This is going to be a bit different compared to what I usually do and I would like to focus on the interesting slenderman mythos I have got into recently and talk about why I think it is so popular. The slenderman is an entity characterized by lacking any facial features many fan art also characterizes him as possessing dark tenticled appendages he can form from existing apendages ie arms or growing them from his own body. Slenderman started as a meme on the something awful foruk in which a contest to create hoax paranormal stories and convince people they are legitamite if I am remembering corectly. Many works such as Marble Hornets EverymanHYBRID ect. have created what is known as the slenderverse a collection of work that have brought the slenderman into the mainstream many of these projects are fun to watch but I am here to find out about the psychology behind slenderman more importantly find what is scary about him.

Firstly there is the idea he has no face, this in and of itself is scary, the human mind is hardwired to reconized faces, without a face it is hard to do so, but it goes deeper than that, many fictional entities have no facial features that the human mind can reconize, H.P. Lovecraft has created many thing like this in what is know as the Cthulhu Mythos of wich the slenderman shares many atributes, such as tenticles, exadurated features, and reality bending phenomina that happen around him such as teliportation and other supernatural powers. In my research of slenderman I find one word seems to perfectly explain him, Tabula Rasa, meaning Blank slate which admittingly I am takig rather literal since tabula rasa is what is described in psychology as the theory that children are born without mental componets and everything must be taught. Essintially a nurture over nature scenario. While I partly disagree with Tabula Rasa I find it is a suiting word to discribe the slenderman. Slenderman is a blank slate and that is what I think is scary about him, we see his featureless face and our minds can imput  whatever we want, essintally we project what we fear onto him and that is one of the componets that can make him scary.

Other than that he is unknown, everything is scary when it is unknown and things tend to get less scary when you give it a face, especcially a human face, humans are reasonable, they live, they interact, and if you have known them long enough they are predictable. these atributes in and of themselves can make something scary but what makes the slenderman so special, well after research I find that many sites refer to him either abducting or killing children. This add to the fear as many peple see children as inocent, and anyone who would harm a child is evil. The human imagination is always going to make something scaryer than it actually is, and with slenderman our imaginations can run wild what little is know about him we try to fill and what we come up with is scary to us specifically, my vision of slenderman is going to be different from anyone elses because the atributes I give him are going to be based off what I fear.

However I think it runs deeper than that, slenderman is chaos, a being we cannot understand or control, he is unreasonable and seemingly exists only to cause fear, in the slenderman videos such as marble hornets or everymanHYBRID slenderman is rarely seen, and when he is seen he is mostly just standing there menicingly. It's like having a stalker that you can't stop, police is not an option and what are you going to do shoot at the teleporting man with no face in the face with a gun. Back in reality slenderman serves the same purpose as the loch ness monster or big foot, sometimes it is fun to think about something and creep yourself out, and when you look out the window and see something that looks like a man in a suit even though you know it is more than likely just a trick of shadows you can feel a bit of fear and as such look it up to learn more about it adding to the fear the next time that tree looks like a man in a suit at night, it is a continuous cycle that is becoming increasingly popular. Personally I enjoy the slenderman mythos and am in this category and I hope slendy is here to stay.