Slender Man

[Dr_Baltar]

It was. It would seem excessive to all but the victim and her family, who would most probably be regretting that capital punishment was no longer an option for the judiciary.

Has capital punishment ever been an option for attempted murder in the States?

 

[skinny]

All points considered, I concede my emotional reaction to this case was irrational. You all make a strong humanitarian point and I have changed my mind.

 

[Min Bannister]

All points considered, I concede my emotional reaction to this case was irrational. You all make a strong humanitarian point and I have changed my mind.

I don't think it is really irrational to have an emotional response to this case. (I hope this is a "hug" smilie? I can't quite tell but it is what I meant)

 

[Mythopoeika]

Name pun missed.

I didn't miss it.
She was blowing off steam.

 

[Sharon Hill]

It often helps to check out the local coverage for more details. Here is the news from the Milwaukee Sentinel.
https://www.jsonline.com/story/news...organ-geyser-learn-her-fate-today/1082963001/

40 years was the maximum sentence. And recall that they were tried as adults based on the seriousness of the crime. That is Wisconsin law, it varies from state to state, but WI is strict and the attempts to move the case to the juvenile system failed the 3-pronged test. We discuss this on a episode of my podcast when we reviewed the HBO documentary.

Anyway, it seemed clear that this was a bizarre case of kids with mental illnesses, wrapped up in their own world and reinforcing each others' delusions, and it all took a very bad turn into reality. I'm glad they didn't go to prison because punishment is not going to reform them. They are getting the proper meds and psychiatric help they need.

 

[ramonmercado]

Col is avito than impressed with Redfern's take on the Slenderman.

THE SLENDERMAN MYSTERIES
Nick Redfern | 2018 | 288 pages | New Page Books | ISBN: 978-1-63265-112-9 | $15.99

In 2009 a man named Eric Knudsen created photo art of a thin, mysterious supernatural man in a suit, and he posted these photo illustrations to Something Awful, where they became the fodder for countless online stories of a creature soon known as Slender Man, sometimes stylized as Slenderman. In this, it was not entirely different from the fictitious Blair Witch of 1999, or the Cthulhu Mythos of H. P. Lovecraft’s fiction. In each case, a fictitious creation came to be embraced as “real” by fans who should have known better. The story of Slender Man is important, however, because in 2014 two 12-year-old girls lured a third into the woods in Waukesha, Wisconsin and stabbed her 19 times in an effort to impress the Slender Man. The victim survived, but the perpetrators were found not guilty by reason of insanity. Each was sentenced to decades in a mental health facility. The incident undercuts the collective “fun” to be had from pretending a fictitious thing was real.

This dark chapter in the otherwise mostly unremarkable history of the Slender Man character hangs over Nick Redfern’s new book, The Slenderman Mysteries (New Page, 2018), and it cuts against his usual tone of slightly uninterested good humor. Redfern dutifully but briefly reports the story in his introduction before reveling rather obscenely in its gory details in chapter 6 and letting the story shape the second half of the book in unsettling ways. Here, though, he merely calls it “extremely disturbing,” and lets the incident pass mostly as a curiosity on the road to the “fun,” which for him is the question of whether Slender Man, like the incorporeal thought entities called egregores in Victorian magician Éliphas Lévi’s (fake) occult mythology, is really some sort of sentience called into being from human desire, the internet’s growing consciousness, or a supernatural realm:


More and more people are following, and arguably even worshiping and devoting their lives to, the Slenderman as he becomes ever stronger and more physical in our world. Where did he come from? What does he want from us? What are the many witnesses to the Slenderman telling us? Is there just one creature, or are we looking at multiple Slendermen? How can we stop him from terrorizing and torturing us? Can we stop him? Or has he become an unstoppable, unbeatable nightmare? ...

http://www.jasoncolavito.com/blog/review-of-the-slenderman-mysteries-by-nick-redfern

 

[Yossarian]

It's a good read - I'm a big fan of Colavito, and he nails it there. What Redfern's claiming has so much in common with claims of Illuminati influence and so on, where use of certain imagery or symbols must be proof of conspiracy, rather than proof that we're influenced by what we see around us, and by art that we consume, so are always going to replicate imagery and symbols. Claiming otherwise - as in Redfern claiming that any vaguely similar figure in pop culture is evidence of Slenderman's existence - does a disservice to the human imagination.

 

[Swifty]

I couldn't find an appropriate thread to post this chap in although I reckon he'd make a good Slenderman ..

Catching Up With The World's Tallest Teenager

 

[MetroGnome]

Here, though, he merely calls it “extremely disturbing,” and lets the incident pass mostly as a curiosity on the road to the “fun,” which for him is the question of whether Slender Man, like the incorporeal thought entities called egregores in Victorian magician Éliphas Lévi’s (fake) occult mythology, is really some sort of sentience called into being from human desire, the internet’s growing consciousness, or a supernatural realm...

