It's not the ending that counts.

So, news from Wired's Threat Level blog that someone claims to have hacked into the files of JK Rowling's publisher and found the final spoiler of the Harry Potter series. Excerpt:

An anonymous hacker claims to have used computer magic to peer through the extreme secrecy surrounding the ending of the Harry Potter saga and posted online unverified details from the soon-to-be released final book in best-selling series.

The hacker, posting under the handle Gabriel, claims to have gotten a copy of the seventh and final installment of the blockbuster Harry Potter series that chronicles the adventures of a child magician by hacking into Bloomsbury, the series' London-based publisher.

OK, there's been lots of speculation about just how Rowling intends to finish the series, with people posting this or that supposed spoiler online for months now. But what is somewhat insightful is the stated reason for 'Gabriel' to have done this:

Gabriel said he wanted to spoil the ending to Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows to protect people from its "Neo Paganism" and was able to get into the publisher's computer network by convincing an Bloomsbury employee to open an email with malware attached.

"We make this spoiler to make reading of the upcoming book useless and boring," Gabriel wrote.

Got that? They want to spoil the surprise in order to stop people from reading the book, in order to protect us from ourselves.

Whenever I run into this kind of thinking, I am always amazed and a little disheartened. Because, quite simply, they miss the point entirely, and betray their own limited view of literature and life. It's not the ending that counts - it's the journey. In the case of literature or movies, it isn't just about the plot - it's about how the writer tells the story, how the director communicates that story, how the actors play their parts.

I was recently surprised when someone I know said that they never re-read a book, or never watch a movie more than once. Hell, I have books I've read every year or two since I was about 10. I've got a decent collection of movies, but still I see each of them at least once a year. To me, just reading a book once or watching a movie once would be like listening to a song once - fairly pointless.

We all know how our own personal story is going to end: death. For believers, they have faith in an afterlife, when they will get to party on with God/Jesus/Allah & the virgins/whatever. But for me, the point isn't that I'll eventually be wormfood, it is in the living day-to-day, in sharing my love and experiences, in the journey rather than the end. I don't know how the final Harry Potter book will end, and I don't trust any spoilers posted by someone with an agenda. I do know that I will read the book, probably many times, to enjoy how a talented writer resolves the story she tells.

Jim Downey