"Scott Schultz" <scott at cjhunter.com> Sent by: dragaera-bounces at dragaera.info 05/16/06 08:12 AM To "'Dragaera List'" <dragaera at dragaera.info> cc Subject RE: Agyar (Agyar?/Sixth Sense Spoilers) (Was Re: Brokedown Palace) >It's not a huge deal. We discuss all of SKZB's books on this list and you >really can't discuss much about Agyar without acknowledging the fact that >it's a vampire story. I DID have the impression that it was supposed to be >non-obvious and I don't remember it being spelled out that clearly on the >cover blurb. Makes me wonder if there's been a change between printings. > >Anyway, the point is simply that even though all of us are familiar with >some of SKZB's work, it doesn't follow that we're all familiar with ALL of >his work. Every couple of months a newbie joins the list who's just >discovered one of the Jhereg books and is looking for other SKZB >recommendations to try out. Just because Agyar or Cowboy Feng's or even >Jhereg have been in print for over a decade, it doesn't remove the >responsibility we have as list members to keep the literary experience as >"pristine" as we reasonably can for our fellow list members. Emphasis on the >word "reasonably". >It doesn't mean stifle every bit of discussion. Someone just starting on >Jhereg might be utterly dismayed to find out the events of Teckla/Phoenix >beforehand, but as a list we need to discuss those things in order to hold a >discussion on Dzur. On the other hand, I think most of us respect the >spoilers in Orca, even though the book is several years old at this point >and pretty much everyone on the list has read it. The Agyar spoiler was, so >I thought, along those lines. If it's being pretty much printed on the cover >blurb these days, then that's apparently an incorrect impression. I have no problems with this approach, I fully support reasonable spoiler warnings. Given how key (and specific) the /Orca/ revelations are (and how many books and stories there are before these facts are revealed) I can understand keeping them in a "spoiler" status pretty much indefinitely. The /Agyar/ premise just never struck me as something that was in even remotely the same category. As a relative newbie myself, (at least compared to most of the regular contributors), I never really felt the need to dig too deeply into the list history to see which topics had been agreed to as "taboo" or "spoiler-worthy". (The FAQ, such as it is, makes no mention of spoiler ettiquette that I could find.) Perhaps I missed something? Or else there is an opportunity here to improve the guidelines for such things in a visible place to avoid arguments over what makes a spoiler, or appropriate ways to mark such things? >Oh, and I'd never seen _The Sixth Sense_, either. ;-) Yeah, hence the spoiler notice in the subject line... :-) (It's a decent flick. Even figuring out the "big secret" in that movie doesn't ruin it (or didn't for me, anyway; but there I go, generalizing from one example again.) In fact, it makes it easier to appreciate the various ways in which they try to hide what's really going on from you... And I'm not even a big M. Night Shyamalan fan...) Majikjon