The Fear of Knowing

PD Dr. Simon Spiegel

doi:10.5771/9783988581150

Summary

The fear of spoilers is now a global phenomenon, but it had been barely researched until recently. For the first time, this volume brings together scholars and practitioners from a variety of fields to explore the concept. Do spoilers really diminish our enjoyment of films, books or games? How do different fan communities deal with the issue? Has spoiling always been frowned upon, or were there times when it was handled differently? And how has the fear of spoilers affected the way media content is produced and marketed? The contributors to The Fear of Knowing come from the fields of film, literature, game and fan studies, as well as empirical psychology, and their findings are—spoiler alert!—not always what you might expect.
Simon Spiegel is Privatdozent and senior researcher in film studies at the University of Zurich. He has published widely on science fiction and utopian films, and is the chief editor of the interdisciplinary journal
Zeitschrift für Fantastikforschung.
With contribution by Matthias Brütsch | Andrew Bumsted | Kristina Busse | James Aaron Green | Milan Hain | Tiffany Hong | Albrecht Koschorke | Andreas Rauscher | Judith E. Rosenbaum | Simon Spiegel | Dana Steglich | Marcus Stiglegger | Tobias Unterhuber | Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock

Keywords

Search publication

Bibliographic data

Copyright year: 2025
ISBN-Print: 978-3-98858-114-3
ISBN-Online: 978-3-98858-115-0
Publisher: Rombach Wissenschaft, Baden-Baden
Series: Pop: Kultur | Medien | Ästhetik
Volume: 3
Language: English
Pages: 328
Product type: Edited Book

PrefacePages 1 - 10 Download chapter (PDF)
Simon Spiegel Download chapter (PDF)
1. Editor’s Note
2. Filmography
3. Works Cited
Simon Spiegel Download chapter (PDF)
1. Spoiler History
2. Complex Narratives
3. Genres
4. Suspense
5. Conclusion
6. Filmography
7. Works Cited
1. Milan Hain Download chapter (PDF)
  1. Filmography
  2. Works Cited
2. Matthias Brütsch Download chapter (PDF)
  1. Definition and Prevalence
  2. Plot Twists and Clues for Spoilers
  3. The Sixth Sense and Structural Deception
  4. The Timing of the Twist
  5. The Attractions of Unspoiled versus Spoiled or Second Viewings
  6. A Different Kind of Priming for the Twist in El Maquinista
  7. The (Reduced) Effects of Spoiling Complex TV Series
  8. Empirical Research versus Analysis Based on Introspection
  9. Filmography
  10. Works Cited
3. Tiffany Hong Download chapter (PDF)
  1. Filmography
  2. Works Cited
4. Marcus Stiglegger Download chapter (PDF)
  1. byNWR—the Refn Brand
  2. Performative Cinema, Refn Style
  3. Case Study: Too Old to Die Young
  4. Conclusion: A Truly Spoiler-Resistant Series
  5. Filmography
  6. Works Cited
1. Albrecht Koschorke Download chapter (PDF)
  1. Circular and Directed Narratives
  2. Temporal Structure and Suspense
  3. Redundancy and Variance
  4. Displacement of Frames
  5. Filmography
  6. Works Cited
2. Dana Steglich Download chapter (PDF)
  1. Spoiling Literature
  2. What Do Spoilers Spoil?
  3. The Paratextual Power of Spoilers
  4. Reading vs Rereading
  5. Literary Criticism
  6. Engaging with (Spoiled) Classics
  7. Filmography
  8. Works Cited
3. James Aaron Green Download chapter (PDF)
  1. The Chain and the Veil: Collins Challenges the Critics
  2. The “How” or the “What”? Braddon and the Later Legacy
  3. Filmography
  4. Works Cited
1. Tobias Unterhuber Download chapter (PDF)
  1. Origins and electronic/digital culture
  2. Spoilers and game culture
  3. Walkthroughs and Let’s Plays
  4. Spoilers in Game Studies
  5. Types of spoilers
  6. Game spoilers
  7. Spoilers in play
  8. Conclusion
  9. Ludography
  10. Works Cited
2. Andreas Rauscher Download chapter (PDF)
  1. Adapting Spoilers and the Ludification of Genre Tropes
  2. Remediating Narrative Spoilers for Ludic Dramatization
  3. Filmography
  4. Ludography
  5. Works Cited
1. Judith E. Rosenbaum Download chapter (PDF)
  1. Enjoyment, Spoilers, and the Narrative Experience
  2. Examining the Basics: Do Spoilers Spoil?
  3. Explaining differential effects of spoilers
  4. The nature of the narrative and the nature of the spoiler
  5. Engagement with the content
  6. 1. Challenges
    2. Moving Forward
  7. Conclusion
  8. Acknowledgments
  9. Filmography
  10. Works Cited
2. Kristina Busse Download chapter (PDF)
  1. Spoilers
  2. Originalgenie
  3. Repetition
  4. Header and Tags
  5. Trigger Warnings
  6. Author-Reader Power Struggle
  7. Filmography
  8. Works Cited
3. Andrew Bumstead Download chapter (PDF)
  1. 1. Visibility
    2. Tone
    3. Character Rating
  2. Narrative Pleasure
  3. Conclusion
  4. Filmography
  5. Works Cited
4. Jeffrey Andrew Weinstock Download chapter (PDF)
  1. The Spoiler Warning is a Gesture of Tenderness
  2. The Spoiler Warning is a Form of Imagined Identification
  3. The Spoiler Warning Highlights the Centrality of Narrative in the Twenty-First Century
  4. Filmography
  5. Works Cited
1. Simon Spiegel Download chapter (PDF)
  1. Filmography
  2. Works Cited
2. Simon Spiegel Download chapter (PDF)
  1. Filmography
3. Simon Spiegel Download chapter (PDF)
  1. Filmography
  2. Works Cited
ContributorsPages 319 - 322 Download chapter (PDF)
IndexPages 323 - 328 Download chapter (PDF)