To Believe or Not To Believe
Modern Urban Legends
Many people have heard the tale of the dotty grandmother who tried to dry off her damp poodle by placing it in the microwave oven. The dog exploded, sad to say the least , and Grandma has never been quite the same since. The story is not true; it is an urban legend, circulating by word of mouth since the 1970s (Brunvand, 108). Urban legends are popular stories alleged to be true and transmitted from person to person by oral or written communication. Legends tend to arise spontaneously and are rarely traceable to a single point of origin. They spread primarily from individual to individual through various communication, and only in atypical cases through mass media or other institutional means. Every culture has its folktales, including modern America. However, instead of involving gods and goddesses or princes and princesses, modern society's legends involve "some guy my sister's best friend knows" or "someone who woke up in a motel room." They happened, supposedly, to real people, usually recently, in a particular place. They touch the most sensitive nerves of human minds with ironic twists, gross-out shocks, and moral lessons learned the hard way. However, the most remarkable thing about these stories is that so many people believe them and pass them on. Why does an audience take the storyteller's word at face value, instead of recognizing it as an urban legend? The most obvious reasons as to why this happens are how the story is told to an individual, the relationship between the teller and the listener, and in the case of horror legends, the fear invoked through the moral of the story.
There are many particular elements of an urban legend that play an enormous role in how it is interpreted by the public. They are usually characterized by a combination of humor, horror or a warning. The two types of urban legends are cautionary, usually having a moral to the story or a warning to stay "safe", and non-cautionary, which have no cautionary or moral element at all (Harris, 1). The details or 'beef' of these legends are the primary factors that make them so believable. A good example is the "Alligators in the Sewer" legend. The setting of this legend is usually a large city, in which a reptile-loving fanatic de...
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... of a legend, and the details provide a vivid image for the mind to weave. Like numerous other cultures in history, the modern human is searching for answers to questions. However, these questions cannot be answered by the means that exist in the twenty-first century, so they return to the intellectual way of explaining events through their own perception, which are then created into stories and later evolve into legends and myths. Urban legends hold a significant place within the world's cultures, dating back to time beyond remembering, and are likely to be told and believed well into the future.
References
Brown, Yorick. The 500 Best Urban Legends Ever! New York City: I Books, 2003.
Brunvard, Jan Harold. Too Good to Be True: The Colossal Book of Urban
Legends. New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 2000. 180, 240-249.
Harris, Tom. Howstuffworks 'How Urban Legends Work'. 2001. 1 Mar. 2004.
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Roeper, Richard. Urban Legends: The Truth Behind All Those Deliciously
Entertaining Myths That Are Absolutely, Positively, 100% Not True. New York
City: Career P, 1999. 179-182.
How is the word myth used popularly? In today’s society, myths are more commonly referred to as a story that is known amongst a group that may or may not have any truth or validity to it. These type of stories have been told from one generation to another generation with a common theme every time it is said or repeated. I remember growing up my older sister would scare us younger kids with the urban myth of Candyman. This was during a time before I even knew about the movie, and for her, it was a way to scare us kids out of our wits. She would tell us about this story of a slave who returns from the dead as a ghost who was in search of revenge and could only be summoned by saying his name five times while facing a mirror.
...hich is which and who is who", we see the Wicked Witch of the West looking at the dead feet of the Wicked Witch of the East.
Urban legends are the supernatural folklore of our modern society. From one generation to the next, they orally travel throughout the world, constantly changing from one region to the next. Although cultural variations exist, the core of all these urban legends remains the same, to unveil the universally known individual and societal fears. “The Graveyard Wager” is a timeless urban legend told again and again, and the one of which I will explore more in depth.
Now we have examined three stories written by two well distinguished authors known for their Southern Gothic Literature and found many similarities in each story. Each story has its form of the grotesque we have Miss Emily, the Misfit, the Grandmother, and Marley Pointer and let’s not leave out Helga. The characters of each story has some form of cringe inducing quality, meaning some kind of attitude about themselves that gets under ones skin. Then as we can see from the stories they all are Southern based each story is in a Southern setting. And the final thing we look for in Southern Gothic literature is tragedy which all three stories possessed.
This article allows access to proof of the fears, dangers and misconception to be used in my article. It also states the percentages of user who have met...
