Author Archives: Cayenne Guo

Voodoo Village (St. Peter’s Church)

Informant

ET is a Memphis, Tennessee resident who recalls this particular supernatural urban legend he heard from his social groups as a teenager. This is a classic case of teenagers passing rumors along orally.

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The Free Masons are a religious secret society. The informant’s mom’s friend is supposedly a member of the Free Masons. They are a cult characterized by chapters across the world and secret handshakes and unique vernacular. They have certain symbols and calls & response that can be recognized by outsiders, but their secret nature encourages conspiracy. Apparently, the requirements to join isn’t high, but faith in a specific God is necessary. A rural neighborhood in memphis referring to themselves as the Church of St. Peter, but everyone else regards them as Voodoo Village due to the vast amount of Masonic imagery desplayed around the neighborhood. It’s located near the backwoods with few ever visiting or residing there, but plenty of rumors come out of it from visits driving through or by. These include:

  • Dead cats and dogs hanging from trees
  • Cars breaking down in the middle of town
  • Hearing whispers following you around
  • Getting chased by crazy people with baseball bats
  • A van is parked by a dead end street that will supposedly pull over and block you in if you enter the street
  • Weird bonfires and spells during the Satanic Panic

It is not advised to exit your car while passing through, but teenagers often dare each other to visit or visit together as a legendary quest, especially on Halloween.

Analysis

This urban legend feels very classic, modern Americana to me from the Satanic Panic to the car breaking down being a very American horror, set in a largely white state with “that one part of town” nobody dares goes to, likely reflecting a marginalized, poor, neglected, and harrassed, lower-class minority neighborhood. It feels akin to the classic Act 1 setup for a 2000s teen movie that would be used as Propp’s 2nd Function, the interdiction warning the hero against something while letting the audience know that’s where the story is headed. Additionally, Tennessee is a highly religious state prone to superstitions as reflected by the Satanic Panic the informant mentioned, and as it’s not exactly a state known for a lot of attractions, the Midwest Blues of “nothing to do” compels the teenagers to seek out thrills such as legendary questing the local devil-town rumors. It represents the “other world” heroes must exit the safety of their home to enter shown by many models of narratives, even Campbell’s hero’s journey, and its attunement on Halloween further reflects how it serves as a space of inversal where the usual norms and rules are no longer in place. This becomes even more true when it is Halloween. The social implications of this location likely being a marginalized and neglected neighborhood somewhat reflects the American south’s xenophobia toward anything that doesn’t match their ideal of a neighborhood.

Rites of Passage and Community in Wargaming

The Informant

The informant AG has been playing wargaming for over five years, and he has not only painted his own miniature sets but also developed his own homebrew games. The informant mostly plays ‘miniature agnostic’ games with abstract rulesets that enable players to bring their own unique miniature sets.

The Text

A common experience in becoming a member in the wargaming community is painting your own miniature sets, and it tends to be very poorly painted. The informant reports wargamers as largely older demographics amongst historical wargames while younger demographics play sci-fi wargames. A rite of passage the informant notes is learning how to thin the paint, as amateurs can be identified by blotches of paint on their miniatures that blot out the miniature details. While any wargamer can be identified by having miniatures of units on display, a passionate wargamer and a “poser” can be differentiated by the types of miniatures they have on display in their house. Uncommon miniature sizes like 6mm, 3mm, 2mm, and scaled ships or uncommon historical eras such as Medieval or Ancient as these miniatures aren’t usually commercially mass produced, and the players must go out of their way to acquire them. The base for the miniatures are also a good indicator, as companies like Litko allow specified customizations on base sizes and even material, offering wood or metals instead of the mass produced plactic, which proves further investment in the hobby. The Miniatures Page and Tactical Command are forums where these hobbies gather online, but they are rather dated in terms of web design. Tournaments and expos are events where wargamers gather, and people bring their own miniature sets while miniature studios market their services. If someone disrespects another person’s miniature set by stepping on them, tossing them aside, etc, they will be disqualified from the tournament or asked to leave if at a home game, likely to never be invited back again. These players often have special cases for carrying miniatures.

Analysis

There are a few folk aspects to this interview, starting with membership identification with a folk community through the miniatures, which seem to be highly valued and personal within the community. The existence and even preference for “agnostic” wargame systems suggest importance placed on the personalization of miniatures, and the personal offense taken when one’s miniature set is disrespected suggests a Frazeristic contagiously magical connection to the miniature as an extension of the self given the time invested on customizing and painting them. As such, they have meaning to the players in the sense that players convert their own time and labor into these products. Similarly, painting one’s own first miniature set is considered a rite of passage for becoming a member of the wargaming community, beyond first setting foot into a game store with the interest of trying a game with someone else’s miniature set. The choice made in how one creates or even carry their miniatures reflects Stuart Hall’s reception theory of identity expression in consumerism, with specific studios offering customized miniatures. Furthermore, tournaments and conventions serve as a festival where players can gather to share this common love for a niche hobby which they do not have much opportunity to express their affiliation in public otherwise. In a sense, performing this identity is an inversal of the norm, which the spatially and temporally localized festival enables and encourages.