I rather like this idea of mythologies becoming objectively real when enough people believe in them strongly enough. It's of course delightfully speculative and unprovable.

The Slenderman thing is interesting because it is one of a few cases where the origin and growth of a belief system can be directly observed and documented. Another case that comes to mind is the Pacific ocean cargo cults.

For the non/anti religious, this demonstrates how easily bullshit belief systems can gain traction. For believers, it becomes real precisely because it is believed.

 

[Dr_Baltar]

I rather like this idea of mythologies becoming objectively real when enough people believe in them strongly enough.

Pretty much the basis of Neil Gaiman's American Gods. Cf. tulpas and thoughtforms.

 

[Junopsis]

...Man, I'm glad the reviewer gets it. Nobody writing Slenderman material was doing anything but writing some great epistolary creepypasta, and it's doing them a bit of a disfavor to suggest that they were doing anything but writing epistolary fiction (or whatever we call it now, pseudohistorical? faction?). It was just really open-source, where most standalone creepypasta is theoretically single-author. There was some audience-interaction for one of the Youtube series that a group of guys did (resulted in some great viewer-created video projects, too), but any aura of "this is not a game" was just part of the freaking story, and to some degree a bit of an insider thing for some people, I think. Like the SCP website. People make stickers for that and post it places, and someone set up a phone line for it once, and it's in good fun. Nobody is suggesting it manifests things in truth or that they're trying to make it more real.
The stabbing incident was awful, but I really don't think that's a marker for anything larger or supernatural going on.

I know I'm vehement about this stuff, but I was on SA when Slenderman became a thing. It was amazing, and creatively incredible, and I love the Internet for allowing collaboration like that. Reading in other intentions is like telling your friends who play D&D that they're worshipping demons or inviting Satan in by talking about spells, or that they totally hold funerals for deceased characters, or that their DM has control over their private lives. It's not A Thing.

 

[Swifty]

Slender Man the movie is being released on the 10th of August, it'll be a PG 13 .. here's the trailer and some waffle about it.

http://www.aintitcool.com/node/80523

 

[Mythopoeika]

Hmmm. PG13 - is that wise? We know that some teenagers may be influenced by this.

 

[ramonmercado]

Hmmm. PG13 - is that wise? We know that some teenagers may be influenced by this.

It also suggests it's not going to be particularly scary or gruesome. But you make valid point.

 

[CuriousIdent]

I hope that the guys who created the original Slenderman creepypasta got some kind of money for this.

 

[Swifty]

I hope that the guys who created the original Slenderman creepypasta got some kind of money for this.

It was one guy and I can't remember his online name but I agree .. hopefully he'll get something/is getting something on top of general recognition and kudos.

edit: Eric Knudsen (online alias 'Victor Surge') created Slenderman

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slender_Man

 

[CuriousIdent]

It was one guy and I can't remember his online name but I agree .. hopefully he'll get something/is getting something on top of general recognition and kudos.

edit: Eric Knudsen (online alias 'Victor Surge') created Slenderman

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slender_Man

Certainly the creator. Although a certain amount of expanded collaboration went on, I'm sure.

 

[Swifty]

Certainly the creator. Although a certain amount of expanded collaboration went on, I'm sure.

Absolutely, sort of like George Lucas inventing Star Wars and then everyone and his dog having a go at it afterwards.

 

[GNC]

Absolutely, sort of like George Lucas inventing Star Wars and then everyone and his dog having a go at it afterwards.

Or George A. Romero inventing flesh-eating zombies, for that matter.

 

[Swifty]

Or George A. Romero inventing flesh-eating zombies, for that matter.

Or Ron Jeremy inventing sex in fact .. no one was doing sex before 'The Hedgehog'. No one.

 

[maximus otter]

Hmmm. PG13 - is that wise? We know that some teenagers may be influenced by this.

There was a Slenderman-type “character” AKA a “Hollowgast” in the recent film Miss Peregrine’s Home for Peculiar Children. l am not particularly sensitive (gross understatement...), but the clifftop scene (at about 00:25 in the clip below) gave me the creeps:

Perhaps today’s kids are tougher than me.

maximus otter

 

[humanoidlord]

seems like the cosmic trickster is having some fun, and what is more fun than materializing a fictional figure in real life?
reality creates thinking or thinking creates reality?
just like those "fun" figures that came into reality in the little town of point pleasant, today we have other figures doing the job in the information age
the helmeted astronauts of the sixties and seventies gave way to googly eyed spindly monsters we call "greys", the ghosts of antiquity gave way to blobs of sentient shadow we call "the shadow people", the MIB while still reported these days in smaller quantity gave way to the black eyed children and so on...

