'Lost', Chuck Klosterman, and why I hate spoilers: Part 3

We're wrapping up a three-part look at the topics of online "Lost" spoilers via Chuck Klosterman's new book, "Eating the Dinosaur." So far, I've tried to provide a basis for my particular aversion to spoilers. Not only, as Klosterman argues, is it inherently interesting to not know things, it's also a small tragedy that we are unable to experience any interesting piece of pop culture anew after the first time watching it. Unless you have your own personal version of The Haitian from "Heroes," or happen to be Ozzy Osbourne, chances are that you will ever be ever truly able to revisit "Lost" again the way you did the first time around.

Is the point of this week to slag on spoiler sites and those that read them? Of course not. Not only does posting them gain traffic for those sites, making spoilers a viable commodity, but not everyone feels as strongly about knowing things ahead of time as I do about this show. It doesn't make a person weak for wanting to seek out information that's out there, but I do want to make this site a safe haven for those trying to remain strong. There's a reason why the title of all these articles contains the phrase "why I hate spoilers" as opposed to "why spoilers are bad." Like my main homeboy Hamlet once said, "...there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so."

The point isn't to condemn people who view spoilers differently from how I do. The point is to try and express my feelings before the inevitable onslaught of information starts seeping our way in a few weeks time, and with it the temptation to either disseminate it or absorb it. There are hundreds of "Lost" sites out there, and dozens do a great job and providing news, theories, and yes, spoilers about the show. Each site has their particular sets of preferences, strengths, and weaknesses. You the reader are in the wonderful position to pick and choose which sites fulfill your particular needs. Al Gore's series of tubes is truly a wondrous thing.

I say all this because every time I bring up my anti-spoiler biases, people think I'm looking down my nose at them for partaking in such activity. But all I'm doing is blogging as a fan of the show, expressing my personal thoughts and feelings about "Lost." And my personal feeling is that I don't want to know a damn thing that's coming down the pipe.  If you want to call that a justification for not having super secret moles on set feeding me the inside scoop, that's fine. But even if Matthew Fox was my BFF, I'd tell him to postpone our windsurfing expedition until June, lest he accidentally taint what's coming down the pipe.

Luckily, I'm in a pretty sweet place here at Zap2it: they've got smart people that do news, and smart people that do scoops. They've never asked me to do either, and quite frankly, I wouldn't do it as well as they can anyways. The powers that be here respect the niche I'd like to think I've carved out here: a spoiler-free "Lost" blog that deals seriously with the show but doesn't take itself too seriously. I want people to be able to speak their minds in an environment that challenges assertions but doesn't make personal attacks. This isn't the only way to run a "Lost" blog. It just happens to be the way I do it.

It's for people who simultaneously want yet dread the answers to the questions that have hung in the air for so long. It's for people that love the show but realize it's not above reproach. It's for people that don't mind mocking it when the occasion merits. It's for people that don't mind an overabundance of '80s references with their daily dose of analysis. It's for people that really, really like syrup. In short, it's for people like me. I can only write the blog from my own perspective. And luckily, there seem to be enough people that think like me to make this a viable way to do things. (However, it's a touch scary to think how many people think like me.)
 
An anecdote: Last year, during "The Variable," some charming person decided I should know about the shocking ending about halfway through the episode and told me via Twitter. Had I not had to recap the episode that night, I might have gone on a seven-state killing spree after learning about Daniel's demise. That only confirmed my belief that knowing something ahead of time absolutely kills the "Lost" experience. I'd rather produce entry after entry of false predictions based on the information at hand than form theories based on spoiled information. (Hell, I've been producing false predictions for years: why stop now, so close to the finish line?)

I'll end this three-part series with a plea. Maybe not a plea, but a request: I need your help in keeping this site as spoiler-free as humanly possible between now and the Season 6 finale. It'll never be perfect, but a group effort might work more than an autocratic one. Such a request might actually incite people to drop spoilers just for spite, but I'd like to think more positively than that. Spoiler sites are fine and dandy. Nuttin' but luv for y'all. But people that bring spoilers into a no-spoiler zone?  That's a different beast altogether. There's plenty of room for both. This is my dance space. This is your dance space. I don't go into yours, you don't go into mine.

As Claire might say, "No one puts baybee in the corner."

Deal?

Ryan invites you to join the hundreds already in Zap2It's Guide to Lost Facebook group.