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Urban Legends Impact

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Impact of Urban Legends on Various Art Forms of 21st Century Chapter 1: Introduction Urban legend, urban folklore or urban tale is a form of modern folklore which consists of stories that may or may not have been believed by their tellers to be true and often possess horror implications that are believable by their audience. An Urban legend necessarily does not originate in the urban area. Urban legends are passed through the years and it depends upon the teller to make changes according to him in the tale if he wants to. The term “urban legend”, as used by folklorists, has appeared in print since 1968. The attractive appeal of a typical urban legend is it’s element of horror, mystery, supernatural, fear or humor. Many urban legends are essentially …show more content…

The biggest contribution made by these legends is to the murder mysteries as many serial killers are inspired by the characters of these legends. It is said that the strongest human emotion is ‘Fear’ and creating fear through a form of art is not an easy task. For a writer, an inspiration can come out of anything, one well known horror thriller director Alfread Hitchcock said that, “the best way to scare the audience is by playing with their mind and letting them predict the storyline but thrill them with an amazing and unpredicted conclusion”. Many urban legends depict horrific crimes, contaminated foods or other situations which would affect many people. Anyone believing such stories might feel compelled to warn loved ones. News organizations, school officials and even police departments have issued warnings concerning the latest threat. In this session I will be depicting four well known urban legends which made an impact on the various different art forms of 21st century. These urban legends are namely, ‘Bloody Mary’, ‘Jack the Ripper’, ‘The girl with a slit mouth’, and ‘Tomino’s Hell’. Each of these urban legends has inspired various art forms and …show more content…

This urban legend is about a Japanese poem titled as ‘Tomino’s Hell’ written by Yomota Inuhiko in a book called “heart is like a rolling stone”. The legend states that this poem is cursed. They say that you should only read this poem in your mind but never out loud. If you were to read it out loud then you’re suppose to take full responsibility for your actions. This poem was included in Saizo Yazo’s 27th collection of poem published in 1919. It’s not sure how this rumor started, but there is only a warning that “if you read this poem out loud, tragic things will happen”. It is recorded that many people read this poem and gave their feedback. There were people who said nothing happened with them but there were few more who apparently met an accident recently after reading the poem out loud and some have died as

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