girlyswot

*looks round sheepishly*

Oh yes, I've been reading those spoilers/leaks/scans...

No, you're getting nothing from me. Promise.

I think I've mentioned before that knowing what's going to happen doesn't affect my enjoyment of a book, except perhaps to relieve some of the initial scramble-to-get-through-it-as-quickly-as-possible-to-find-out-what-happens tension. So I won't have to worry about that this time.

Unless the spoilers are fake.

But here is an interesting thing I've noticed about people's response to the leaks. A number of comments are about how these aren't 'JKR's style'. Now, I haven't read the whole thing (too lazy) but what I have read strikes me as exactly JKR's style. Which got me to wondering about the effect of having read fanfiction on one's actual reading of the book.

I wasn't in the fandom before HBP so I've never had this experience before. How do the rest of you deal with it? Do you get so used to thinking of the HP world in the style of your favourite fanfics that JKR's style seems jarring? Do you long for

stmargaretsHarry and Ginny, or for

rhetoretician's? Do you start to find JKR's writing childish compared to some of the more 'adult' fics you might have read? Or do you find that actually, her writing does stand up to the test and sweep you away compared to the amateur things you've become used to? Can you still spot 'JKR's style' amidst all the competing voices?

So, my inbox at SQ was full and I was just going through deleting old PM's when I came across an exchange with

tdu000 about a discussion on the Percy thread concerning Weasley behinds.

stmargarets had just pointed out that it was very remiss of JKR to dress her men in robes so that we had no way of knowing what their behinds looked like. I suggested that actually the subtle hints were much more alluring than any blatant display, before making this suggestion:

Though, come to think of it, I wouldn't actually object if there were, say, a Weasley Quidditch match, on the hottest day of summer with everyone stripped down to just shorts, described in some detail in Deathly Hallows. Muscles, freckles, sweat. That would make a very nice start to the book. *nods*

I thought I'd better archive it here, just so I can say I told you so in a few weeks time. *grins*

( Here, just in case anyone's completely paranoid )

[Poll #918871]

One of the things I've noticed in the hysteria surrounding the announcement of the publication date of Book 7 (which I still can't quite remember is called Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) is a number of people who won't be able to read the book the instant it comes out talking about how they'll 'protect themselves' from finding out what happens.

Now I'm the kind of person who likes to know what's going to happen. I often read the last chapter of a book first so I can see what the big events will be (some books are harder to do this with than others!). Especially in mystery or detective fiction I like to know the solution so I can enjoy reading the book, taking my time over the prose, without scrabbling through just to see who dunnit. I didn't read HBP until it had been out for a couple of months and I already knew Dumbledore died (though not that Snape killed him). It didn't spoil my enjoyment of the book in the slightest.

I fully expect not to read DH the moment it comes out. I'm too mean to pay hardback prices, so I'll either borrow from a friend or wait for the paperback or a remaindered copy or something. But I'll be happy to know from other sources how it all turns out.

So here's my question, does knowing the ending necessarily spoil one's enjoyment of a story? Not according to however many million people watched and enjoyed Titanic, for instance. Or for anyone who's ever re-read a book, or gone to see a film of a book or a real-life story that they already know. It seems to me that the enjoyment is in the telling of the story, not so much the story itself. A good story can stand to be retold any number of times. Can't it?

ETA: I made a poll! *is very excited at mastery of LJ technology*. Please tick the boxes and leave me a comment to let me know what you think.

So am I the only one?

Not exactly a prediction

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Spoilers - do they really spoil your enjoyment?

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