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Perhaps nothing illustrates the power of the Internet quite like Slender Man. Since the creature's virtual birth in 2009, the story of Slender Man has taken on a life of its own, becoming what some have called the first great myth of the web. Online communities have formed around the character, an astounding amount of effort has been put into developing the Slender Man mythos, and a generation (or a chunk of a generation) will never look at the woods in the same way again. Slender Man is more than a creepy story or a passing Internet meme--he's a living, breathing being, and he's here to stay.
First, what is Slender Man? (I'm sure more than a few are asking that question right now.) Well, the thing about Slender Man is that he is malleable, and his form shifts from person to person, often depending on what that person fears the most. In general, however, it is agreed that Slender Man is an unnaturally tall and thin man dressed in a suit. He has the shape of a face, but no eyes, nostrils, or mouth, and his arms are unreasonably long. Sometimes, instead of (or in addition to) long arms, he has protruding tentacles (as shown in the image above the fold). Because of how the mythology has unfolded, he is most commonly associated with wooded areas, but this is not always the case. It is generally agreed that Slender Man is malevolent, although his exact intentions are far from certain--sometimes he simply stalks, and sometimes he abducts (often children).
Despite a seemingly growing number of people who fear Slender Man in the real world, he is a creation of the Internet. There is no ancient story passed down from generation to generation, nor is there a related preceding myth on which he is based. No, we know exactly when the Slender Man myth was created. Slender Man originated on the Something Awful forum on June 10, 2009. In a thread requesting Something Awful members to create paranormal images, user Victor Surge posted two very creepy pictures, both featuring a frighteningly tall man in a suit standing in the background:
With the images, Victor Surge posted the following:
"we didn't want to go, we didn't want to kill them, but its persistent silence and outstretched arms horrified and comforted us at the same time..."
1983, photographer unknown, presumed dead.
One of two recovered photographs from the Stirling City Library blaze. Notable for being taken the day which fourteen children vanished and for what is referred to as "The Slender Man". Deformities cited as film defects by officials. Fire at library occurred one week later. Actual photograph confiscated as evidence.
1986, photographer: Mary Thomas, missing since June 13th, 1986.
The Slender Man myth was born. It didn't take long for the story to go viral, with fanart and
"creepypastas" (or scary short stories posted online) featuring the creature popping up all over the Internet. Effectively, the story no longer belonged to Victor Surge. Only ten days after the creation of the Slender Man myth, Something Awful user ce gars (real name: Troy Wagner) launched the extremely popular (and very well done) YouTube webseries
Marble Hornets, a "found footage" series featuring sightings of Slender Man. The synopsis from the
Wikipedia page:
The series follows the character of Jay, a young man that is trying to discover what exactly happened during the filming of his friend Alex's film school project, which was titled Marble Hornets. Alex had been filming the project sporadically for about two months before suddenly stopping without any explanation. Afterwards Alex withdrew from society and his friends, never mentioning the tape until Jay persuaded Alex to give them to him. Alex handed them over, but with the explicit instructions that Jay was to never mention the tapes to him again. Alex then transferred schools and dropped out of contact with Jay. Five years later Jay remembered the tapes after reading about the Slender Man mythos in 2009 and began to research the tapes. Shortly thereafter Jay began to experience strange and eerie phenomena surrounding the tapes and a mysterious persona known only as "The Operator".
Today, Slender Man has thousands upon thousands of "fans," with members of online communities such as
Slender Nation devoting their time to discussing and developing the Slender Man mythos. There is even a very popular online game,
Slender: The Eight Pages:
Slender: The Eight Pages is set in the middle of a forest during the night and is played from a first person perspective. The player's objective is to collect eight pages located in various areas of the forest while avoiding the Slender Man. Slender Man moves by teleportation. The player is equipped with only a flashlight to see through the dark; it has limited battery life and will eventually shut down permanently if left on for an extended period of time. The player character has the ability to jog, which will tire out the player if done for too long. Slender Man occasionally appears in the player's field of vision, accompanied with loud noises and/or static on the screen. This also results in the ability to sprint for a short period of time. Sprinting allows the player to move faster than jogging, but doing so will decrease the maximum stamina available for jogging and sprinting. A game over occurs when either the player has taken too long to find a note or if Slender Man comes into contact with the player, which will turn you around and end the game. The game over screen shows Slender Man's "face" up close and blinking static pulses. As the player collects pages, the fog in the forest grows thicker and Slender Man appears closer to the player character, though the sprinting speed slowly increases as well.
I downloaded and played it--it's terrifying. After one game, I got it the hell off of my computer.
Oh, and who could forget the god-awful independent film Entity, which was inspired by the Slender Man story? The 4.2/10 it received on IMDB is generous.
More than four years later, it is clear that Slender Man is much more than a passing phenomenon. The BBC did a fascinating story last year on the Slender Man myth, which it describes as "the first great myth of the web." If you're interested, I encourage you to listen to all thirty minutes of the program, during which BBC Radio's Alex Krotoski interviews Victor Surge and Troy Wagner. In addition, Krotoski interviews Professor Tom Peddit of the University of Southern Denmark. When discussing Slender Man, Peddit refers to what has been called the "Gutenberg Parenthesis," or the period of time from the invention of the printing press to the development of the Internet. Peddit argues that the Slender Man myth marks the closing of the "parenthesis," and thus a return to an older oral tradition in which campfire tales can be retold and reshaped by each storyteller (albeit in a different, web-based medium). I don't think I buy this idea, but it's interesting nevertheless.
In any case, the Slender Man myth appears to be with us to stay. And I, for one, embrace our malevolent, tall, faceless villain and his tentacly appendage...
TOP COMMENTS
December 27, 2013
Thanks to tonight's Top Comments contributors! Let us hear from YOU
when you find that proficient comment.
From Puddytat:
Top Comments is sometimes the place to find Top Comments as happened last night in my diary with Gooserock's fine comment where all the Republican Wars on Everything are boiled down into a single subject line.
From sfbob:
Dallasdoc (who frequently makes terrific comments) had an excellent one in today's diary by Dave in Northridge Absolutely! Utah Has Upset the Supreme Court's Applecart. Apparently some in the legal profession are concerned that a court decision on marriage equality which includes Justice Scalia's "you say that like it's a bad thing" slippery slope argument from his dissent on Windsor shows insufficient deference and insufficient concern for Scalia's feelings. Dallasdoc is having none of that.
From your humble diarist:
I forgot to send this one in last night. In my diary about an Orange County woman who decorated her house in rainbow Christmas lights in response to her anti-gay neighbors complaining about her rainbow flag, CJB left this hilarious comment about the neighbor who whined that he thought about gay sex every time he saw the flag.
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TOP PHOTOS
December 26, 2013
Enjoy jotter's wonderful PictureQuilt™ below. Just click on the picture and it will magically take you to the comment that features that photo. Have fun, Kossacks!
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