Folklore, Horror Stories, and the Slender Man - by S Chess & E Newsom (Hardcover)

About the Book

Since 2009, the Slender Man had been growing in popularity as an emergent, groundbreaking Internet horror myth. It entered the broader popular consciousness in May 2014, when two twelve year old girls led a third girl into a wooded area and stabbed her numerous times. The Slender Man takes on important cultural meanings in the age of the Internet - meanings often neglected when the crime version of the story went reported in the media. The revisions that they made to it helps to suggest an iterative folk telling tradition. Because the Slender Man storytelling process has become both crowd sourced and participatory - taking place at what we identify as a "digital campfire" - the interpretations and analyses are not meant to be static, but to provide an explanation of how Internet mythologies develop and prosper. This book introduces unique attributes of digital culture and establishes a needed framework for studies of other Internet memes and mythologies. -- Provided by publisher.

Book Synopsis

The Slender Man entered the general popular consciousness in May 2014, when two young girls led a third girl into a wooded area and stabbed her. Examining the growth of the online horror phenomenon, this book introduces unique attributes of digital culture and establishes a needed framework for studies of other Internet memes and mythologies.

Review Quotes

"This work covers much of the Slender Man, his birth and subsequent life online. It also looks hard at how modern tales are written, and the similarity with how tales were told and evolved in our past. ... it is a worthy coverage of just how the internet is being used by us to enable the numinous corners of our consciousness." (Trevor Pyne, Magonia Review of Books, The Magonia Blog, pelicanist.blogspot.co.uk, April, 2017)

About the Author

Shira Chess is Assistant Professor in the Department of Telecommunications at the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communications, University of Georgia, USA.
Eric Newsom is Assistant Professor of Communication at the University of Central Missouri, USA.