Research log #2

Decided to move my research log over here. The Soup was a little like shouting into the void. 

Gonna jot a few things down before I get going with the rest of my day:

• Had the video chat with M on Friday, so good to see her. Got some good perspective on work and stuff.
• Need to check out local library for possible records of local mythologies.
• Interviews (finally, finally) scheduled. Have two coming along today, will post initial results tonight.
• (Of course, in interest of keeping IRB the fuck off my back, I will not be posting the audio logs of the interview on this blog. Maybe a transcript or a retelling or sthng.)

Other than that, things are. Things are. They just are. My computer ended up corrupting (and then eating entirely, wtf) most of the recording I had of the video chat with M. Whatever, I think I still might have the audio log...

Also to note: I've been talking with some of the students on campus, and it sounds like the tunnels beneath the university are... kind of sketchy. Aside for the natural sketchiness of maintenance tunnels, there's this hushed rumoring about there being some kind of weird creeper down there. Not sure if this creeper just roams the tunnels or if it has a favored spot. 

At any rate, this type of story is very interesting to me. We basically have late adolescents and young adults, in generally their first bid for freedom and independence from strict authority figures, who are being confronted with the unknown of the rest of their lives. It' possible the tunnel creeper is a kind of collective story that has been agreed upon and manufactured to deal with the stressors of being young, quite vulnerable, rather alone, and heaped with heretofore massive amounts of responsibility.

Of course, young things getting et or absconded by underground ogres is quite a common theme in traditional folk lore, so it's really very fascinating to see it emerge in modern story telling context, independently from a larger network of older storytellers. Almost as if the new found independence is also part of being able to create stories of loss and fear apart from authority figures' interpretation of the risky events.

I'll check back in tonight. 

Side note: I've got another researcher helping me out. Jack's a good guy, he's a historian, and he's got infinite patience in sifting through ENDLESS BULLSHIT.