I was intrigued to discover that researchers at the University of California–San Diego had studied this idea from a scientific/psychological perspective.  Nicholas Christenfeld and Jonathan Leavitt ran experiments with twelve classic short stories, including mystery, ironic-twist, and literary stories.  The stories were presented in three ways: as-is (without a spoiler), prefaced with a spoiler paragraph, or with that same paragraph incorporated directly into the story.  “Subjects significantly preferred the spoiled versions” (Kiderra, “Spoiler Alert: Stories Are Not Spoiled by ‘Spoilers’”), although when the spoilers were incorporated into the story, they weren’t received as well as the stories prefaced by the spoilers. 

Although “the researchers are careful to note that they do not have a new recipe for writers to follow” (Kiderra, “Spoiler Alert: Stories Are Not Spoiled by ‘Spoilers’”), I think there is much to be learned from this study.  Christenfeld boldly states, “Plots are just excuses for great writing.  What the plot is is (almost) irrelevant.  The pleasure is in the writing” (Kiderra, “Spoiler Alert: Stories Are Not Spoiled by ‘Spoilers’”).  Another further article regarding this study states:

Perhaps, [Christenfeld] said, people enjoy a good story as much as a good twist at the end. Even if they know how it comes out, they’ll enjoy the journey as much as the destination.

“Writers use their artistry to make stories interesting, to engage readers, and to surprise them,” Leavitt and Christenfeld said in their paper, to be published in the journal Psychological Science (Potter, “Spoiler Alert: Stories Not Ruined If Ending Revealed”).

Leavitt and Christenfeld, though not writers themselves, are onto something, and Death, the narrator of The Book Thief,  explains this very well:

Of course, I’m being rude.  I’m spoiling the ending, not only of the entire book, but of this particular piece of it.  I have given you two events in advance, because I don’t have much interest in building mystery.  Mystery bores me.  It chores me.  I know what happens and so do you.  It’s the machinations that wheel us there that aggravate, perplex, interest, and astound me.

There are many things to think of.

There is much story (243).

And this, I believe, is the crux of the matter.  Readers—voracious readers who truly love story itself—want to know those “machinations that wheel us there.”  Readers want the details.  Death/Zusak is right.  There are many things to think of.  There is much story.

Works Cited

Kiderra, Inga. “Spoiler Alert: Stories Are Not Spoiled by ‘Spoilers.'” UCSanDiego News Center, 10 Aug. 2011. Web. 07 Feb. 2013.

Potter, Ned. “Spoiler Alert: Stories Not Ruined If Ending Revealed.” ABC News. ABC News Network, 12 Aug. 2011. Web. 07 Feb. 2013.

Zusak, Markus. The Book Thief. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2006. Print.