Okay, the promised references. Brunvand, Jan Harold. 1981. The Vanishing Hitchhiker. W.W. Norton & Co. New York, NY. -urban legends and their purpose in society, this is his most academic book. His later ones have more fun with the topic. Bottingheimer, Ruth. Grimms' Bad Girls and Bold Boys I don't have the bibliographic information on this but it is useful overall. It talks about the relation between culture and message in folktales.
I would overall recommend focusing on the Brunvand book and how it explains the purpose of the urban legend as a tool to scare people, a theme explored in the movie urban legends as well. It goes into the fact that the tales have hidden messages such as the irresponsiblity of youth. For instance, in the stories The Hook and The Boyfriend's Death, kids are making out in the woods, an activity that society disapproves of and thus punishes them for in the story. There is the horror movie cliche of removing clothing presaging death. This is again a societal disapproval of pre-marital sex. These teenagers in the woods are not old enough to be playing strip monopoly and thus must be punished. This arises in part from the old Hayes code of movies. Bad things could only happen to bad people, reference films such as Reefer madness. If someone is immoral enough to break society's rules, they thus deserve to die by Hayes code standards. These films were the ancestor of the modern horror/slasher genre and are one of the primary influences on its development. I hope this helps and I didn't just ramble on too long.
i shall look fo rthose books tonight after class...well if the school library is open of course...and as for adding you to my friends....i know everyone on there personally now except twop...its rather nice just to read and not be personally involved...does that make any sense? course i have started reading your paqst stuff adn i have to say it is interesting that people say you are unapproachable, i get that quite often myself...
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timeasmymeasure
Re: i appreciate any help...
Date: 2003-10-26 04:55 pm (UTC)Brunvand, Jan Harold. 1981. The Vanishing Hitchhiker. W.W. Norton & Co. New York, NY. -urban legends and their purpose in society, this is his most academic book. His later ones have more fun with the topic.
Bottingheimer, Ruth. Grimms' Bad Girls and Bold Boys I don't have the bibliographic information on this but it is useful overall. It talks about the relation between culture and message in folktales.
I would overall recommend focusing on the Brunvand book and how it explains the purpose of the urban legend as a tool to scare people, a theme explored in the movie urban legends as well. It goes into the fact that the tales have hidden messages such as the irresponsiblity of youth. For instance, in the stories The Hook and The Boyfriend's Death, kids are making out in the woods, an activity that society disapproves of and thus punishes them for in the story.
There is the horror movie cliche of removing clothing presaging death. This is again a societal disapproval of pre-marital sex. These teenagers in the woods are not old enough to be playing strip monopoly and thus must be punished.
This arises in part from the old Hayes code of movies. Bad things could only happen to bad people, reference films such as Reefer madness. If someone is immoral enough to break society's rules, they thus deserve to die by Hayes code standards. These films were the ancestor of the modern horror/slasher genre and are one of the primary influences on its development.
I hope this helps and I didn't just ramble on too long.
thank you much