What Was Old Is New Again
One of America’s most revered authors, Mark Twain, once stated, “There is no such thing as a new idea… They are the same old pieces of colored glass that have been in use through all the ages.” While he was likely speaking of writing at the time, this general thought can be seen across the globe in almost every field: science, music, visual arts- right down to the core of societies: myths. Even within one of the most modern American myths, that of Slenderman, comparisons can be drawn from some of the oldest religions and plays on humanity’s oldest fear.
Myths have been around since the beginning of human awareness in order to explain the unexplainable phenomena surrounding them in a complex world. Psychologists like Doctor Alex Lickerman have devoted their lives to the study of why humans must know why. In his book, The Undefeated Mind: On the Science of Constructing an Indestructible Self, he calls humans “meaning-seeking creatures” on multiple occasions and justifies that title by explaining that people, in general, are more likely to accept change if they can understand the reason for the change (Lickerman). It is this coping mechanism that has stemmed a multitude of myths.
Merriam-Webster defines a myth as a story that “serves to unfold part of the world view of a people or explain a practice, belief, or natural phenomenon” (Myth). But when science then defines what was once an enigma, the previous interpretation is disregarded as an outdated reasoning. As such, many ‘explanations’ have been relegated to the realm of myth and fiction. However, mythology is not a stagnant field of research. Science has explained how the planet Earth came into existence, why creatures on the planet experience day and night, how bolts of light split the sky during a storm, and so much more. But new questions constantly arise and there is the ageless fear of the unknown.
Xenophobia, a psychological diagnosis of an incomprehensible fear of foreigners, is derived from the Greek word xenos, with a direct translation meaning “stranger.” The base term, however, can be used to convey divergent concepts such as “enemy” and “unknown” as well as “guest-friend” (as seen in Sophocles’ tragedy Philoctetes). Therefore, xenophobia is actually the clinical term for a fear of the general unknown (Xenophobia). Researchers believe this to be among the six fears with which humans are hardwired and lead to our over-arching purpose: to explain everything. Slenderman is the personification of mankind’s innate xenophobia.
Birthed in 2009 on a forum dedicated to altering photos, Slenderman is the brainchild of Eric Knudsen (known by the username of “Victor Surge”). Knudsen posted two photographs that he had manipulated to display the previous subjects of the picture being loomed over by a tall, think, faceless man in a dark business suit. While the visage of such a creature gives rise to curiosity and suspicion, it was the cryptic captions Knudsen wrote to accompany his creations that began the rockfall of horror. This first picture he posted was of a large group of teenagers walking toward the camera within a forest with a cabin in the background and a man easily twice their height following behind with arms out as if to herd them away from the cabin. The accompanying caption read:
“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.
The second photo Knudsen altered for his first post showed younger child on a playground surrounded by large trees and a tall figure with multiple arms in the shade with several children sitting around him. Beneath this, he wrote another vague explanation:
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 at “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.
From humble origins, the Slenderman myth then caught the attention of other creative minds and spurred an entire mythos including Slenderman, his brothers and cousin, and a realm of creatures that hide in the dark places in every room. He began a narrative on the internet where the vague believability was reinforced by the blurred lines of reality and fiction generated fragmented evidence relating to the Slenderman myth having been uncovered rather than created. His powers evolved from obscurity to the uncontrollable: those who see Slenderman become his targets of his attentions. He will stalk his victims and bad things start happening to both the watched and those surrounding them. The prey will often have blackouts that often coincide with the perpetration of violent crimes in the areas. Their friends and family will often become ill, mentally unstable, or simply disappear.
The documentation of Slenderman has become an obsession for some and has even caused misguided attempted murders on multiple occasions. The most infamous crime purportedly inspired by the manipulations of Slenderman occurred in 2014 when two twelve-year-old girls lured a third girl into the woods in Waukesha, Wisconsin and stabbed her nineteen times. The victim, Payton Leutner, survived and the two assailants were charged with attempted first-degree intentional homicide. Experts who testified at the hearings stated that one attacker had schizophrenia and an oppositional defiant disorder that would require long-term mental health treatment. The second girl was then diagnoses with a delusional disorder and schizotypy, leading to a belief in Slenderman. According to authorities involved in the case, the two girls intended to sacrifice Payton in an attempt to summon Slenderman and hoped to live with him. This, however, was not an isolated instance. Slenderman alone has been linked to twenty-three cases worldwide since his first appearance on the forums of Something Awful.
