Do you know who I am?

Story: There was a story I heard about a student at a school- I forgot which one- who took a beginning class their freshman year in one of those big lecture halls with around, like, 500 students. During the final, they had an hour to finish, but when the hour was up, this student still wasn’t done. Everyone else left and turned in their tests, and they were still working. They finally walked up to the front, but the professor told them that their test couldn’t be accepted since they hadn’t finished in time. The student then yells at him: “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM!?” the professor, “What?”, the student, “DO YOU KNOW WHO I AM!”, “NO!” said the professor. “Good!” the student said and he then slipped their test into the middle of the stack and ran out of the classroom.

Context: The informant told me this story over the phone, recalling it from writing their own folklore collection.

Thoughts: The informant wasn’t even sure if they had recalled the story correctly, however they thought it was hilarious and wished they had gotten the chance to do something like it during school.

Analysis: I think this folklore is really interesting as a legend, and I feel as if I have also heard this, or some version of this story before. It is interesting hearing folklore about classes and school, since this was the only example of school-based folklore I was able to collect.

Birdsong

Story: It’s very specific to my family, but my grandma had this story that was passed down to her from her mom, my great grandmother’s friend used to sing this tune, and basically that friend passed. For weeks my grandmother was really sad about it and one morning she went out onto the porch like she did every morning, and there was a bird there. And the bird looked directly at her and started singing the song that her friend used to sing. Not with the vocals obviously, but it chirped out the tune. And it kept coming back and doing that morning after morning. And to my great grandmother that… that was proof that her friend was reincarnated. And that’s how the story goes.

Context: I was told this story by the informant in person, and recorded them so that I could better transcribe later on.

Thoughts: When asked about their own thoughts on the story, the informant paused thoughtfully, and said that they don’t really believe in ghosts, however this story really touched their heart to hear. They don’t know if it is true, but they hope it is.

Analysis: I thought this legend was a very heart warming take on reincarnation and the afterlife. I have heard other stories similar tot his one, and people seeing or hearing signs from animals after a loved one passes seems to be a common story.

Herobrine

Story: So Herobrine is a mythical being in the world of Minecraft. So, basically in the early development stages of Minecraft, Notch, who was the creator of Minecraft, would put in the developer logs, like removed Herobrine. And the story that was eventually developed around that very innocuous term, was that um Notch had a brother who died at some point in development who played the game, and his brothers soul became trapped in the game, and essentially began haunting players by attacking them.and the avatar of the character, herobrine, was like the default character, Steve, but without pupils in his eyes just like white in his eyes. And he was basically invincible, and could set you on fire, and just do very awful things to you. And multiple times during the beta development cycle, notch would put in removed Herobrine, and for the young kids who played the game who knew that story, we were always like: [in a quiet yell] ‘Oh my god! Hes back! He came back. Like what the fuck.’ and we would always be really freaked out, because the devoloper was confirming that herobrine was a real thing, and it wasnt just a bunch of kids, it was also like the developer of the game that was talking about it.

Context: I was told this story by the informant in person, and recorded them so that I could better transcribe later on.

Thoughts: The informant said that they loved telling this story, as it helped them to remember some great times with their friends playing Minecraft. They think the story stuck in their head so much because it is the only ghost story that they ever genuinely believed in.

Analysis: I remember the Herobrine legend – me and my friends also were also terrified of a potential encounter with him. I know this folklore was more widespread, but it was crazy meeting someone who grew up on the opposite side of the country talk about it, especially with the developer log detail which I had never heard before.

Vishnu

Story: So my grandma would always tell me this story- well he’s not really a god but he’s the incarnation of a god, um, Krishna, but he’s the incarnation of i think Vishnu if i remember correctly? And it’s just like a cute little story that she used to tell me when i went to sleep, it was to kinda put me to sleep at night, of um so he grew up in a village, he’s the incarnation of a god so he grew up around normal people. And he was a really mischievous kid and him and his friend – his mother used to live in the village and she used to churn butter at  a specific time of the year, and him and his friend would just be like super mischievous and steal that butter, like as they were churning it and  while they weren’t looking. He was known in the village as being this really naughty kid who always did that. And once they caught him and they opened his mouth- because he was like ‘oh I didn’t steal the butter’- and when they opened his mouth they saw the whole universe in his mouth. And that’s when they knew he was divine and uh… yeah.

Thoughts: The informant always really liked Krishna as a child, since their middle name is a form of that name, and was named after Krishna. It was also significant to them because their grandmother used to tell them that story while putting them to bed and they always really looked forward to that. She has since passed away, and it makes him happy to remember her.

Context: The context of this performance was over the phone, and I recorded the informant talking about their own folklore.

Analysis: This story made me want to paint- it was so beautiful and also unlike any story I have ever heard before. I thought a lot about why, and I think it is because there is no real point to the story, it is just visuals. Usually there is a plot to a story, an aim, a goal, a culprit, a villain. This story was more of an exposure of who Krishna really was on the inside, both metaphorically and physically.

Rat King

Story: There was once a rat king, who lived in the walls. After bothering animators for years we used our collective might of modeling and drawing to capture him into inanimate form. Now his avatar, the sacred rat king plush, is handed down through generations and safeguarded by the animators.

Context: I was told this story over text, as the informant has COVID and was unable to meet in person, and also did not want to call or FaceTime. This informant is an animation major, and part of a very small cohort. They have a stuffed rat that they circle between everyone in the cohort week by week.

Thoughts: When asked about how the informant feels about the story, they say that while they loved the story origination, they are a bit sad that it has died down a bit. Due to other circumstances, they feel as if they aren’t as close as they used to be to the people in the cohort, and haven’t gotten the rat in a while.

Analysis: I war torn between calling this a legend or a tale because of the animal component, and ultimately decided that it was in fact a legend. I thought this story was particularly interesting because while it might not be true, the cohort had built up lore around the stuffed rat and actually maintained the practice of passing the rat between them throughout their years at USC, through quarantine, and even now.