> From: [email protected] [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of > Darren Addy > > John's moaning about Olympics spoilers led me to this highly > entertaining & thought provoking read: > Cocktail Crossfire: Do Olympics Spoilers Ruin Everything? > http://news.yahoo.com/cocktail-crossfire-olympics-spoilers-ruin- > everything-210753811.html > > Excerpts: > "Yet so many of us other humans are falling victim to the alleged > crimes of the spoiler, enough that The Wall Street Journal published a > piece on how to avoid spoilers (pro tip: Stay off the Internet)
Damn, I was looking forward to reading that and finding out for myself. Now you've gone and spoiled it! B > and CNN > published a piece written by Justin Peters, who's covering the Olympics > for Slate, called "Confessions of an Olympic Spoiler." He too gives > tips, like STAY OFF THE INTERNET. > > And here you are, on the Internet. Is it any wonder you're being > spoiled? But, actually, where we're all spoiled is in expecting this > world of no spoilers. We created the Internet so that we could know > what was going on at all times. We expect people to tweet and say > things. We expect news. Really, we're going to get all upset when that > actually happens, when we see something we didn't want to? > > There's another factor at work here, and it is that complaining about > spoilers means that you've put undue importance on one teensy element > of the athletic events and the talent of those participating. Even if > you do know who ultimately wins, don't you still want to watch that > tiny person do backflips across a room to the theme of Phantom of the > Opera? Don't you still want to watch the human whippets of the world, > the sprinters, edge each other out breathlessly, so that you're > breathless too, watching? Or to see the powerful, perfect strokes in > the water from the perfectly muscled swimmers? > > Saying that knowing who wins and who loses ruins the whole shebang for > you is like saying you don't want to look at art because you know what > the painting sold for, or that Van Gogh eventually cut his ear off and > died. Are you really the type of person who never reads a book twice, > or more than twice, or who never repeats a movie or TV show to see it > more fully the second time, or just because you enjoyed it so much the > first? If you are, well, you probably like surprise parties too. Let me > tell you: Conclusions are a dime a dozen; what really counts is the > overall quality of the entire story." > > Of course, I'm someone who hasn't seen a lick of Olympics and probably > won't before all is said and done. And that includes television/news > highlights. So my viewpoint might be a tiny bit different than John's. > : ) > > -- > PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List > [email protected] > http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net > to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and > follow the directions. -- PDML Pentax-Discuss Mail List [email protected] http://pdml.net/mailman/listinfo/pdml_pdml.net to UNSUBSCRIBE from the PDML, please visit the link directly above and follow the directions.