A large part of the allure involved with tracing Slenderman is his ability to draw on both primordial fears and postmodern anxieties concurrently. The faceless visage and dark appearance both play into fears hardwired within humanity as they are the subject of myths as old as civilization. But his draw of horror is not limited to the realm of history; his emergence on the internet coincided with an accelerated growth of the internet and new technologies causing a resurgence of surveillance paranoia throughout the country. His dress is often that of a dark business suit implying the modern distrust of those with wealth or power, a fear which has led to multiple massive protests since the governmental capitalism shift that began in 2000 with the election of George W. Bush to the presidency. Xenophobia also began to take on a more modern definition as terror groups sparked wars and killed millions, a battle still waging today.
But other than his unique play on modern terrors, Slenderman is actually a conglomeration of ancient myths. His title as the face of death is one traditionally given to the Grim Reaper. Death itself was dubbed the Grim Reaper late in the fourteenth century during the bubonic plague that claimed at least twenty-five million lives (Harris). Artists began portraying the angel of death as a tall, slender figure wrapped in a dark cloak with the either the face hidden or a featureless skull. This countenance is even older than the plague-era, however.
Ghost stories are part of the essential religions of Japan, particularly in Shintoism, but also draws elements from Buddhism and Taoism. Most Japanese people believe that once a person dies, their spirit is angry and violent. To help pacify the spirit, there are a number of specific rituals performed as part of the funeral rites, mostly taken from Buddhist traditions. But the Japanese people, even today, believe they are surrounded by spirits day and night, each of which has a gentle soul, the nigi-mi-tama, and a violent soul, or the ara-mi-tama. This comes straight from the Shinto religion, stemming from the spiritualism of Japan itself, which boasts more than eight million spiritual entities inhabit the earth and the heavens (Rubin). These spirits are divided into several major classes, but it is from the yōkai that Slenderman likely derives a majority of his attributes.
Shintoism is one of the oldest organized religions still practiced in the modern world. This polytheistic religion can be traced back to the sixth century B.C.E. and has more than a thousand types of spirits (Religion). The one most resembling Slenderman is a type of yokai called a noppera-bō. These spirits often blend in seamlessly with human society, inhabiting roads, inns, and even shops. The only visible difference between an average person and a noppera-bō is that the spirit has no face, simply a featureless blank slate. Often they will entertain themselves by spooking humans and reveling in their terror. Almost every culture, however, has a Slenderman-like figure to haunt them: the Germans have Der Grossman, most Western Europeans have faeries that steal children and force them to commit evil acts, the Chinese have a demon named a hundun considered to be the source of all chaos; the list goes on.
Despite all the assumptions made by fans of the Slenderman mythos, Knudsen has refused to weigh in on his personal inspiration. He filed for a copyright and has since given his personal blessing to a vast number of Slenderman-based projects like movies, video games, and books. This copyright is not for the sake of the money, he argues, but for artistic integrity. In 2016, Knudsen sold the copyright to Mythology Entertainment (Rogers).
Imaginative minds have spent centuries developing shambling monsters that mingle folklore with the godlike powers science could develop. Birthed by the internet, spread by social media, and manifested by the physiologically unstable, Slenderman is the modern Frankenstein, playing the manifestation of humanity’s most primeval fears with postmodern stressors. He is an omniteunous presence and a predator.
And he is watching you.
Works Cited
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Rubin, Norman A. “Ghosts, Demons and Spirits in Japanese Lore.” Norman A. Rubin: Ghosts, Demons and Spirits in Japanese Lore, Asian Art, 26 June 2000, www.asianart.com/articles/rubin/. Accessed 10 Apr. 2017.
Surge, Victor. "Create Paranormal Images." The Something Awful Forums. N.p., 10 June 2009. Web. 28 Feb. 2017. <https://forums.somethingawful.com/showthread.php?threadid=3150591>.
“Xenophobia.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/xenophobia. Accessed 22 Apr. 2017.
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