#KeepTheSecrets
WARNING: Game of Thrones spoilers ahead!
As we’ve heard and discussed many times this semester, we are constantly confronted with news. Mostly thanks to the internet. Some are fine with it, some are not, many have, more or less voluntarily, accustomed to it. We want to know what’s going on in the world. Why then are we so sensitive when it comes to fictional worlds?
Yesterday (I wrote this on Wednesday, June 8th) saw the preview of the play Harry Potter and the Cursed Child, the first visual installment of the franchise in 5 years. Rowling, the author, asks everyone who has seen the play to keep quiet, in order not to spoil the play for anyone as you can see here:
The franchise had some issues with spoilers in 2005, with people shouting “Snape kills Dumbledore!” in front of book stores on the day of the release of the 6th book for example. But that was before the internet had managed to sneak its way into our daily lives. Even one day after the play’s preview, you can already find a reddit thread about the play (look it up if you want to, I didn’t want to take the risk). It’s probably not going to take long until you have spoilers all over your facebook feed as well. They are everywhere. Take the Rolling Stone magazine and how they continuously manage to ruin lives every Monday after the premiere of a new Game of Thrones episode (SPOILERS!):
A battle Rowling can not win. A brave attempt by the author nonetheless, and probably better than just leaving it be. We’ll see.
Now, back to my question. Why are we so sensitive when it comes to fictional worlds? We wouldn’t want to experience most of what’s shown on the news first hand, would we? What’s the difference then? Are fictional worlds so much more interesting than our real lives that we want to “experience everything on our own”? Are we really experiencing it if it’s only fiction? Or isn’t it just another form of news, as we are never shown every second of a book/movie etc.? What do you think?
