I would worry a bit about spoiling someone's potential enjoyment of a use-and-dispose work, and I'd worry about diminishing, even in a minor way, someone's enjoyment of a work that remains worthwhile even without its surprises, but there are categories of works which most folks don't expect to need to protect. I don't think Citizen Kane is "ruined" by knowing what "Rosebud" refers to before it starts, or that Romeo and Juliet isn't worth watching because we all know how it ends, or that the end of season ... uh whichever season Glory was in -- five, right?... of Buffy isn't worth watching just because you know there was a season six; but watching the final episode of season seven the second time was a different emotional experience than watching it without knowing who would survive. Still worth going back to -- all the important aspects remain powerful -- but different.
If I accidentally spoil the surprise for someone in a work that's generally considered safe to discuss, because they're one of the few people who was going to see it but hadn't yet, that's unfortunate but mostly in the "oops, oh well" category. But for everything else, I try to be polite even when I feel spoiling the surprise doesn't ruin the work.
So what I'm wondering is whether The Marvelous Land of Oz is a book we can assume has already been read by most of the people interested in it, a classic that new people are constantly discovering for the first time, sufficiently obscure that most of the people who haven't read it aren't likely to encounter it, or has a surprise that's sufficiently unsurprising that revealing it doesn't actually spoil anything.
As to whether it suffers the revelation, well, I would read it again myself, so I guess it survives it.
(no subject)
If I accidentally spoil the surprise for someone in a work that's generally considered safe to discuss, because they're one of the few people who was going to see it but hadn't yet, that's unfortunate but mostly in the "oops, oh well" category. But for everything else, I try to be polite even when I feel spoiling the surprise doesn't ruin the work.
So what I'm wondering is whether The Marvelous Land of Oz is a book we can assume has already been read by most of the people interested in it, a classic that new people are constantly discovering for the first time, sufficiently obscure that most of the people who haven't read it aren't likely to encounter it, or has a surprise that's sufficiently unsurprising that revealing it doesn't actually spoil anything.
As to whether it suffers the revelation, well, I would read it again myself, so I guess it survives it.