"A word after a word after a word is power" - Margaret Atwood

BRIDGET WHELAN

A blog for readers and writers

A blog about the stories we tell each other and how we tell them...

Thursday 18 August 2011

Spoilers DON'T spoil the story

Intrigued by the report on Alison Flood's blog that research by the University of San Diego's psychology department reveals that spoilers don't spoil a story...
 Even in who-dun-it's it doesn't hurt to know who...
Subjects were given a dozen short stories by a range of famous authors. Some were in their original form while others included a paragraph that gave away the ending or a crucial twist. The result?
"Subjects significantly preferred the spoiled versions of ironic-twist stories, where, for example, it was revealed before reading that a condemned man's daring escape is all a fantasy before the noose snaps tight around his neck..." 
Not such a big surprise really....I don't feel compelled to turn to the last page first, but I am a great re-reader. Reading when you are no longer driven by suspense means you can relax and enjoy the language, the way the characters develop, the light and shade...
I can remember the first book I ever re-read. I got Alice in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass one Christmas. When I finished I just turned it over and went back to the beginning. I was still reading it when we went on our summer holidays...
And there are plenty of stories where the ending is revealed at the start so it's not what happens next that drives the reader to turn the page (or carry on viewing) but wondering how did that happen or why.
And now I've written that I can only think of Columbo or Martin Amis' Time's Arrow....there are others, aren't they?


http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/booksblog/2011/aug/17/spoilers-enhance-enjoyment-psychologists#start-of-comments

2 comments:

MorningAJ said...

Ah but - if I knew in advance how Columbo was going to PROVE whodunnit I wouldn't want to watch. I guess it's what you spoil, rather than the actual spoiler, that counts.

BRIDGET said...

maybe...but a clever scriptwriter could still let on how the good detective was going to sort it out and still leave you wondering what the butter dish could possibly have to do with anything.
With Columbo didn't you just like spending an hour with him?