Author Archives: Mark Thomas

Ghost Story

Urban Legend- ghost story

Transcription

“This event happened a year after my great grandfather died. My family was over at my Grandmother’s house in order to celebrate Thanksgiving. The house is in down town Santa Ana, in a creepy old neighborhood. Think of a ghetto.  For the last four year in row, the oven has broken down on Thanksgiving. Like a curse or something.  When we were eating, this large ball of light shoots through kitchen and living room. Everybody just stops and is confused. People in two different rooms, the kitchen and the living room, about 12 people saw this.”

CB explains this family story to me while we were eating Wendy’s. He explains that this is story is now told whenever at family meetings. He mentions that he believes that the death of his great grandfather in the house, the ball of light, the curse of the oven each year, and the fact that the house is old is all somehow connected. He states because the house is so old, that many people have died in it over the years possibly making the house haunted. He also mentions that this is not the first time that things like this have occurred and that many members of the family have their own particular stories. While the story is constantly brought up to within his family, CB states that he doesn’t really believe in Ghosts, neither does any of his male relatives. He stated, “We are all kind of straightforward guys. My Dad’s a Marine, my uncle a cop…I grew up in a no nonsense household.”

From what I can gather from CB’s story is that first and foremost it serves a marker for their family, and a part of the family’s personal lore. By being a member of CB’s family, one would know this story even if they were not present at the event. I think CB’s stance on this event is that of a skeptic. He obviously saw something at this particular Thanksgiving meal, which can be verified by other family members present at the time, but he doesn’t necessarily buy into the notion that this is somehow related to ghosts. As an individual, I find CB to be very level headed. He is currently in Marine Officer Candidate School, training to be a Marine Officer. I interpret CB’s hesitation and skepticism of the event as a result of his upbringing in a rigidly structured home (his father was a Marine Sergeant).

Examples of ghost stories/unexplained events are very common in modern society. It is not uncommon for families to have similar stories, unique to themselves. In media, the presence of ghosts is prevalent. Movies like Paranormal Activity, and television shows like TAPS and Ghost Hunters appear across numerous networks.

The Devil is Beating His Wife

White/Native American

University of Arizona, Arizona State University, University of Southern California

International Relations

Accountant for Make a Wish

English, Russian

Scottsdale, Arizona

25 April 2011

Folk speech- The Devil is beating his wife.

Used in the context of when it’s Sunny but still Raining.

“I think this is folklore. I once pointed out to my mother that it was weird that it was sunny outside but still raining. My mother…um she replied kinda in a matter of fact tone, that it was because the Devil was beating is wife. I just went with it, I didn’t really understand why. Let’s imagine that this was real, and the Devil inhabited some real space in the world. Rain falls down, is the Devil in heaven then? Makes more sense that Jesus was crying cause were sinners or something.” Clearly, RA was focusing on the validity of the argument for using the Devil in this metaphor.

Though what RA said does make some kind of sense, I feel that there might be no real reason why this strange event is referred by this phrase. Disregarding this though, the idea behind this phrase is that the rain represents the tears being shed by the woman being beaten. It also makes sense, that the Devil, who personifies evil in Christian tradition, would be beating his wife. It would not surprise me if this metaphor was really old, going back to a time when most people were farmers, an occupation where understanding weather was very important. I had only heard this phrase once before from a friend. The only things they both had in common was that they were both from the Southwest, RA is from Arizona, my other friend was from Texas, and they were both self identified Christians. There is a good chance, that they both used this phrase because they were from a similar geographic area with little rain or because of the Christian overtones that are inherent in the metaphor.

Folklore 2.0: Pedo Bear

White/Hispanic

California State University Fullerton

Illustration

Colorist for Cartoon Network’s Regular Show

English, Spanish

20 April 2011

Internet meme/Folklore 2.0-Pedo Bear

“I don’t remember when I first saw slash heard about pedo bear. It just kinda popped up on the Internet a few years ago. It’s just kinda this innocent looking bear thing that supposedly preys on little girls. People like to photobomb pictures of kids with it, and post them on the Internet for laughs. Its pretty much viral now, there’s now a website dedicated to pedo bear, it appears on shirts. I don’t think that in anyway is it actually supposed to be used to signify child pornography or anything. For awhile the media was portraying pedo bear as some sort of secret code or rallying message for a group of pedophiles. While I’m sure some do, it really isn’t used for that from what I’ve seen.” AT considers pedo bear as largely harmless, an Internet phenomena that’s being tossed around by bored people on the Internet. Some of its use seems to be making a joke of something that is obscene and terrible. She states, “sometimes young people put up risqué pictures of themselves online, like on Myspace. People take these photos and then insert pedo bear to show that the fact that someone is posting these pictures in the first place is inappropriate.

