How do you view Slenderman?

I am absolutey terrified of The Slenderman, even though I know he doesn't exist. If I met him in the day time in the woods, I'd probably turn around and periodically look behind my shoulder. If it was during the night... I'd freak out and start running back to my house and cower under my blankets. :p

I view Slenderman as a construct of various mythological tropes - the Gorgon, Persephone, the Trickster - and referring to similar needs and cues in human psychology - the unheimlich (a demon in something so innocuous as a business suit), blindness leading to strength, the corruption of the flesh, the mutable nature of memory and the soul.

If I saw him in my house I would shit a brick.

Moose wrote:

TheEndingDay wrote:

level100nidoking wrote:

Moose wrote:

[As a general rule I do not enter wooded areas without a weapon. That is to say, I am a hunter. I find no reason to go into forests, woodlands, or any other like terrains unless I'm hunting.]
[When I DO go into wooded areas I make sure it's light out and give myself plenty of time to skedattle before the sun sets.]
[Regardless, If I were to ever see Slenderman I would do what I normally do when I'm scared; Freeze up and become unresponsive.]
[I may or may not have learned my battle tactics from fainter goats.]

When entering woods, my logic instantly transforms into "That tiny branch just fell off a tree. Must be a bear nearby"

I know that feel, bro.

(Had to be done.)

This is why I don't go into woods. Forests, meadows, marshes, glens, creeks, valleys, brush, vales, sure, but not woods.

Edit: Hell, I even traverse the odd escarpment here and there.

[But Forests are denser than woods and more commonly have dangerous wild animals. Like Bears. And Cougars.]
[Marshes are a bad idea in general because if you get stuck in marsh mud and something comes after you...]
[Creeks can have any number of things embedded in their... beds. Makes them dangerous. Once stepped on a rusty nail in the Conneaut Creek and it went clean up through the sole of my shoe, in the sole of me foot and then out the top.]
[So those are pretty dangerous too, depending on how strictly the 'no littering' policies are upheld.]
[In short, your post confuses and alarms me, sir.]

Thanks now I'm afraid to leave my house for fear of everything.

level100nidoking wrote:

Moose wrote:

TheEndingDay wrote:

level100nidoking wrote:

Moose wrote:

[As a general rule I do not enter wooded areas without a weapon. That is to say, I am a hunter. I find no reason to go into forests, woodlands, or any other like terrains unless I'm hunting.]
[When I DO go into wooded areas I make sure it's light out and give myself plenty of time to skedattle before the sun sets.]
[Regardless, If I were to ever see Slenderman I would do what I normally do when I'm scared; Freeze up and become unresponsive.]
[I may or may not have learned my battle tactics from fainter goats.]

When entering woods, my logic instantly transforms into "That tiny branch just fell off a tree. Must be a bear nearby"

I know that feel, bro.

(Had to be done.)

This is why I don't go into woods. Forests, meadows, marshes, glens, creeks, valleys, brush, vales, sure, but not woods.

Edit: Hell, I even traverse the odd escarpment here and there.

[But Forests are denser than woods and more commonly have dangerous wild animals. Like Bears. And Cougars.]
[Marshes are a bad idea in general because if you get stuck in marsh mud and something comes after you...]
[Creeks can have any number of things embedded in their... beds. Makes them dangerous. Once stepped on a rusty nail in the Conneaut Creek and it went clean up through the sole of my shoe, in the sole of me foot and then out the top.]
[So those are pretty dangerous too, depending on how strictly the 'no littering' policies are upheld.]
[In short, your post confuses and alarms me, sir.]

Thanks now I'm afraid to leave my house for fear of everything.

@Moose, I aim to confuse and alarm. This way, even the bears and other fauna will think twice before crossing my path.

@Nido, fear leads us to new adventure. And if you're afraid to step out, who knows what spooky things you'll find within.

People who can still feel basic fear. Quaint.

i would make fun of him calling him needle dick then i would try to kick him in the nuts

I can't say I view Slender Man in one particular way; I like interpreting things in different ways. Mostly, I consider him to be something Beyond Comprehension as default, which adds mystery but is also kind of a cop out in some ways. One thing that did strike me, reading the anti hero/cop theory, was that if there is one, there are probably others. What interdimensional police force is Slendy part of? *laughs*

If I met him in the woods, I would likely assume I was having a relapse into psychosis and dig out my meds. In other words, I'd be in trouble even if there was something you could do, because I'd be kneeling on the ground digging through my backpack for a pill bottle and doing distraction exercises in my head designed to keep you from reacting to not-real things as threats.