The Demon Dog of Valle Crucis

The Informant

The informant (AW) lives in North Carolina and recalls a personal memorate encounter with this cryptid.

https://maps.app.goo.gl/HfwPEA4b2EKGPWYg6

There was no fencing around the cemetery, simply along the road.

Text

Outside of a small town called Valle Crucis (Valley of the Cross) up in the mountains of North Carolina is an old church along the 194 highway with a graveyard inhabiting an alleged “demon dog.” One evening, when the informant was traveling from his brother’s college to Valle Crucis, he passed by the church’s cemetery, and as his father was driving past the church, he gazed out and noticed a large shape blurring through the cemetery. At first, he mistook it for a black bear but thought it was strange for a bear to be in a cemetery at that hour, but as they got closer, he realized it was a large, black dog roaming through the headstones of the graveyard. Later, he encountered in a local newspaper discussing the Demon Dog of Valle Crucis as large as a man with smouldering eyes smoking with the fire of hell. His personal memorate assures at least the existence of a dog that could be mistaken for a “hellhound,” though he does not report anything about its “demon” nature.

Analysis

This particular memorate is interesting as the informant maintains his stance on superstitions instead of correcting for his cognitive dissonance. Despite the encounter and having made the connection between his encounter and the subsequent urban legend reported in the news, he comfortably reaffirms that he does not believe it was a demonic dog and has no answer for what it was. When I asked the informant if the “dog” was large enough to be mistaken for a bear, he responded “yeah, but you know, black bears aren’t that big.” As the informant does not actively believe superstitions, even an encounter with a supposed cryptid did not change his mind, and while he comfortably lives admittedly not knowing what he saw, he is certain that it’s probably not a hellhound but rather just a large dog that happens to be roaming a cemetery. That is a fair point as the origins of why this creature became a reported cryptid is likely not only due to its unusually large size but also its location of sighting being a church cemetery, lending itself to more soul and divine related superstitious interpretations by a fairly religious population. Ironically enough, belief in such a demonic entity on what should be a holy resting ground would also suggest that the church and by extension God is failing to protect the souls resting in the hallowed grounds from demonic invasion. This cryptid is a good example of how the folk are more likely to ascribe superstitious traits to strange coincidences when contextualized by a meaningful location such as a church cemetery.

Ned Kelly (1854 – 1880)

The Informant

R.F. born and raised in Australia provides the following narrative of a bandit well known in Australia pop culture and folklore.

Text

Ned Kelly was a legendary (and one of the last) outlaw bush ranger in Australia with a long history of crime and banditry. His most famous heist was planned on a police train where his gang would derail the train and kill all survivors as revenge against the authority and enable further heists on banks with the police were out of the picture.

Conceived and wore a suit of bullet proof armor into battle.

Image

(The alleged armor made in an improvised bush forge with metal taken from farming equipment, circa 1879)

In the shootout that followed, he was the last one standing with police reporting Ned Kelly’s durability, comparing him to the devil or a ghost, surviving multiple gun shots and seemingly unkillable.

After the last stand, Ned Kelly was brought to trial for execution.

The judge after sentencing Kelly to death by hanging: “May God have mercy on your soul.”

Ned Kelly: “I will see you there where I go.”

Kelly’s mother told him to “die like a Kelly” before his hanging.

“Ah well, I suppose it’s come to this. Such is life.” – Last words at the gallows.

The judge died 12 days later.

Analysis

This urban legend euhemerizes a likely real figure in history by exaggerating his last stand to legendary proportions. It’s particularly interesting that a criminal is being glorified and continues the theme of opposing authority in Australia as exemplified in the ScoMo urban legend. While Australia is sometimes referred to as the wild west of the commonwealth [citation needed], it’s not exactly surprising to see outlaws romanticized in a way similar to America’s Western’s, take Bonnie and Clyde for one cross-cultural example. In a sense, these outlaw figures are also antiheroes representing anti-establishmentarianism, embellished by their spirit of independence and comparable to the trickster who exists on the liminal space between good and evil. Even as the authority figure of the judge sentenced Ned Kelly to death after his valorous last stand, his last legendary deed was taking the judge with him in a single sentence. These traits akin to the trickster likely won the bushranger popularity amongst the folk in Australia.

Australian ScoMo Prime Minister

The Informant

R.F. was born and raised in Australia and is politically active and involved with his local democracy as well as the nation’s news.

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A long-standing “rumor,” since it technically can’t be proven, but everyone says it happened. Former Prime Minister Scott Morrison (ScoMo) shat himself in a Macca’s (McDonald’s) in Engadine. According to the informant, ScoMo went to watch his favorte rugby team play, and after they left, he went to a Maccas where he [allegedly] shit himself.

Analysis

This particular urban legend stands out to me as it was not the only urban legend Australia has on their prime ministers, the other being that one simply disappeared into the ocean one day never to be seen again. Although most embarrassing folk narratives about political leaders come from people of other nations, recent years have seen a rise in counterhegemonic distrust of authority and those in power. This is particularly reflected by these Australian urban legends, which combined with the laidback culture of Australia as illustrated by the dropbears and other quirky and humorous Australian slang, culminates into this urban legend regarding Prime Minister ScoMo having the reputation of having defecated into his own undergarments while at a public fast food restaurant.