Ritual... Pasta. Like spaghetti?
Not in the least! Or, okay, this particular spaghetti is pretty creepy but that's not what I mean by creepypasta! Ritual Pasta is born out of Creepypasta, which is a website dedicated to creepy fiction stories, legends, and images from around the web. Some creepypastas have even become novels (my favorite is Penpal). Think of these as open source urban legends-- because plenty of people expand upon existing narratives. As I'm sure you can imagine, occasionally creepypastas can get out of hand and can be given too much credence from its audience. Today, we are getting into how this can be true with ritual creepypastas (or ritual pastas) which require a performative element to achieve something (usually) sinister...
Wow!!! Good call! Yeah!
So to begin. If you are uninitiated, one of the most popular creepypastas is the legend of Slenderman. I've attached a video that summarizes his whole deal nicely:
"SLENDERMAN IS NOT A REAL PERSON/ENTITY. As far as I’m aware, most news outlets have done their due diligence and thus no media personality is claiming that Slenderman actually exists, so I’m not exactly sure where people are getting this misinformation. However, I’m still seeing quite a lot of comments from people who believe that A) he is a real person and B) he owns and is responsible for every single Creepypasta-related website, tumblr, YouTube channel, Facebook group, forum, and wiki. This is simply not true. Slenderman is not, nor has he ever been, anything more than a fictional character created by SomethingAwful user Victor Surge. As is the case with many other fictional characters, he has fans who indulge themselves by creating videos, games, and fanfictions about him, but this does not make him real any more than such fandom would make The Walking Dead or Batman real." To read more of their statement, go here: https://www.creepypasta.com/statement-wisconsin-stabbing/
Like Slenderman?
Wow!!! Good call! Yeah!
So to begin. If you are uninitiated, one of the most popular creepypastas is the legend of Slenderman. I've attached a video that summarizes his whole deal nicely:
WAIT WAIT WAIT did he say murder?!?
Yes, these girls were performing serving as "proxies" to Slenderman (that is, under his influence/possession or helping him). There are several rituals that can be found littered about the internet that are designed to assist one in attaining this status in some capacity, but the one that garners the most attention is that of two twelve-year-old girls in Wisconsin who murdered a mutual friend in order to demonstrate (or perform) loyalty to Slenderman (here is the BBC coverage of the event and subsequent trial-- which was so extensive I couldn't pick just one). If we want to talk about "realness" of a performative action being too much, this is Poe's Law in action (given that these girls accepted the legends of Slenderman to be genuine). I grant that this is darker than parody or satire, but it is still a strong example not only of the difference between illusion and reality being "too" blurred but also of there being serious consequences.
So... creepypasta needed a more obvious wink to its audience?
They have made it even more abundantly clear that creepypastas are not real. While I personally do not believe creepypasta failed to "wink" hard enough, it should be noted that the story became ever increasingly "too real" once it was a matter of worldwide interest (i.e. confusion in the public about whether or not Slenderman was indeed a real person). In the aftermath of the attack, creepypasta.com released a statement of condolences to the family of the victim, condemning the acts of the perpetrators, and emphasizing that the legend of Slenderman is completely fabricated:
Both girls were placed under psychiatric evaluation. One has already been sentenced to 25 years in an institution and the second will be sentenced shortly (her evaluation period was scheduled to be around November or December of 2017). While we are dealing with children who are clinically mentally ill, the fact remains that Slenderman inspired panic, confusion, and an intense debate about what sort of material we allow children to consume.
How many ritual pastas can possibly be out there?
Surely there aren't others taken seriously.
Oh there are. Cue the Elevator Game! (Rules and description in a fun video below.)
There are not only people who insist upon the game's authenticity, but also those who consider the performance of this ritual as component within the mysterious death of Elisa Lam. This belief is present enough that Elisa's picture is on the right hand side of the monitor when you google "elevator game."
Yes! The primary lesson being that humanity is simultaneously attracted and repelled by what it does not understand. You have nicely introduced the relationship between fear and performance. Our hearts are in our mouths as a fire eater swallows a blaze without breaking a sweat, or as the killer comes ever closer to an unsuspecting victim in a horror movie, or as a brave human being scales the wall of a building without any rope or harness. There is something about the macabre that introduces humanity to its darker side, and allows an audience visit in their minds what they would never attempt in the physical.
ReplyDeleteThis brings me to the notion that art begets life begets art begets life begets art, and so on. I remember a conversation we were having about serial killers and the movies that were based on their lives. These creations and performances were inspired by an event in reality, something that we could point towards and say with some certainty (aided by surrounding evidence) that this was "real". When it comes to things like the slenderman however, the tables are turned and reality begins to borrow from a fabrication. This is not a new phenomenon, but I found it really interesting that, that which was initially inspired by reality has now begun to inspire and influence reality. Kind of like the Godfather example provided by Dr. Fletcher, where real gangsters began to look to the movie for pointers on how to be more gangsta.
If we begin to uncover the root of the fiction, we only discover the fiction behind it, and the fiction behind that fiction, rather than a solid "original" that we can point to. Forums like CreepyPasta create a space for innovation which does not yet have parameters to protect it from manifestation in reality. Or perhaps, the forum is simply reflecting the kingdom under the map; a reality of the human psyche that is hidden underneath the cover of propriety.
Creepy Pasta is a fascinating portal into the phenomenon of what happens when life begins to imitate art. As you pointed out it is a modern amalgamation of the urban legend but with the added flair of viral psychology. As we've seen with the splendid Tide Pod phenomenon, internet culture has an almost perverse attraction to goading people into doing things that might do them serious harm. Suicide, tide pods, blue whales, pulling guns on your friends- you name it- people get off on the idea that they can semi-anonymously persuade others to harm. The fascinating component for me is this notion of notoriety through participation. Back in the day we had things like bloody mary- ya know- say it three times in the mirror and bad shit was supposed to happen. It never did- but it was still spooky under the right conditions. Now however there is the added motif of world-wide broadcast- which seems to up the ante and stoke a need to create real results or it never happened (picture or it never happened). Scary, sad and fascinating stuff.
ReplyDelete