Folk Stories and Modern Ghost Stories

Sitting around a campfire at night evokes many stereotypical activities, one of which is telling ghost stories. The subjects of these stories are murderers that attack campers, Chupacabrae, and other monsters and psychopaths that are widely known, but with no particular origin. These aren't ideas created by film writers, comic book artists, or any one person; these are folk stories. They begin as a regular story, probably completely true, that gets morphed and twisted into something a little less true, through word of mouth. It changes and contorts until it's completely different. A dog attack turns into a giant dog attack. A giant dog attack turns into a monstrous animal ravaging a village. These are the origins of the great ghost stories.

So what are the modern day folk stories? What is the 2012 Chupacabra? What kind of monstrous beings does the Internet have in store? In this age, word of mouth travels instantaneously, the source of any story can be tracked down to a specific IP address. So how does it work?

Let's take a look at one in particular: Slender Man. KnowYourMeme.com has great coverage of the origins of Slender Man, including references to the "original" images that were posted to the forum site SomethingAwful.com which I have posted here as well.

The "original" Slenderman was created as part of a photo doctoring competition in which normal photographs were doctored to look creepy. The competition involved tricking people on another forum site that takes these things seriously, to take it seriously. The trick in these cases is subtlety. As you can see in these photos, there isn't anything immediatly alarming in them - but you get the feeling that the man doesn't look right. He's tall - very tall - and lanky. He's wearing a suit and you can't really see his face. Worst of all is that he's playing with children. What does he want with them? Why is he there? Personally - I find it a bit unsettling to look at.

As KnowYourMeme.com points out, The Slender Man story has been told and retold and altered by many people on the Internet and in the media. Though it is believed to be the inspiration for the Doctor Who villains "The Silence" (pictured right) similar monsters to The Slender Man have existed long before, as shown in the Buffy: The Vampire Slayer episode "Hush" as "The Gentlemen" (video below).

Sources:

Tomberry, Cyber6x. (2010). Slender Man. Know Your Meme. Retrieved from http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/slender-man