An article from October 1982 “Fighting That Old Devil Rumor” by Sandra Salmans from the Saturday Evening Post talks about what Procter and gamble did to stop a rumor about them that would not go away back in 1982. What is the Purpose of this article though. The purpose is to show how fast rumors can spread, and what they can do to a company. It also shows that the company will fight back in order to keep a positive image, and to help dispense the rest of the rumor. If they are trying to dispense the rest of the rumor they are probably trying to reach adults who are 25 years and older , that are also married. In this respect of the attended audience this article succeeds. Salmans main points throughout this article get through to the intended audience, but more than that what Salmans says throughout the article helps as well. With those two points in mind that is what I use throughout this paper to analyze the article. One of the merits going for the article is when it provides an example of this rumor situation happening to another company. Then later on in the article when Procter and Gamble take charge and start suing people Salmans tells exactly who the people are. Back at the beginning of the article Salmans talks about all the different companies that Procter and Gamble own showing you how severe the situation was.
Many times people relate a good horror story to a nameless amount of speculations, but actually their poor assumptions demonstrate only how little we know about the matter. Horror is controversial in itself because while some intend to logically explain the aspects that create an effective horror story, others prefer to justify our interest stating that we are naturally terror-loving creatures. In my opinion, I believe an effective horror story must be as highly suspenseful, fear-driven, and mysterious as it can be.
The narratives that we find in this story are always set in the most everyday reality, in a daily routine that apparently has nothing special. Until everything changes. Although we do not find in these stories supernatural elements or the characteristics of horror stories. Perhaps because it is responsible for teaching us the terrible
There are many Myths and legends in the world and some are more common than others. Different people believe in different myths and legends. They are different myths and legends that correspond with different religions and countries. Myths can be a long story or a short story, some myths can be more interesting than others.
Its one thing to hear an urban legend but it’s another to actually put you in the place the legend happened. Realizing the truth for you is one of the biggest reasons behind the many different stories told of myths and legends. But one of the problems with these stories being passed down is the lack of historical evidence. Anyone can come up with their own personal experience of something that may or may not have actually happened, but the solid background information is key in making it actually believable. This is why I’m lead to believe that story of The Nunnery, based in Logan Canyon, has too many fictitious angles surrounding the legend.
Urban legends have been around for centuries. They were created to warn us about a community fear we have. Most urban legends are made up and have no truth behind them, but some of them are formed around something that has happened in the past. Urban legends have been passed on orally from generation to generation. One of the urban legends that stood out to me was “Slender Man”. “Slender Man” was created to teach a lesson to children and parents back then and still is living on to be told today. Using research, summarizing, and analyzing the story of “Slender Man” I determined that it is used as a cautionary tale.
Elements of the supernatural have long enhanced the folklore of many cultures. Stories of ghosts, magic, and so-called aliens are transferred from generation to generation, sparking our imagination and uncovering our deepest fears. While some stories are clearly fabulous, others are believed by those who tell them. The story I wish to report is of the latter kind: an experience that generated real fear in the teller. Although the story is completely original, it contains ideas reflected in much other folklore, including similar tales from similar locations. And like all folklore, the effectiveness of the story depends upon the performance of the teller and those to follow.
“A myth is a way of making sense in a senseless world. Myths are narrative patterns that give significance to our existence.” ― Rollo May
A rumor can be classified as a special case of informal social communications that include myth, legend, and current humor. Rumors have three basic characteristics to them. The first is mode transmission which is usually done through word of mouth. The second characteristic is that they provide information, ranging from a particular person, an event, or condition. Lastly, the third characteristic is that a rumor satisfies mythology, folklore, and humor. Rumors have the tendency to express and gratify the emotional needs of the community in the same way as a day dream might have on an individual. The emotional needs most frequently demanded by rumors would be wish, fear, and hostility.
Throughout time, mankind has forged stories and legends to explain the unknown. As years went along the stories and tall tales were passed down to each generation. Each recount of the inherited stories are always told differently, how the story was told usually depended on the person and their particular region of habitance. Thus leading to hundreds of different versions of a single story told throughout the world, written and told by different people. Not only are these stories told as pure entertainment, they serve as wise life lessons and set examples for children when they were eventually introduced to society. These stories are so prominent in human history that even to this day the same stories that were told to children centuries ago