Looking at the description and argument put forth by AT, I conclude that her observations are pretty spot on. As an artist, she is familiar with the ways characters can personify meanings and stereotypes. Pedo bear is an example of Folklore 2.0, it originally started on 4chan, an internet blogging site. From there, pedo bear had gone viral and has jumped to several different mediums. I have seen it on shirts, mugs, hats, and stenciled on a school sign. Pedo bear has gone so mainstream on the internet, that I saw a news report to watch out for child molesters after an individual dressed up as pedo bear at an anime convention. During the Vancouver Winter Olympics, a Polish newspaper printed a picture of Pedo bear that was snuck into an image of the Olympic mascots. Calling someone a pedo bear is akin to calling someone a pedophile. The biggest characteristic is that he is basically a pedophile. Though a pedophile, the character is considered funny and likeable to an extent.

Folk Games: ??????? (Gorodki)

White/Native American

University of Arizona, Arizona State University, University of Southern California

International Relations

Accountant for Make a Wish

English, Russian

Scottsdale, Arizona

25 April 2011

Russian Folk game- ???????

Roman spelling- Gorodki

Direct translation- townletts

Translation- little cities

“So Gorodki is a Russian peasant folk game that was taught to me by my Russian language teacher. I only played it once but the rules are pretty simple. Basically, you draw or make a square on the ground. The square is called a gorod, meaning a city in English. You then take these short cylindrical pieces of wood, and stack them into shapes. There are more than like 10 ten of these shapes and each has a name. After this, you walk like 20 feet and then throw a larger piece of wood at the formation. You then get points for the number of pieces of wood you knock out of the square. Players take turns and when the pieces of wood are all out of the square, the person who knocked out the most pieces wins.” RA explained that the game was really easy to make, and he believes that this is the case because the pieces are so simple. He mentioned all you really need is a bunch of sticks to play. He mentions that it was a pretty big sport for the peasants of Russia. He also believes that it was partially started by Soldiers because several of the names of the wood configurations look and have a “military sound to them.” Ie. artillery, canon, shooting gallery, and watchmen. Clearly, the game is still being changed, as configurations of modern configurations are included (machine gun installation and airplane). He mentions that his Russian teacher showed a really old picture of Leo Tolstoy playing the game, showing the game has existed for more than a hundred years.

From the information RA gave me, I believe that Gorodki is an example of folklore. Foremost, is the fact that it is still referred to as a peasant game. The simplicity of the game makes it easily taught or understood through observation and minimal instruction. The game also allows for variation, as individuals can make up their own configurations of wood or stand further back to make it harder. The game is still played today, showing how popular it was/is in Russia.

After some basic research, I found that Gorodki is a very old game. It existed very similar to the modern game in the 1600’s. Though considered a folk game, Gorodki was apparently played by some of the aristocracy of Russia. It existed without formal rules until the 1920’s, when it was organized into an official sport by the Soviet Union. Gorodki appears as a game for the Wii video game console and appeared as a challenge in the television show The Amazing Race season 17, episode 7. 

Folk Simile: Like the Cat that Ate the Canary

White/Native American

University of Arizona, Arizona State University, University of Southern California

International Relations

Accountant for Make a Wish

English, Russian

Scottsdale, Arizona

25 April 2011

Folk simile- Like the Cat that ate the Canary

“So here’s something you can use. I was sitting with a friend eating lunch and we were talking about the grades. He was talking about how the teacher had graded everybody’s paper really hard. I, on the other hand, had gotten full marks. It was the highest grade in the class. All of the sudden, maybe ’cause my face gave away what I was thinking, he asked me how I did. I told him the score I had gotten on it. He then stated something to the fact of, ‘well aren’t you pleased with yourself? You look like the cat who ate the canary.’ I had never heard anybody actually say that before. It made sense though in the context, I was feeling pretty smug about the fact that I had done really well.” RA explained that basically it was a simile, however he didn’t actually say the word. However, he did describe it well enough that I knew what he was talking about. Basically, he said that it meant that the person who “looks like the cat that ate the canary” is someone who is pleased with themselves.

I agree with the explanation that RA gave for the simile, however I would add that this simile could be used in several other contexts. In my opinion, it can also be used to describe someone who has gotten away with doing something devious or looks guilty about something they are hiding. The origin of the word probably did come from the connection between the look someone has on their face and a cat that was pleased that it caught a canary. The basis of this simile is that it is personifying/anthropomorphizing the animal, in this case a cat, with the human like qualities of smugness or being pleased with themselves. However, as someone who has owned a dog, I can say it’s not hard to give your pet human like qualities. I have personally heard this folk simile several times before.

Examples of this folk simile appear pretty frequently in other mediums. It’s no that difficult to see that this simile was used for the basis of the interactions between the characters Sylvester the cat and Tweety bird. For those who haven’t seen the old Looney Tunes cartoons by Warner Bros., Tweety is a yellow canary that is constantly being hunted by Sylvester the cat, who always ultimately fails to eat Tweety each episode.