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 Forum index » Chaotic Fiction » Slender Man Mythos
Dehumanizing the Slender Man
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Zevin_Mars
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Joined: 14 Feb 2011
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 		Dehumanizing the Slender Man
Ok, so am I the only person who feels that the Slender Man is at his most frightening when he's not being thought of as some alien life form but instead a malevolent, supernatural force?

For example, I read a WMG a while back that talked about how Slender Man might be a more impulsive member of his Slender-species. Essentially making him/her/it a rebellious teenage youth, as well as making Slendy one of many, which makes it hard for me to really appreciate the horror when I think that he's just Grandpa Pete Slendy's rotten grandson.

Maybe Dehumanizing isn't the right word, but what I'm getting at is that I don't think the Slender Man as very scary when we start to move away from the horrific, supernatural force aspect of the character.

Anyone agree? disagree?

PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 4:45 am
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TheNightmareComplex
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 		I think my roomate's stepfather said it the best.

"It's terrifying because I know that no matter what I do, I can't shoot it and kill it."
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GONNA PUNCH ALL DA SLENDERMANS

PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 5:00 am
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Zevin_Mars
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TheNightmareComplex wrote:
I think my roomate's stepfather said it the best.

"It's terrifying because I know that no matter what I do, I can't shoot it and kill it."


Yeah, part of what I love about EMH is that it showed how well direct combat with Slender Man would go for the attacker.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 5:05 am
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SolDL
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 		That's just one of the core premises of cosmic horror: He can't be knowable.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 6:38 am
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wheeler
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 		i agree. he/she/it's scary because he/she/it's an unknown supernatural entity. slender man seems impossible to kill at this moment because trying to stab him or run him over hasn't worked.

but the theory of there being multiple slendy's out there just takes the horror out of it for me. i find it much scarier that slender man is one being...one very creepy being.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 9:43 am
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cemetrygates
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 		Re: Dehumanizing the Slender Man
Forget cosmic horror - mystery is one of the most powerful tools in any horror story. Slenderman is scary because his intentions are not known, his method of attack(if there even is one) is not known, and he does not even have a face. Slenderman is a blank slate that we each project our personal, individual fears onto. He has no definable shape and no distinct color. When you're walking out at night any shadow that seems unreasonably long or a little too distinct in the corner of your eye could be Slenderman.

When stories try too hard to give us an explanation it suddenly just isn't as scary. Slenderman is in the same vein as Stephen King's IT. You can never know ITs true form so you can only imagine what the scariest possible form will be. And if you ever ran into it on the street it would look even scarier because it takes the form of what you are most afraid of. And what makes it so much worse - no one will ever believe or help you.

The problem that this creates for the writer then is how to resolve the story without spoiling these elements.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 9:48 am
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Nimbus
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 		Re: Dehumanizing the Slender Man
cemetrygates wrote:
Forget cosmic horror - mystery is one of the most powerful tools in any horror story. Slenderman is scary because his intentions are not known, his method of attack(if there even is one) is not known, and he does not even have a face. Slenderman is a blank slate that we each project our personal, individual fears onto. He has no definable shape and no distinct color. When you're walking out at night any shadow that seems unreasonably long or a little too distinct in the corner of your eye could be Slenderman.

When stories try too hard to give us an explanation it suddenly just isn't as scary. Slenderman is in the same vein as Stephen King's IT. You can never know ITs true form so you can only imagine what the scariest possible form will be. And if you ever ran into it on the street it would look even scarier because it takes the form of what you are most afraid of. And what makes it so much worse - no one will ever believe or help you.

The problem that this creates for the writer then is how to resolve the story without spoiling these elements.


That's pretty much why the $20 meme is popular: it gives him a motive.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 10:10 am
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Lewa
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 		Re: Dehumanizing the Slender Man
Nimbus wrote:
cemetrygates wrote:
Forget cosmic horror - mystery is one of the most powerful tools in any horror story. Slenderman is scary because his intentions are not known, his method of attack(if there even is one) is not known, and he does not even have a face. Slenderman is a blank slate that we each project our personal, individual fears onto. He has no definable shape and no distinct color. When you're walking out at night any shadow that seems unreasonably long or a little too distinct in the corner of your eye could be Slenderman.

