19 July 2005

How Livejournal ruined Harry Potter

I may not post on my LiveJournal account for a while. I will definitely be trimming my "friends list" to exclude some group forums. Huge spoilers were posted to two separate public forums (one on Friday and one today), revealing the key plot point to HP6 in such obvious ways as to piss off anyone who cared.

Why?

Really. Why? Because they are immature? Perhaps. Maybe someone ruined something for them. Maybe they have never read a good book. Maybe they are functionally illiterate. Maybe they are masochists who really like a good flame war.

I finished reading the book a couple of hours ago. I bought the book and read it in a hurry because I had seen the first posted spoiler -- I couldn't avoid it -- and I really wanted to believe that people were better than that. I wanted to believe that the person who claimed the posted page had been "Photoshopped" was telling the truth. I wanted it to be wrong.

I've had other things ruined for me before (e.g. Luke's heritage as revealed in SW-EP5), and while that was accidental (wrong place wrong time) I still gave the person hell for being insensitive to everyone else in earshot. This time, I am not giving any glory to the asshats. I'm not naming them to you, I won't link to the posts, and I won't spread the spoiler. I won't lie, though. I wished that I really could send hexes their way, or at least that someone who knew where they lived might key their cars or egg their houses....

Luckily, I was still able to enjoy reading the book (and to be fair, SW-EP5 is my favourite SW film). It's as good as the others, I think, though very, very dark and a touch tragic.

sigh.

My love-hate relationship with the web just moved a little closer to the "hate" side.... enough that I couldn't sleep and am sitting here typing at 2:30 a.m.

5 comments:

Shawn DeWolfe said...

I have a new logo for LiveJournal.

Mrs Robot said...

LJ's pretty pov anyway, Cheryl. :D Mike: like all the best humour, that logo was based very squarely in truth. :D It gave me a huge laugh for the start of my day.

Spoiling stories is champagne moron behaviour in my book. It's purely idiotic or, as I'm sure it is in some cases, indicative of a personality so incredibly lacking in self confidence that it has to flex what little power it has in any way it can. In this case, blowing the surprise for you. Because it can. (insert series of mock-idiotic grunts and spasms here) Little Sister saw a classic case of it just a few days ago: a group of mums waiting at the school to pick up their kids, all discussing the book. Lil Sis has finished the book, but others there haven't even started. This SCHOOOOPID woman blurts out to all of them the KEY PLOT POINT. *GAH!!* Why? I mean, why?!?

I wasn't as taken in by HP6 as I was the others, for some reason. Maybe I'm outgrowing them. ;) I found all the romance very badly written -- what did you think? The whole Half Blood Prince storyline was a kind of a fizzer for me, too. The hot discussion in our house is, as ever -- which side is Snape on? I'm not convinced that the obvious answer is the correct one.

And please don't fall out of love with the web... just dodge the crappy bits. *sigh* Tim's abandoned us, and if you go too.... :(

Tim Bailey said...

I have not abandoned you, my children. Cleave the wood: I am there; lift the stone and thou shalt find me there!

Unknown said...

Mike: yes, yes. Quite true.

Suzette: "pov"??? Also, yeah the romance was juvenile, but so is highschool. I found it appropriately captured the demographic.

Tim: good to know... but would it kill ya to update your blog once in a while? ;)

Mrs Robot said...

Tim: Cleave your own damn wood and lift your own freakin' stone, you lazy shite! You abandoned us! You did!

Cheryl: Oh. So "pov" is an Australianism, then. It essentially means anything that is lame, lacking in any value, second rate, so on. It's very demeaning.

It wasn't the romance so much, it was the style. And you're right, it was kind of fitting, but...urk. It made me squirm and -- even worse -- turn the page.