What’s in a Name

 

So, some of you may look at me a bit weird for referring to the Slender Man as…well, the Slender Man.  And nothing else.  You guys have all your nicknames and whatnot for him.  I’ve heard them.  But I don’t use them.  You’re maybe wondering why.  Let me start with this recap from my first post, for those of you who may have missed it:

“Yeah, I said his name. Oh, no! Come on, guys, he’s not fucking Voldemort. What, is his name so scary now that we can’t bring ourselves to say it? And what’s up with the nicknames? Is it because of the Tulpa Effect? Believe me, if the Tulpa Effect is real, that’s hurting more than it’s helping. Now nobody’s going to be able to watch The Nightmare Before Christmas or eat a stick of jerky without thinking of him. Good job, guys. Real great going. */sarcasm*.”

Really, by avoiding his name, we’re giving him power.  I used the analogy of Voldemort, and it’s one that works pretty well.  People are living in fear of him.  They live in such fear that they don’t even dare speak his name.  Well, guess what?  Harry speaks his name.  Dumbledore speaks his name.  And people look at them like they’re crazy.  You know why?  Because they’ve gone beyond fearing Voldemort.  People who never lived at the same time as him are afraid to say his name.  But they’re not fearing the person.  They’re fearing the name as much as (possibly more than) the wizard himself.  They’ve given his name unnatural power.  We’re doing the same thing with the Slender Man by refusing to say his name.

That’s only half of the reason to use his proper name, though.  There’s one other big one.  Read up on this post here.  Remember A?  Yeah, he was an asshole.  Is he even still around?  I know he was posting here and there for a while.  But even an asshole can bring up a good point.  He theorizes that the Operator Symbol’s purpose is to make you think of the Slender Man, drawing him to you.

Now let me ask you a question.  What happens if you start calling him Jack Skellington?  What happens if you start calling him Slim Jim?  Like I said, you can’t watch A Nightmare Before Christmas anymore, and you can’t eat beef jerky, because you run the risk of thinking of him and drawing him to you.  It’s not healthy.  It was…Ron, I believe?  You called him “stick.”  Well, that might be an accurate nickname.  However, I see a ton of sticks every day.  Trees aren’t exactly uncommon.  If I think “Slender Man” every time I see a stick, I’m boned.  Giving him nicknames doesn’t make him less scary.  It makes him easier to refer to.  And it makes it harder to call him the Slender Man.  When you refer to him in colloquial terms, his name becomes more scary.  And since that name is the “mask” you give him, in a way, when he appears in his Slender Man persona (which he’s always in, except sometimes in your own mind), he’s near pants-shittingly scary.

Well, that’s my explanation on names, and why you shouldn’t use so many nicknames.  Stay safe, everyone.  I’ll probably come up with one more post this week.

And M, you had damn better come back and bitch me out for taking your job.

Gah!  No, Jekyll.  Don’t.  Just let it go.  Just…just give up hope.  It’ll be easier if you do that now, before you find yourself protesting against common sense that he’s still around.

But God, M, do I ever miss you.