[quote="TheEndingDay"

@Nido, fear leads us to new adventure. And if you're afraid to step out, who knows what spooky things you'll find within.[/quote]


fuck you

Jack Bones wrote:

i would make fun of him calling him needle dick then i would try to kick him in the nuts

Someone has unresolved issues

Hes my kawaii magical girl waifu

To me he speaks of the majesty and mystery of the unknown and the beyond. Something far greater than myself and with a morality I do not comprehend. He's quite like the Folk in that regard, running on a different sort of morality than us. Which means he can be helping us at times or harming us in ways that we consider to be conventionally so, but not so to him. What we view as "harm" could be "help" to him. Or even something relatively neutral. One of the reasons the Folk don't get our fear of death is due to how they view things. We all come back anyway so why fear death? Slendy is like that to me in terms of morality.

Yet there is also the scope of Slenderman to speak of. He can be in many places and has many traits, some of which seem contradictory at times. They're not. Our perception of him and of morality and purpose is just far too limited to get that he is indeed consistent when he seems to be a nonsensical paradox.

He's quite like Nirvana that way and the fears I have of such are similar to those I have for Slenderman. It's so different and beyond what I normally consider "sensible" that it's horrifying. He's very Lovecraftian that way to me.

So have we completely reached the point at which nothing is sensible and everything is parody? Because it really seems like we've reached that point.

And I'm not even on Skype yet.

Hey.
I personally have no idea what I'd do. I think I'll follow Rule 1: Turn around and don't stare. But... when i think about it, it's too fascinating to look away.

People, if you believe in the Slender man and you would actually see him in the night, don't act brave and say you will go and talk to him. You would shit your pants .

Angelus wrote:

People, if you believe in the Slender man and you would actually see him in the night, don't act brave and say you will go and talk to him. You would shit your pants .

Feh. That actually seems incongruous with the way I know my brain to function.

Also, if you actually believe in the Slender Man, why are you here? I'm pretty sure that's against the rules.

^True^

But I think they meant in a figurative sense. You ask people what their 3 wishes would be and they don't assume you have a magic lamp. Same difference.

I kinda fall in with what other people say. I find slenderman to be a good monster specifically because he isn't that outwardly monsterous. He almost looks human at first glance then you start to see all the things wrong, he's the monster of the Uncanny Valley. He's also a very American type of monster, understated most of the time, more of a psychological threat, he attacks memory and perception and plays on the fear that we might be seeing horrible things but not realize it.

And its interesting that he seems to be a white male in a buisness suit, maybe a bit of a reflection of the feeling of the predatory nature of the image of the rich man.

I'm going to crush your dreams. White people worked better for when Victor Surge was creating the original images. So yeah.

I think the whiteness thing was there just to help Slendy contrast with the darkness of a surrounding forest, that's all. Plus the human eye is naturally drawn to brighter colors, and I believe one thread on here had a theory that Slendy's head isn't his real head with his sensory organs (whatever those might be), but more like a lure for his prey. That theory could be supported by Slendy having a pale 'face' as a way to draw the human eye and lure them in before a kill...

Anyway, my POV on Slendy. I think that he's actually most likely neutral. He's most likely a predator specialized to hunt human beings, and is probably has been around as long as human beings themselves have. Although he might also eat meat (read: human beings) as well, I think that he is likely a phobovore, a fear eater that is, which would support the fact that he usually takes his sweet time before he takes someone, stalking them first to creep them out and then going in for the final blow.

On that note, I'm gonna go off tangent a second and point out that that kind of stalking and determination and patience is the mark of something pretty intelligent. Slenderman can and has stalked his victims for years if he has to, and never seems to forget about past prey targets that he hasn't caught yet. He even seems to remember them (or at least be able to detect them) if they get away as children and then remember him again as an adult. That kind of long-term memory is the mark of an intelligent animal, possibly even a thinking one, although obviously on a far more alien level than us. If it's smart enough to know that subtle things can creep us out and have that kind of memory and determination, then it may even be intelligent enough to understand what language is and how to use it, though it very likely doesn't have any need for languages like ours and could even communicate through pictures, thoughts, emotions (if it even has them), etc. So I think that, if we could understand it (which we humans can't, trying to understand it hurts our brains really, really badly), then communication with it might be possible... that is, if it even thinks we're anything worth communicating with at all, which is probably unlikely.

