Predictability
I keep doing this to myself, and I’m not quite sure how it happened. I am often able to (about 95% of the time) predict the outcome of a movie, or a book, or parts of either medium. I feel bad whenever I’m watching a movie with someone else, and I’m like - “Is he gonna….” and I’m right - especially when none of us watching have seen said movie. However, I also get annoyed when I’m watching with someone who’s seen it before, and I say, “Is this what’s going to happen?” and they say no. *sigh*
Maybe it’s because these things have gotten utterly predictable, and I’m not the only one who has this black magic power. Or maybe it’s just because I’m getting used to authors, storylines, and can just see what’s going to happen. Earlier this summer I read Dan Brown’s “Angels and Demons,” proceeding “The DaVinci Code.” Both were fantastic, but I knew something that was going to happen in “Angels and Demons” 300 pages before it happened!
Well, it happened again the other night. I’m in the middle of a series of books I just started - and that the final book just came out for (if you’re smart, you know what series I’m talking about). I did it again. I know the ending of the series. I wish I could write how it happened, how I came to the conclusion of what it might be, but I don’t want to spoil it for anyone else who might be reading the same series. Kris was surprised at the ending, and then I said, “Oh no, I know the ending.” I told him what I thought it was, and he says to me, “Who told you?” incredulously. Nobody told me, I didn’t read any spoilers, the only person I’ve discussed the book with is HIM. Maybe it’s because I know Kris so well that I could predict the outcome. I was so disappointed I almost couldn’t pick the book I was reading back up. 
I DID eventually pick it back up. I may know the ending, but I don’t know how that point is reached and resolved. As Kris says, “It’s not the destination that counts - it’s the journey.”
Read the blog… I can usually do that guess the ending trick too, but the overall tone of the series misled me in this case. I thought for sure for the last couple of books (and esp. when he actually reached the Tower) that whatever was at the top would either smite him almost instantly or blow his mind to such cosmic proportions *like Walter did when showing him the universe* that he would never come back. I guess the endless loop concept just seemed too… normal.
Comment by Ray — November 18, 2004 @ 3:23 pm