that such a reputable news source would have the decency and integrity to hold off until the book is released to publish a news story that includes huge plot points. But alas, they just had to be first, I guess. Maybe that's what it is about spoilers and America - we just need to win.

Thankfully, I have avoided the internet, the newspaper, and the radio in an attempt to remain spoiler free, and thus far I have been successful. I will not be in attendance at the midnight release party, as at the release of the sixth book, a group of boys at the front of the line received their books, read the last few pages and shouted out what happened to a line full of costumed fans. Way to go, fellas. You did it.

Doesn't anyone like surprises anymore?

A Different World: Harry Potter

In less than a month, the final installment of the Harry Potter series will be released, and fans everywhere will finally find out the answers to the many questions raised by the first six books. Is it Harry's destiny to die? Did Snape kill Dumbledore out of obligation or because he's evil? What the hell is going on with that veil? Will Hagrid and Madame Maxime have giant babies? You know, the important stuff.

Now, HP's no Mrs. Dalloway, and JK's no Virginia Woolf. This series is not a shining example of literary fiction that will be taught in British Literature courses for centuries to come. But I do think it's unfair to dismiss it and belittle it as just some kid's book that poorly adjusted adults who enjoy wearing costumes have latched onto. It has revitalized reading in a generation where voluntary illiteracy was posing a significant threat.

For example, in my senior year of high school, I was involved in a discussion in which at least two of my peers proudly admitted to have never finished a single book in their sad little lives. Seventeen years, eighteen years and you've never had the desire to read a whole book? How has your brain not shriveled up by now? Where were your parents on that issue? "Oh, nothing has ever interested me, I've just never enjoyed reading," they said. ...Really? Nothing? EVER?

Harry Potter is out there -- everywhere. People are talking about it, it's in newspapers, on television, in the movie theaters. The pre-sale reservations of the book alone have shattered sales records. You can't escape it. And thus, in its ever-presence, it is promoting reading in children, and more notably, in otherwise non-reading parents who enjoy the book and are therefore willing to read it to their kids. To own and to have read Harry Potter is where it's at in elementary schools and middle schools, the place where a lot of children develop reading habits that dictate their relationship to literature for the rest of their lives. Maybe if my non-reading classmates had been presented with a book that was as much of a cultural presence as HP is now, they might have started reading at a younger age and been more prone to seek out other reading material. Or, at the very least, they would have finished a few books by the time they were eighteen.


It would be foolish to think that because of Harry Potter, Sparknotes is going to go out of business. There will always be a large number of people who just choose not to read. But in the next generation of students who will inevitably become adults, it is likely that that number will be smaller, and JK Rowling's book series has had a hand in that. Which makes Harry Potter entirely relevant, and therefore makes it perfectly acceptable for me, as a twenty year old (kind of) adult to desperately want to attend the "Harry Potter Place" Street Celebration. I'm just doing it for the kids.

So I say way to go, JK. Congratulations. And with all that said, I will now return to my self-imposed isolation from all internet conversations regarding the final book to avoid any God forsaken spoilers, which is a topic that would provide me two months worth of Outrage of the Week entries.