It's even possible that the insanity and illness caused by it is from its attempts to try and communicate with us. Something as simple as musing aloud to itself the equivalent of "Hello human, enjoying your walk through the forest?" could cause our bodies and minds to just spaz the fuck out. It could also be that the audiovisual distortion it causes is the camera or device in question picking up on its brainwaves (if it has what we could call a brain and not some other weird organ), which ARE electrical impulses and COULD cause interference if strong enough. Of course that's way, way out there, but it's only a theory.

So, tl;dr, I personally think Slendy doesn't always purposefully mean to harm human beings so grievously, with the exception of feeding on us/off of our fear/life energy/etc. He's just so alien and his morals (if he even has what we could consider to be morals) are so Blue and Orange that everything he does we spin as evil and harmful, because simply being around him is harmful to us. "Menacing" is literally the only way our human minds can comprehend the Slenderman, so that's what we see him as, and from there the jump to "Evil thing that wants to destroy us all" isn't too far. This would even include stuff like gutting humans and pinning them on tree branches and stuff - he could see that as "neutral" or "good" or "this is some cool decoration for my house" or something. Point is, I like my Slendy to be a thinking monstrosity, and thinking on a whole different plane of thought at that.

... And that tl;dr was also tl;dr. TOOLONGDIDN'TREAD-CEPTION.

Etreo wrote:

I'm going to crush your dreams. White people worked better for when Victor Surge was creating the original images. So yeah.

I figured that was the case, it was more of a post-modern kind of interpretation not really anything I thought was deliberate.

DarkShadows wrote:

I think the whiteness thing was there just to help Slendy contrast with the darkness of a surrounding forest, that's all. Plus the human eye is naturally drawn to brighter colors, and I believe one thread on here had a theory that Slendy's head isn't his real head with his sensory organs (whatever those might be), but more like a lure for his prey. That theory could be supported by Slendy having a pale 'face' as a way to draw the human eye and lure them in before a kill...

Anyway, my POV on Slendy. I think that he's actually most likely neutral. He's most likely a predator specialized to hunt human beings, and is probably has been around as long as human beings themselves have. Although he might also eat meat (read: human beings) as well, I think that he is likely a phobovore, a fear eater that is, which would support the fact that he usually takes his sweet time before he takes someone, stalking them first to creep them out and then going in for the final blow.

That was an idea that I liked and ran with, that his appearance is designed to attract our eye. I never liked the idea that he needed us just for food, to me that just made him seem to normal. I suppose the ideas I came up with in my story functionally end up being the same but I still like to have some ambiguity there. I liked the cosmic horror approach where he'd take what he wanted but he didn't need it and in the end he didn't really care if we lived or died. If one got away for a while he'd wait and focus on someone else. The patient, methodical hunter that has all the time in the world is scary because you can't ever really get away.

Quote :

On that note, I'm gonna go off tangent a second and point out that that kind of stalking and determination and patience is the mark of something pretty intelligent. Slenderman can and has stalked his victims for years if he has to, and never seems to forget about past prey targets that he hasn't caught yet. He even seems to remember them (or at least be able to detect them) if they get away as children and then remember him again as an adult. That kind of long-term memory is the mark of an intelligent animal, possibly even a thinking one, although obviously on a far more alien level than us. If it's smart enough to know that subtle things can creep us out and have that kind of memory and determination, then it may even be intelligent enough to understand what language is and how to use it, though it very likely doesn't have any need for languages like ours and could even communicate through pictures, thoughts, emotions (if it even has them), etc. So I think that, if we could understand it (which we humans can't, trying to understand it hurts our brains really, really badly), then communication with it might be possible... that is, if it even thinks we're anything worth communicating with at all, which is probably unlikely.

I went with an idea like this in my book, that he is very intellegent and has been shaping us for a long time though different forms of communication, but he could care less about us communicating with him.

Quote :

It's even possible that the insanity and illness caused by it is from its attempts to try and communicate with us. Something as simple as musing aloud to itself the equivalent of "Hello human, enjoying your walk through the forest?" could cause our bodies and minds to just spaz the fuck out. It could also be that the audiovisual distortion it causes is the camera or device in question picking up on its brainwaves (if it has what we could call a brain and not some other weird organ), which ARE electrical impulses and COULD cause interference if strong enough. Of course that's way, way out there, but it's only a theory.

