“Lavender Town Syndrome” Creepypasta: A Rational Narration of the Supernatural

Abstract: Creepypastas are horror-related legends spread on the Internet from anonymous or identified sources. Haunted or bewitched technologies are one of the key themes of creepypastas and can be encountered, for example, in stories such as the “Lavender Town Syndrome” creepypastas according to which a specific and early version of Pokémon Green and Red video games led children to suicide. Creepypastas are always told as true; they use specific markers of the journalistic discourse and references to textual, visual, or sound documents to authenticate themselves. The focus of this paper will be on the different strategies creepypastas use to gain their readers’ trust, get them to believe the unbelievable by rational means and create stories in which the mysterious mechanisms and flaws of video games and social media are explored and amplified, creating powerful myths in the forms of memes which are collectively rewritten.

[Full article:] Manzinali, Eymeric. « “Lavender Town Syndrome” Creepasta: A Rational Narration of the Supernatural ». In Disenchantment, Re-enchantment and Folklore Genres, edited by Nemanja Radulović and Smiljana Đorđević Belić, translations: authors, Mirta Jurilj and Danijela Mitrović, 217‑36. Belgrade: Institute for Literature and Arts, 2021.