A few months back, I wrote a blogpost on The Handmaid’s Tale. Without much consideration for the current tv show on Hulu, I discussed the emotions felt at the end of the book. In my mind, the book was exempt from spoiler alerts based on its age (published in 1985) and the fact that it had been turned into a movie (1990). The book is also a work of dystopian fiction, which by definition is a story about “an imagined place or state in which everything is unpleasant or bad, typically a totalitarian or environmentally degraded one.” To me, dystopian novels automatically mean “No Happy Ending”. This holds true for 1984, A Brave New World, A Clockwork Orange, Divergent, The Maze Runner, Ender’s Game and The Hunger Games.
The Hulu series briefly crossed my mind and was instantly overridden by the fact that movies and tv shows rarely stick to the book 100% and like Game of Thrones, may divert entirely due to circumstance or creative license. To mitigate giving away any plot twists or actual spoilers that may appear in the book or movie, I decided to stick to discussing the emotions I felt when reading the book.
The Handmaid’s Tale left me feeling completely out of breath, paranoid, angry, and just emotional in general. I’d guess these are typical responses when reading Dystopian fiction, however, The Handmaid’s Tale hit closer to home. Unlike the majority of dystopian fiction where the lead characters are either young-to-middle aged men (1984, A Brave New World, Fahrenheit 451) or teenage heroes (Divergent, The Maze Runner, Ender’s Game) who’d never know a different existence The Handmaid’s Tale featured a married female in her 30’s who experienced the entire world tipping upside down within a few short years. Unlike those books about teenage super humans who save the world, this book felt so much more “real”. It punched me in the gut and left me reeling.
Shortly after hitting “Publish”, a reader commented on the post being a Spoiler Alert, which led me to crowdsource feedback from friends on when a Spoiler Alert is actually a spoiler alert and when a notice should be included in a discussion about a book or a movie.
First on my list of questions for Spoiler Alert exemptions were the age of the book and the general public knowledge of the plot. We’d never consider references to the soldiers jumping out of the Trojan horse as a spoiler, we all know Romeo and Juliet are fools and die, and everyone born after 1960 knows Luke is Darth Vader’s son. So when does a book reach that point where the plot twists become common knowledge and even those who haven’t read the book know the outcome? When does a spoiler alert stop being required?
Apparently, according to the majority of my circle, the polite, responsible answer is NEVER.
So with that, my dear readers, your humble writer apologies and promises to include Spoiler Alert! on any future posts about literature written after the 1800’s.
Cheers and happy reading!
Hops & Lit 