modern folklore?

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I've had a growing interest lately in folklore (especially early American pioneer folklore such as the Paul Bunyon story or the John Henry story). I've also recently been trying to think of examples of modern folklore, and it dawned on me that this might be the first time in human history that, thanks to the combination of exponentially-increasing amounts of information on every everything, the instant permanence of it, and the ease of access to it, we may have squelched whatever part of us it was that felt the need to craft tall tales.

However, I was having a conversation with fellow ilxor Dale the Titled last night and he suggested that modern folktales do exist. His suggestion of urban myths did give me pause, but I'm not entirely sure these fill the same role; urban myths strike me more as the sort of story mothers tell their children to scare them away from doing naughty things, rather than the poetic-expression-of-timely/timeless-themes of folklore.

So, I guess what I'm asking is: Is there any modern folklore? And if so can you point me towards it?

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 15:38 (twenty-one years ago)

Sorry if this question is worded dumbassedly or convolutedly.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 15:39 (twenty-one years ago)

Q: Is there any modern folklore?

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― Luigi Vampa (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 15:42 (twenty-one years ago)

There must be some modern folklore. I've been sat here for 15 minutes trying to think of one though, and nothing.

What about that SAS mission that turned into a book? Isn't that folklore now?

Or the death of Princess Diana and Dodi (the Diana bit is folklore, maybe, and the Dodi bit isn't)

― run it off (run it off), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 16:09 (twenty-one years ago)

I think that by and large, folklore necessarily starts at a very local level. And as ILX shows, local levels ain't what they used to be.
But there's still plenty of folklore.
I have been called a folk hero myself. Though not for a few years.

― Luigi Vampa (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 16:12 (twenty-one years ago)

Examples of modern folklore:
the story of Elvis's career
the story of the Beatles' career
the millions of stories from the second world war
the experiences of soldiers in Vietnam
modern therapies like homeopathy, reflexology, healing
the Baader-meinhof gang
Blair witch project
Diana

i suppose one could argue some of these are 'mythologised' stories, rather than folk-lore but for me they fit the bill in a number of ways

― pete s, Tuesday, 13 January 2004 16:16 (twenty-one years ago)

I'm guessing that most people who know and create modern folklore don't have access to the internet.

― oops (Oops), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 16:17 (twenty-one years ago)

aren't those poplore though?

― Luigi Vampa (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 16:17 (twenty-one years ago)

urban myths strike me more as the sort of story mothers tell their children to scare them away from doing naughty things, rather than the poetic-expression-of-timely/timeless-themes of folklore.

Current urban myths often have thematic similarities to classic folklore, and the classic tales often seem to have been retold as warnings. See snopes.com and urbanlegends.com for roundups of current stories making the rounds.

― j.lu (j.lu), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 16:24 (twenty-one years ago)

poplore!

― run it off (run it off), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 16:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Yeah, poplore. There's gotta be a difference, see, between mass-media lore (more conventionally known as pop culture, I s'pose) and grassroots folklore.
Folklore comes about slightly more organically. the WWII thing is probably folklore, though that might be selling it a little short. But the odd story like the one about Allies and Germans playing football on Christmas or something is def. folklore.
But the whole Paris Car Crash What Killed a Princess is def. pop culture, a distinct parallel to the Kennedy assassination.
But Beatles, Elvis and Blair Witch are artifices, their effects are real and "true" but they're manufactured lore, processed and controlled.

― Luigi Vampa (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 16:34 (twenty-one years ago)

What about the guy that tied all the weather balloons to a lawn chair and floated up to commercial airspace? Sort of a tall tale, but it actually happened in the early eighties (?).

― andy, Tuesday, 13 January 2004 17:28 (twenty-one years ago)

Commercial airspace? Is that where the Goodyear Blimp flies?

― Luigi Vampa (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 17:29 (twenty-one years ago)

What kind of mother tells her children about a dog licking peanut butter out of a girl's vagina on national Spanish television???

