Talkfest Thursday: Spoilers

Talkfest Thursday is a feature that acts as a discussion post of sorts, where I will feature a topic (usually literature related), of my choice, and then proceed to talk about it at great length. This will appear, at least once a month, on a Thursday (or more depending on how cooperative my brain is).

The first time that I ever came face to face with a spoiler was about that time when the 6th Happy Potter installment came out. I asked my friend if I could borrow his copy. He, of course, obliged and brought it when we had one of our occasional group lunches at a semi-fancy place. As he handed it over to me, one of my other friends blurted out: "The Half-Blood Prince is (insert name here)." She did not do it to be mean or anything. She is just a spaz like that. But my face collapsed, along with my heart. She realized the gravity of her words and profusely apologized. Heck she continues to do so until now, whenever we remember that particular incident. 

#SPOILERALERT 

Over the years, I realize that different people have different attitudes towards spoilers. I have this other friend who is into the habit of going directly to the book's last chapters. "Why do you do that?" I asked. "I want to know if the ending is good enough for me to warrant reading the whole thing." "And if female lead picks boy x over boy y, I don't want to read it anymore." She also said that she reads reviews just so she can find out how the ending went. If she doesn't like it, she won't buy the book. Hence, we can categorize her as a Spoiler Seeker. Those people who go out of their way and actively seek spoilers. Then there are those who greatly avoid it. They go on an internet/social media lock down, stuff their ears with cotton balls, and/or socks. And if these people happen to come across a spoiler by accident, they will probably self combust. There are those who are just chill. They don't seek it, but they don't necessarily go out of their way to avoid it.

I think I may be in between the lock down type and the chill type. I don't stop going online, but I avoid reading anything that might contain spoilers. And I usually tell people beforehand that I haven't gone through book x or watched show y, therefore they should try and avoid dropping any spoiler bombs on me.

But I find myself feeling less affected by it now. Well, I don't like people telling me spoilers, deliberately. It's the intent, you see. Like my sister who annoys me by threatening to spill the beans on certain plot developments of a book that I haven't read yet. But if the spoiler bomb is by accident, there is nothing left for me to do but live with it.

I also would like to note that TV/Movie adaptations of books are massive spoilers. And there have been many times in which I had watched the movie first, before even reading the book. And it did not in anyway, diminished my enjoyment of said book. The Game of Thrones tv series is an example.

How about you? How do you feel about spoilers? Which type are you?