Nah I don't think it's way out there, after all, if we assume that the way he communicates is based in known science, even just the smallest bit, the only way to communicate directly with a brain would be to impose magnetic fields on it, very strong magnetic fields. Even then, the communication would end up being dreamlike and disjointed, imposing feelings and triggering memories rather than using words.

Quote :

So, tl;dr, I personally think Slendy doesn't always purposefully mean to harm human beings so grievously, with the exception of feeding on us/off of our fear/life energy/etc. He's just so alien and his morals (if he even has what we could consider to be morals) are so Blue and Orange that everything he does we spin as evil and harmful, because simply being around him is harmful to us. "Menacing" is literally the only way our human minds can comprehend the Slenderman, so that's what we see him as, and from there the jump to "Evil thing that wants to destroy us all" isn't too far. This would even include stuff like gutting humans and pinning them on tree branches and stuff - he could see that as "neutral" or "good" or "this is some cool decoration for my house" or something. Point is, I like my Slendy to be a thinking monstrosity, and thinking on a whole different plane of thought at that.

... And that tl;dr was also tl;dr. TOOLONGDIDN'TREAD-CEPTION.

I agree with a lot of that. I like my Slendy to be something smart that's waiting out there in the dark and when somehting weird happens and you never really know if its just coincidence or part of his plans.

I think that Slenderman is a manifestation of humans fear of the unknown and the lack of face relates to today humans wanting to identify themselves and others. I believe that he feeds upon the sanity of his preys as he slowly turns them insane by stalking them. Some weak-minded take shorter time to feed upon than the strong-minded. He creates fear in our minds in order to feed on our sanity, some individuals takes years to feed upon, while others take months.

I believe he has been around for as long as humans have feared not fitting in, for a long time in other words. He does not actually have a physical body, he(or it) only creates one for us to see when he wishes us to think he's present. His victims slowly goes insane and paranoid and in the end they become comatosed or locked up in a mental hospital.

eudaemon wrote:

I like my Slendy to be something smart that's waiting out there in the dark and when somehting (sic) weird happens and you never really know if its just coincidence or part of his plans.

That's a good way to think of it, actually, and probably how I think he's best portrayed. He's not just some random monster stalking and killing/taking people. He's more or less just kind of there, he does things, and those things are pretty much left to our own interpretations. It very much could just be that his mere presence fucks things up, or it could be actively his doing, but that's something I don't think anyone, in-universe or out, will ever know.

You see, I think to completely characterize Slendy as evil and that's that just does nothing but box him up and focus on one possible interpretation. He's not like the Joker, another favorite antagonist of mine, who is also multifaceted, but in the sense that he's evil in many different ways, depending on how harsh or comedic the author feels like writing him. We know the Joker is just an evil human being who delights in causing chaos and madness for the sake of it. Not so with Slendy, who for one isn't human and doesn't have a set motive for another.

That I think is what really got me into this Mythos - the idea that, not only do we have an open character with many different views and takes on it, but we have a wide open character that literally changes and mutates with every single story told about it. It literally can be absolutely anything from a pure evil demonic being bent on destroying people For The Evulz, to a Fae or Fair Folk that operates on different levels than us and is only misconstrued as being good or evil depending on its actions, to even a literal boogeyman that happens to haunt children (and adults that escaped as children). It could even be presented as symbolic, or a figment of one's imagination, a solidification of the fear of the unknown and strange (as the Fear Mythos presents, and which I ultimately think is the best interpretation because I am a horror author and I love symbolism). The one constant really besides its appearance is that it should be scary, a terrifying being to encounter or even think of encountering - and the scarier it is, the better. Even if its intentions are somehow noble (at least by its standards), we're always going to see it as terrifyingly unknowable, and possibly even evil as a result. Although again, that depends on your interpretation of Slendy, and I happen to see it as much more alien than outright pure evil, since that makes more sense to me and works more on the fear of the unknown.

To me Slender Man is, as someone on TV Tropes (iirc) put it, a "reluctant, malevolent guardian"-- like a mix of the Fae and an Elderitch horror. I think if I saw him, I'd go from freezing in terror to staring in shock and awe to having my brain broken.

Alright, this is how I feel. Slender Man is neither good nor evil. He is controlled mainly by instinct. I also feel he is asexual and aromantic, although he may be capable of forming friendships (but I honestly don't think that they would end well.) I doubt he chose to be the way he is. There could be a chance he is being controlled by an evil, more powerful being (I like to imagine it is Apophis from Egyptian mythology.)