― Dan Perry (Dan Perry), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 17:36 (twenty-one years ago)

that's not folklore. Larry Walters really did make it up into the flight corridors, in 1982, according to Snopes.

he got the Darwin Award in 1997 for it, too.

― Kingfishee (Kingfish), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 17:39 (twenty-one years ago)

do you have to die to win a Darwin?

― Luigi Vampa (Horace Mann), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 17:40 (twenty-one years ago)

Jessica Lynch to thread.

― Pleasant Plains (Pleasant Plains), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 18:03 (twenty-one years ago)

"sort of story mothers tell their children to scare them away from doing naughty things"

I can't understand how this is different to folklore, but I think I am confusing folklore with fairy tales. If you think it means something different please explain what (lots and lots of fairy tales are about being honest, hardworking, listening to your (true)mother eg Little Red Riding Hood)

― isadora (isadora), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 19:53 (twenty-one years ago)

I think what I'm looking for are not factual tales that sorta confront things relevant to the right now. Yeah more like fairy tales really. Or like Greek or Roman myths where elaborately exaggerated stories are used in an attempt to explain the unexplained maybe.

― nickalicious (nickalicious), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 19:58 (twenty-one years ago)

Jan-Harold Brunvand is the academic expert on urban myths (I think he coined the term actually), so seek out any of his books on the subject to see how he ties them in with folklore archetypes.

― udu wudu (udu wudu), Tuesday, 13 January 2004 20:01 (twenty-one years ago)

Is he the man who compiled "the mouse in the jumbo jet" and "the spider in the yukka palm"

But I find urban myths much less emotionally satisfying than fairy tales. Maybe they are rawer, they haven't been refined through time enough.

― isadora (isadora), Wednesday, 14 January 2004 02:17 (twenty-one years ago)

Most Cher songs, I'd say...

Gypsies, Tramps and Theves... Halfbreed...

― ModJ (ModJ), Wednesday, 14 January 2004 02:21 (twenty-one years ago)

Jan-Harold Brunvand is the academic expert on urban myths

Seconded. Man's got that market cornered, deservedly!

I think what Isadora is asking after is what, indirectly, authors/filmmakers like Clive Barker, Terry Gilliam and the Wachowskis are trying to do, I'd guess.

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 14 January 2004 03:11 (twenty-one years ago)

Maybe, but they involve character too much, don't they (I am not v familiar with your list) but the thing about tales are that they are so sparse. All you need to know is the story, light and shade and expression don't matter.

I think though that fairy tales are still adressing things relevant to us. Lots of them are about family. And, I don't know, deception and things. I don't think they were ever really true to life or logic, so I don't see why there should be a modern equivalent which suddenly is.

But if you mean stories to explain the way things are, I think these are contemporary and people do this all the time, often in a pseudo-sciency kind of way way. That's where the elaboration comes in now.

Sorry I am going home now I might be a bit confused.

― isadora (isadora), Wednesday, 14 January 2004 04:15 (twenty-one years ago)

All you need to know is the story, light and shade and expression don't matter.

Hm. Well if the argument is that you can have a fairy story in a modern setting where you DON'T need to say much because everything described is easily understood/a given, then I'm not so sure those three can't apply (at least from what I know of the latters' work, har har).

― Ned Raggett (Ned), Wednesday, 14 January 2004 04:17 (twenty-one years ago)

the posted question reminds me of an episode of northern exposure where the older shaman character is basically asking the same question random Sicily residents & all the responses are "urban myths"
at the end he decide movies are the modern day folk tale

― kephm, Wednesday, 14 January 2004 16:25 (twenty-one years ago)

Cicely even

― kephm, Wednesday, 14 January 2004 16:28 (twenty-one years ago)

ten years pass...

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/slender-man-second-knife-attack-linked-to-online-horror-character-9519485.html

― Kornblud (admrl), Wednesday, 11 June 2014 14:03 (eleven years ago)

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