When stories try too hard to give us an explanation it suddenly just isn't as scary. Slenderman is in the same vein as Stephen King's IT. You can never know ITs true form so you can only imagine what the scariest possible form will be. And if you ever ran into it on the street it would look even scarier because it takes the form of what you are most afraid of. And what makes it so much worse - no one will ever believe or help you.

The problem that this creates for the writer then is how to resolve the story without spoiling these elements.


That's pretty much why the $20 meme is popular: it gives him a motive.
I think it just adds to the mystery. I mean, what is wifin'? Why not demand more than just $20? Why does Mr. Browz work for Slenderman?

PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 10:29 am
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Zevin_Mars
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wheeler wrote:
i agree. he/she/it's scary because he/she/it's an unknown supernatural entity. slender man seems impossible to kill at this moment because trying to stab him or run him over hasn't worked.

but the theory of there being multiple slendy's out there just takes the horror out of it for me. i find it much scarier that slender man is one being...one very creepy being.


Yeah, having more than one makes it normal in some sense, having there be only one makes it an anomaly.

It gets even more terrifying when you take into account the sheer number of blogs and Vlogs claiming to be stalked by Slendy at the same time.

Quote:

Forget cosmic horror - mystery is one of the most powerful tools in any horror story. Slenderman is scary because his intentions are not known, his method of attack(if there even is one) is not known, and he does not even have a face. Slenderman is a blank slate that we each project our personal, individual fears onto. He has no definable shape and no distinct color. When you're walking out at night any shadow that seems unreasonably long or a little too distinct in the corner of your eye could be Slenderman.

When stories try too hard to give us an explanation it suddenly just isn't as scary. Slenderman is in the same vein as Stephen King's IT. You can never know ITs true form so you can only imagine what the scariest possible form will be. And if you ever ran into it on the street it would look even scarier because it takes the form of what you are most afraid of. And what makes it so much worse - no one will ever believe or help you.

The problem that this creates for the writer then is how to resolve the story without spoiling these elements.


I think this is the ultimate shortcoming of the Lost Episode Across the Sea which explains the origin of Jacob and the Man in Black, but...

Spoiler (Rollover to View):
in making them human, a part of their grandeur is lost (haha, see what I did there?).


To be honest, Lost was at it's best when it wasn't explaining the mysterious back story of mysteries (Stranger in a Strange Land and Across the Sea for example) but was instead telling stories of the people who were affected by the weirdness around them (Ab Aeterno, The Constant, and Walk About)

See, there's a difference between resolving a plot thread and leaving no back story related stone unturned and I think that's something most people don't realize. Marble Hornets plot could probably be resolved without ever explaining what Slendy is or why he's after Jay and co. (insert obligatory $20 joke here)

tl;dr Midichlorians took a lot away from Star Wars, it didn't add anything.

Quote:

I think it just adds to the mystery. I mean, what is wifin'? Why not demand more than just $20? Why does Mr. Browz work for Slenderman?


Well, urban dictionary says wifin is...

Quote:
to stay home n chill wit your wifey rather than go out wit da boys


So I must ask how does one stay at home with their wifey whilst at the club? Why does doing this incur a $20 fine?

PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 11:27 am
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NoMoreGaems
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Quote:
I think it just adds to the mystery. I mean, what is wifin'? Why not demand more than just $20?


Wifin' is taking up a girl's time in the club, like she was your wife, so gimme 20 dollars. Corollary: Never treat a girl you just met in the club like she's your girlfriend, or gimme 20 dollars.

Sorry.

I've talked about this subject in the "dos and don'ts" thread, and my opinion is that Slenderman as an unknowable cosmic force is really a fairly recent development. His early appearances painted him more as something like a faerie, or perhaps a malevolent spirit. Other popular examples made him seem like an alien scientist, ones I personally liked best, like when he dissected the hunter and left him tied up in a tree with all his organs in bags stuffed into his body cavity.

