The Truth Never Stands in the Way of a Good Story

by Brunvand, Jan Harold

• ISBN13: 9780252070044
• ISBN10: 0252070046
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2001-04-18
• Publisher: Univ of Illinois Pr

Summary

"""My sister's boyfriend knows a family who . . .""""One of my wife's colleagues has a friend who knows someone who . . .""""This is a true story that was forwarded to me by. . .""""This is not a joke!""In this lively and engaging book, the nation's foremost expert on urban legends explores the spontaneous germination of these bizarre yet plausible narratives that play on the absurdities and prey on the fears of modern life.Through voluminous correspondence from readers of his books and syndicated newspaper column, Jan Harold Brunvand has become something of a clearinghouse for evolving versions of urban legends. Here he looks in detail at a dozen rampant and long-lived examples of this vigorous category of contemporary folklore, tracing their histories, variations, sources, and meanings.Brunvand tracks the various permutations-by fax, by e-mail, by newspaper, by word of mouth--of such legends as ""The Red Velvet Cake,"" ""The Brain Drain,"" and ""The Baby Roast."" He points out their common elements--notably, their insistence on the truth of the story and their attribution to a ""friend of a friend."" His son Erik Brunvand, an associate professor of computer science at the University of Utah, contributes his own view of computer hacker legends traded across the Internet.Captivating and thought-provoking, The Truth Never Stands in the Way of a Good Story pins down the qualities that give urban legends their air of authenticity and make them hard to believe yet impossible to dismiss. For those interested in popular culture and current events as well as those wary of being taken in by false information, Brunvand's book reinforces his most basic piece of advice: ""Don't believe everything you hear."""

Table of Contents

Introduction	1	(13)
Richard M. Dorson and the Urban Legend	13	(10)
``The Brain Drain'' Legend of the Long Hot Summer of 1995 (and Beyond)	23	(15)
``The Baby Roast'' as a ``New American Urban Legend''	38	(24)
What's Red and White and Baked All Over?	62	(14)
Was It a Stunned Deer or Just a Deer Stunt?: The Story behind a Missouri Legend	76	(8)
Bedtime for Bozo: The Legend of the Clown Who Cussed the Kids	84	(11)
``Lights Out!'': A Faxlore Phenomenon	95	(13)
A Blast Heard 'round the World	108	(15)
The Folklorists' Search for the Ghost in Search of Help for a Dying Person	123	(14)
``The Missing Day in Time''	137	(12)
Some Oddities of Military Legendry	149	(11)
Some News from the Miscellaneous Legend Files	160	(10)
The Heroic Hacker: Legends of the Computer Age	170	(29)
Erik Brunvand
Conclusion: The Future of Urban Legends	199	(12)
Index	211