Letters to the Editor
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Spoilers
It chills my book loving heart to read some of the posts regarding Harry Potter. Certainly these books have provided Rowlings with fame and monetary rewards but those who believe that a money making machine was at work have sorely missed the intent of the novels. Our children are growing up playing video games and watching television. For many children these books sparked a love of reading. The books having an appeal to all ages induced a bond between many family members. My family began reading the books out loud to each other and later when the movies were produced we made a point of attending the shows together. Most teens and young adults want to spend very little time with their parents but thanks to Harry I found myself enjoying the latest movie with two of my daughters ages 18 and 22.
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I am watching the 12th news item on cable news in the last hour on this
CNN, CNN-headlines and MSNBC: All Potter all the time round the clock over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over
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Don't Fucking Read the Reviews, Pinheads
What is wrong with you people? Whining about how reviewers are upsetting them, making it imposssible to read the book "unspoiled" by actually reviewing the book. The book being reviewed is the end of a series. Book reviews often appear before a book's release.
Here's a hint, all you infants - BOOKMARK. Not the one you get from a publisher inside of a book, the one on your internet server. See a review of a Harry Potter book and BOOKMARK it. Then go read the book, if you must be so unspoilt by book reviews. After you finish reading the book, THEN go back and read the review.
There. Was that so hard? No, it wasn't, but it usually takes input from Mommy to help straighten things out, doesn't it? Now here's a cookie, dry your tears and maybe we can go to the mall and see the Harry Potter movie again. You'll like that, won't you, dears?
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Boo hoo it's been spoiled - cancel the midnight trip!
I really don’t understand how so many people are crying about how two innocuous reviews “spoiled” the book for them when so many of these same people are the ones who for nearly two years now have been posting and reading theories, essays and rants (complete with detailed information from the books and Rowling’s many interviews to back them up) on the many Harry Potter related web sites out there.
I am a huge Potter fan who won’ get a copy of the book until Tuesday. Nothing can “spoil” the book for me. I hope to be surprised but don’t really expect to be except perhaps by certain details. Rowling is a great author – much like Dickens (although not with same mastery of prose of most authors of that caliber), it’s all in there if you pay attention. The only real mystery is how so many people miss the obvious.
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well done
I'm bewildered by all the anger. Yes, there's a war in Iraq, but we're allowed to have diversions, aren't we? And as Brian Lehrer pointed out yesterday, Harry Potter is like the iPhone meets the Sopranos finale.
Meanwhile, yes, Salon published this review early. I saw it; I chose NOT TO READ IT. Today, once I'd finished the book, I was excited to remember that the review already existed and I could pore over it. And I'm very glad I did. I was going to write my own review of the book -- now that Laura Miller has gone ahead and written such an excellent, thoughtful one, I can simply link to hers.
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I smell a sequel!!!
If everyone important survives the final skirmish, well then, the story really doesn't end, does it? As least not in our sequel-mad age! If Ms. Rowling doesn't do a "sequel series" involving the Next Generation herself, plenty of fan-site subscribers, bloggers, etc. will take it upon themselves. Unless, of course, she or her estate "authorize" someone to pick up where HP left off. (Example: the Margaret Mitchell heirs have given permission for GWTW follow-ups.)
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Thanks for the heads up
I read a CNN review on the seventh book that swore up and down there were no spoilers.
Over half of the review itself was a point-by-point, if vague, summary of major plot elements!
I didn't read this article, but thank you for being straightforward about it having spoilers.
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Harry Potter lives on...
Harry Potter may be at the end of his road, but his alter egos live on thanks to nutcases like this on youtube.....: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UuBm0dvIzcc
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I'm just surprised
Frankly, I'm just surprised that a review of the book would give away the ending. I was able to avoid all reviews, including this one, until I read the book, so I wasn't spoiled at all. But it seems to me that giving away the ending is just not what a review is supposed to be about. Ms. Miller stayed quiet about several key plot points, but that Harry lives? That really shouldn't be in any review this early.
I'm disappointed in Salon and Ms. Miller.
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Where were the spoilers???
So I'm going to go in the opposite direction and complain that there weren't ENOUGH spoilers in the article! I clicked on the link hoping to get some juicy information and the only thing I learned that would possibly qualify as a spoiler is that Harry lives and is married in the epilogue. Hardly shocking news. But there was nothing about Snape's true character or who else died--you know, the important information. Had the review not contained that last paragraph, there would be no need for a spoiler warning.
I felt cheated.