 

[CuriousIdent]

seems like the cosmic trickster is having some fun, and what is more fun than materializing a fictional figure in real life?
reality creates thinking or thinking creates reality?
just like those "fun" figures that came into reality in the little town of point pleasant, today we have other figures doing the job in the information age
the helmeted astronauts of the sixties and seventies gave way to googly eyed spindly monsters we call "greys", the ghosts of antiquity gave way to blobs of sentient shadow we call "the shadow people", the MIB while still reported these days in smaller quantity gave way to the black eyed children and so on...

Yes. Although, there is one main difference , I suppose.

Greys, MIB, etc were all based on a picture built up from supposedly real encounters. Pop culture from somebody's personal experience, anyway.

Slenderman was the answer to question 'What can we think of that's creepy and a bit fucked up, that would make for a truly nasty urban legend?'. It was a deliberate pastiche of horror movies tropes to create something which all who were involved always knew to be fake.

 

[humanoidlord]

Yes. Although, there is one main difference , I suppose.

Greys, MIB, etc were all based on a picture built up from supposedly real encounters. Pop culture from somebody's personal experience, anyway.

Slenderman was the answer to question 'What can we think of that's creepy and a bit fucked up, that would make for a truly nasty urban legend?'. It was a deliberate pastiche of horror movies tropes to create something which all who were involved always knew to be fake.

all paranormal manifestations are this when we broke them down, they all have the same archetypes

 

[CuriousIdent]

all paranormal manifestations are this when we broke them down, they all have the same archetypes

They do. But when one is intended purely as knowing and intentional fiction it sets it out slightly differently.

 

[sherbetbizarre]

Just released in America, The Hollywood Reporter dumps on the movie.

Screen Gems’ Slender Man quietly slinks into theaters this weekend with almost no buzz or fanfare. The film, distributed by Sony Pictures Releasing and directed by Sylvian White (Stomp the Yard), was barely marketed, and its release date shuffle, originally set for a summer opening of May 18, didn’t promise good things to come. Thursday night’s preview gross of $1 million is a sure sign that Slender Man is in store for a slim opening weekend before quickly disappearing from theaters.

Generic, awkwardly paced, laughably nonsensical, Slender Man fails to live up to the potential of creepypasta and the standard set by the Slender Man-centric YouTube web series Marble Hornets (2009-2014).

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/h...lost-audiences-years-before-it-opened-1134089

 

[AlchoPwn]

seems like the cosmic trickster is having some fun, and what is more fun than materializing a fictional figure in real life?
reality creates thinking or thinking creates reality?
just like those "fun" figures that came into reality in the little town of point pleasant, today we have other figures doing the job in the information age
the helmeted astronauts of the sixties and seventies gave way to googly eyed spindly monsters we call "greys", the ghosts of antiquity gave way to blobs of sentient shadow we call "the shadow people", the MIB while still reported these days in smaller quantity gave way to the black eyed children and so on...

I often wonder whether what we are dealing with are tulpas:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulpa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egregore

Apparently here is how to make one, though as they are a form of astral parasite, you probably shouldn't to do that to yourself, as who needs the annoyance?:
https://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Tulpa

https://magickfromscratch.com/2014/02/11/under-the-hood-creating-artificial-elemental-spirits/

 

[ramonmercado]

Just released in America, The Hollywood Reporter dumps on the movie.

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/h...lost-audiences-years-before-it-opened-1134089

Horror Homeroom also dissed it.

 

[CuriousIdent]

A pretty poor showing so far on aggregator sites Rotten Tomatoes and Metacritic.

Rotten Tomatoes clocks it as 14% from 28 Critic reviews. Meta Critic at 28% from 12 Critic reviews.

https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/slender_man
http://www.metacritic.com/movie/slender-man

Highlights include:


"These competent actresses deserve actual characters to play, but Birke's screenplay is as devoid of personality as the faceless cipher stalking its heroes."

Hollywood Reporter.


"It turns its boogeyman into a generic figure of menace who doesn't feel ready for his moment in the horror movie spotlight."

AV Club.


"Slender Man feels as used up as any years-old meme, like trying to explain what's funny about dat boi a decade late."

Newsweek.


"Birke's script is plainly straightforward, a simple supernatural chase story. It doesn't plumb the depths of what might make Slender Man scary, so Slender Man isn't scary at all."

Chicago Tribune.


"The most perfunctory horror picture I've seen in some time."

New York Times.


"Slender Man is the kind of movie in which images come before logic, because there really isn't much logic. There's just a movie out to goose you."

Variety.

 

[humanoidlord]

I often wonder whether what we are dealing with are tulpas:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulpa

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Egregore

Apparently here is how to make one, though as they are a form of astral parasite, you probably shouldn't to do that to yourself, as who needs the annoyance?:
https://www.wikihow.com/Create-a-Tulpa

https://magickfromscratch.com/2014/02/11/under-the-hood-creating-artificial-elemental-spirits/

i think its more likely a external entity making stuff for us