For Paul Ens, temptation is a 120-page stack of paper.
Reading the pages is a temptation Ens has yet to give into. It's a testament to his mental discipline, something like the pure restraint of a Jedi Knight. Then again, the Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, programmer and Web designer has a good reason not to succumb. Reading the almost-final draft of the script for The Phantom Menace, the upcoming prequel installment of the Star Wars saga, would spoil his experience of the movie, set to debut in theaters on 19 May.
"I've had it for about three weeks. It's sitting here on a shelf, and every day I think about opening it up, and every day I decide not to read it," Ens said. But Ens said he doesn't want to spoil his experience of seeing the movie.
I agree with Paul Ens. But my experience of seeing the movie has already been spoiled.
weariness with the media juggernaut is as stale and old as the hype itself
perverse, like wading thru a traffic snarl then refusing to gawk at the car crash that caused it
It is the worst sort of feedback loop. A false scarcity is being created, so people actually will need to go to great pains to secure tickets, so that news stations can report on the ferocious enthusiasm of the fans, so that the film gets even more free hype and publicity, so that even more people rush to get in line.
you wouldn't be here if you were truly sick of it. I wouldn't be writing this if I was really sick of it. But
Stay home.
"Are you serious?"
Yes.
"Aren't you just being down on it because it's really popular, and you have to be perverse?"
Yes.
"So you don't think anyone should see the movie?"
No, I just invite you to prove to yourself and to the world that you don't HAVE to see the movie. Wait a day. Wait a week. Wait a month. Or, at the very least, go in with a fully charged deflector shield of ironic distance between you and what you are doing.
"Isn't this all just a crass, cynical ploy to get publicity for the launch of your webzine?"
(Hey, you're not a rhetorical device at all! You're that infernal voice inside my head that tells me to kill, kill, kill!)
"Shut up. The world needs cleansing, and you are my corporeal instrument.."
(Yes master. Let me bid farewell to these tiresome fools, and we can continue plotting.)
Thanks for reading this. Stay home.
Yours etc,
*quote taken from:"The Power of TheForce.net" by Arik Hesseldahl 3:00 a.m. 12.Apr.99.PDT which is located at: http://www.wired.com/news/print_version/culture/story/19060.html?wnpg=all