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Spoilers get folks upset�really upset. One thing that follows from this is that if you pick up a book that�s all about spoilers, it may seriously disturb you. So anyone reading this book�or even dipping into it�does so at their peril. Spoilers have a long history, going back to the time when some Greek theater-goer shouted �That�s Oedipus�s mom!� But spoilers didn�t use to be so intensely despised as they are today. The new, fierce hatred of spoilers is associated with the Golden Age of television and the ubiquity of DVR/Netflix/Hulu, and the like. Today, most people have their own personal �horror story� about the time when they were subject to the most unfair, unjust, outrageous, and unforgivable spoiler. A first definition of spoiler might be revealing any information about a work of fiction (in any form, such as a book, TV show, or movie) to someone who hasn�t encountered it. But this isn�t quite good enough. It wouldn�t be a spoiler to say �The next Star Trek movie will include a Vulcan.� Nor would it be a spoiler to say, �The story of Shawshank Redemption comes from a short story by Stephen King.� There has to be something at least a bit unexpected or unpredictable about the information, and it has to be important to the content of the work. And you could perpetrate a spoiler by divulging information about something other than a work of fiction, for example details of a sports game, to someone who has tivoed the game but not yet watched it. Timing and other matters of context may make the difference between a spoiler and a non-spoiler. It could be a spoiler to say �There�s a Vulcan in the next Star Trek movie� if spoken to someone raised in North Korea and knowing absolutely nothing about Star Trek. It can also be a spoiler to say something about a movie or TV show when it�s new, and not a spoiler when it has been around for some years. This raises the distinction between �personal spoilers� and �impersonal spoilers.� Personal spoilers are spoilers for some particular individual, because of their circumstances. You should never give personal spoilers (such as when someone says that they have never seen a particular movie, even though the plot is common knowledge. You can�t tell them the plot). Sometimes facts other than facts about a story can be spoilers, because they allow people to deduce something about the story. To reveal that a certain actor is not taking part in shooting the next episode may allow someone to jump to conclusions about the story. Spoilers need not be specific; they can be very vague. If you told someone there was a big surprise ending to The Sixth Sense or Fight Club, that might spoil these movies for people who haven�t seen them. You can spoil by mentioning things that are common knowledge, if someone has missed out on that knowledge (�Luke and Darth Vader are related�), but you usually can�t be blamed for this. People have some obligation to keep up. This means that in general you can�t be blamed for spoilers about stories that are old. �Both Romeo and Juliet are dead at the end� could be a spoiler for someone, but you can�t be blamed for it. This is a rule that�s often observed: many publications have regulations forbidding the release of some types of spoilers for a precisely fixed time after a movie release. However, some spoilers never expire, either because the plot twist is so vital or the work is so significant. So, if you�re talking to young kids, you probably should never say �Darth Vader is Luke�s father,� �Norman Bates is Mother,� �Dorothy�s trip to Oz was all a dream,� �All the passengers on the Orient Express collaborated in the murder,� �in The Murder of Roger Akroyd, the narrator did it,� �Soylent Green is people,� �To Serve Man is a cookbook,� and finally, what many consider to be the greatest and worst spoiler of them all, �The Planet of the Apes is really Earth.� Some famous �spoilers� are not true spoilers. It�s not going to spoil Citizen Kane for anyone to say �Rosebud is his sled.� This piece of information is not truly significant. It�s more of a McGuffin than a plot twist. A paradox about spoiling is that people often enjoy a work of fiction such as a Sherlock Holmes story over and over again. They remember the outline of the story, and who did the murder, but this doesn�t stop them re-reading. This demonstrates that the spoilage generated by spoilers is less than we might imagine. It�s bad to spoil, but how bad? People do seem to exaggerate the dreadfulness of spoiling, compared with other examples of inconsiderateness or rudeness. Are there occasions when it�s morally required to spoil? Yes, you might want to dissuade someone from watching or reading something you believed might harm them somehow. Also, you might issue a spoiler in order to save the world from a terrorist attack (Yes, this is a philosophy book, so it has to include at least one totally absurd example). A more doubtful case is deliberate spoiling as a protest, as occurred with Basic Instinct. The book ends with three spoiler lists: the Most Outrageous Spoiler �Horror Stories�; the Greatest Spoilers of All Time; and the Greatest Spoilers in Philosophy.