Pen-Elayne on the Web

The Big Build-Up

It's a well-known adage that anticipating an event is often more viscerally satisfying than the event itself, particularly if the payoff is uncertain. That's why some TV networks are already touting their new fall shows - the lamer they sound, the harder they're pushed. That's why theaters tease for movies that won't even be out for another year and a half (see my June 5 entry) - the theory probably goes that, the more buzz they can generate for a longer period of time, the likelier their films are to stick in the public's consciousness. Even in comics, many casual readers aren't aware that new books are by and large hyped and pre-ordered 2-3 months before their dates of publication, making it tricky for retailers to anticipate order numbers for non-returnable titles and trickier to respond to those folks who drop into the shop "looking for that book I heard about on the news today" and who don't quite get that "it won't be here for another 60-90 days." (Oh, speaking of which, in this month's Previews, the solicitation for CrossGen's title The First needs a slight correction - Rob Hunter won't be inking the interiors of issue #34, that'd be Rob Riggs. :) ) And if you look at any of the comics news boards, some of the real high-profile stuff gets written up even further in advance. Given many fans' propensity to pass negative judgment at the first whiff of news regarding any given book, this gives many a chance to bitch twice or even thrice about the same story - once when it's first announced, then when it's solicited/hyped, and finally when it actually appears on the stands. Now that's entertainment!

So anyway, Clemens didn't get Win Number 300 (nor Strikeout Number 4000) today, and Funny Cide didn't do better than show in the Belmont so there went his owners' and jockey's dreams of Triple Crown glory. But that didn't stop the networks that showed the game and the race from doing their best "this is destiny, and if it doesn't happen the terrorists have won!" intonations beforehand. Because they figure we wanted to see it, it kept us glued (actually it kept me busy, dinner was prepared and the checkbook balanced and so forth), and they had to hedge their bets - chances were just as good viewers would be disappointed rather than elated, so the story had to be more about the wanting than the actual having. The latter is never a guarantee; the former almost always is.

And we (well, most of us who don't spend any real money on this) move on. Because it's only entertainment, it's not going to affect our lives overmuch. We just go on to the next anticipation (will Harvey show up in drag tomorrow? and who will he be wearing?).

Seems like it's only in real life that the idea of whipping up the viewers into an anticipatory frenzy isn't necessarily such a good one.