Him being some sort of nyarlathotep figure is very much a product of how the character is treated in most of the current blogs, which in turn seem mostly run by people who only know of him via Marble Hornets and EverymanHYBRID. While that version of Slenderman is fairly good, I prefer him when you actually do get a glimpse at what looks like motive.

Having it be clear what he is and how he operates is of course ill advised, but if you find him leaving bodies all mutilated in a very specific way, or hear of him taking children and returning them years later, things like that, that's far more sinister. It combines the threat of an unknowable force with the more intimate fear of human cruelty, which I think is the real power of the mythos: the juxtaposition of the alien and surreal with the banal and human, the combination of suburban life and cosmic horror, of child abduction with terrifying eldritch creatures. In this way, he's a modern version of the faerie myths, I feel, combining mundane but all too real fears with fantastical and terrifying forces.

For what it's worth, I really just straight up miss seeing Slenderman in the vlogs. Everything nowadays is obsessed with stalkers leaving creepy messages; TribeTwelve and EverymanHYBRID have been completely hijacked by it, Marble Hornets has had one slendy sighting in the whole season, and most of the other vlogs are just not very well done... Sad

PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 11:38 am
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Zevin_Mars
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NoMoreGaems wrote:

For what it's worth, I really just straight up miss seeing Slenderman in the vlogs. Everything nowadays is obsessed with stalkers leaving creepy messages; TribeTwelve and EverymanHYBRID have been completely hijacked by it, Marble Hornets has had one slendy sighting in the whole season, and most of the other vlogs are just not very well done... Sad


Yeah, people seem to have really latched on to the TTA/Maskey concept and ran with it... straight into the ground. EMH has grown less and less interesting to me ever since habit started tweeting, and I never really got into Tribe Twelve...

I mean, I've never read any of the Blogs, though I'm familiar with some of them via TV Tropes, I'm familiar with some of the early SA stuff, but most of my experience comes from the big three Vlogs, and I didn't even like Tribe Tweelve that much (Great special effects and pretty good editing, but Noah can't really act very well and seems to always write entries that have him acting, part of what kept the weak acting of MarbleH from killing it was that the acting was minimal...) but yeah, now that you mention it, I'm really tired of the creepy stalkers taking center stage more so than Slendy.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 11:53 am
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NoMoreGaems
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 		Yeah... TribeTwelve's gotten better since Milo left, is all I can say, really.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:02 pm
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Trygon
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 		Looking at where EMH is at the moment, I really wish Slender Man would just kill the shit out of HABIT, Damsel and the Rake so that we can get on with it. There has barely been anything related to Slender Man showing up in the series for ages. And I miss their Slender Man. They did a really good job with it.
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PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:34 pm
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MsSynclair
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 		Sometimes it's what we are lead to believe that is the most frightening. The fact this being can exist in our world and be a threat while we can do nothing to defend ourselves can be frightening. The way he breaks down his victims over time and not giving them a single clue to their fate or what will happen to them is scary. Knowing that you could be chosen at random or doomed from a specific point in time that is irreversible can be scary.

Not knowing is the worst part.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 12:46 pm
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Bartok
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Trygon wrote:
Looking at where EMH is at the moment, I really wish Slender Man would just kill the shit out of HABIT, Damsel and the Rake so that we can get on with it. There has barely been anything related to Slender Man showing up in the series for ages. And I miss their Slender Man. They did a really good job with it.


Meh, TribeTwelve has a much better Slender Man, by far, and that's not mentioning the tentacles. Right now, TribeTwelve has satisfied my slender appetite, more so that Everyman has, especially recently. EMH is too involved with their Habit tournament and I haven't seen Slendy in a long while. I'm hoping either of their next entries offers some Slender Man glimpses, but to be truthful, I'm more looking forward to a TribeTwelve update. I sense tentacles may make another appearance... *hopes*

Otherwise, I think the tentacles are really the feature that makes Slender Man really inhuman. Thus, they are his scariest feature...you don't know why he has them or what they are capable of.

PostPosted: Mon Feb 14, 2011 4:25 pm
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