Spoilers make me happy: an example
Aug. 18th, 2015 05:34 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
asakiyumeThis entry will have mild spoilers for Alif the Unseen, but I promise to put them behind a cut. If you're coming directly to his entry (and so won't see the cut), it's the fourth paragraph you want to avoid (unless you've already read the book or don't mind mild spoilers).
I only just started reading this. I like it already. The prologue has a spirit talking about how symbols don't carry hidden messages, they are, themselves, the message. Then the story proper begins. Alif [an alias] is a computer hacker in an unnamed Gulf Coast country. He helps people--activists, jihadis, whoever--who want to be active on the Internet avoid detection and capture. His elegant, upperclass (he is not upperclass) secret girlfriend has just broken up with him because she is to be married to someone else, and although he's all for running away together, she tells him no, forget it, it's over, I never want to see a hint of your presence on the Internet ever again.
I wondered if that was just an inciting event of some sort or if she was going to figure in the rest of the story. I flipped randomly through the book and didn't see her name. Maybe that whole incident was just going to be an Example of something. I didn't want that to be the case (not sure why). So I asked![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
cafenowhere, who'd recently finished the book, if she was going to figure in the story more, and cafenowhere told me yes.
And I thought that was spoilers enough. But then I happened to be flipping through the book again, and this time I saw her name. And I saw that she was going to be kind of an asshole. More than kind of. And then I saw that another female character, introduced equally early on, was going to have a positive role in the story. And those two discoveries were big--not in the plot sense--I'm too early on in the story for them to make plot sense yet--but in the emotional sense. I felt so relieved to know where at least one emotional thrust of the story was going to go. And this sets me so at ease, I can't even tell you. I don't know how I'll feel about how the author unfolds it--she'll do an excellent job or a mediocre job or a poor job; it's in the future yet. But I know where she's going, at least on one emotional, interpersonal line. I can just relax and see how she accomplishes it.
That, in a nutshell, is why I often like spoilers. Not always. Sometimes I deliberately don't spoil things for myself. But when I do, it's because of not liking a certain sort of tension. I like to get that out of the way and focus on other things.
The plot is only just beginning. The characterizations are only just beginning. So far so good--I'm enjoying it!
I only just started reading this. I like it already. The prologue has a spirit talking about how symbols don't carry hidden messages, they are, themselves, the message. Then the story proper begins. Alif [an alias] is a computer hacker in an unnamed Gulf Coast country. He helps people--activists, jihadis, whoever--who want to be active on the Internet avoid detection and capture. His elegant, upperclass (he is not upperclass) secret girlfriend has just broken up with him because she is to be married to someone else, and although he's all for running away together, she tells him no, forget it, it's over, I never want to see a hint of your presence on the Internet ever again.
I wondered if that was just an inciting event of some sort or if she was going to figure in the rest of the story. I flipped randomly through the book and didn't see her name. Maybe that whole incident was just going to be an Example of something. I didn't want that to be the case (not sure why). So I asked
cafenowhere, who'd recently finished the book, if she was going to figure in the story more, and cafenowhere told me yes.And I thought that was spoilers enough. But then I happened to be flipping through the book again, and this time I saw her name. And I saw that she was going to be kind of an asshole. More than kind of. And then I saw that another female character, introduced equally early on, was going to have a positive role in the story. And those two discoveries were big--not in the plot sense--I'm too early on in the story for them to make plot sense yet--but in the emotional sense. I felt so relieved to know where at least one emotional thrust of the story was going to go. And this sets me so at ease, I can't even tell you. I don't know how I'll feel about how the author unfolds it--she'll do an excellent job or a mediocre job or a poor job; it's in the future yet. But I know where she's going, at least on one emotional, interpersonal line. I can just relax and see how she accomplishes it.
That, in a nutshell, is why I often like spoilers. Not always. Sometimes I deliberately don't spoil things for myself. But when I do, it's because of not liking a certain sort of tension. I like to get that out of the way and focus on other things.
The plot is only just beginning. The characterizations are only just beginning. So far so good--I'm enjoying it!
