Research log 7

Wow it's been a few days. I've really got to catch up on my progress reports, because a lot has been going on.

"There's a man in the woods."

I know that something's really stuck in my mind when I dream about it. For the past few days, I've been dreaming about being in the woods, at home. It's so quiet, like the air has been infused with the fabric of silence. I know there's something out in the distance, and I should be afraid. But I'm not.

It's those interviews. Listening to those people telling their stories about the man in the woods. Speaking of which, I've had about 3 more interviews with people, with a smattering of different stories, which I'll have to write up the transcripts for.

But here's the thing: they all talk about the man in the woods.With that phraseology. I'm getting goosebumps, and I'm not sure if it's the stories, or the monthly mayhem come back to mess with me.


In other news: local library was a go! Unsurprisingly, not as well equipped as the campus library re: folklore and ethnographic texts recovering local superstitions and folk stories.

But there was a surprising and unexpected part of this excursion. The library also has an archive section not open to the general public, and has records and collections available pretty much only to scholars, researchers, teachers, and people with a valid request and reason.

Since I'm a graduate researcher with a student ID, I managed to get in. In the section concerning local folklore and legends, I found a pretty fantastic collection of manuscripts done a few decades ago by a local college professor who had been studying regional folktales.

What's better is that the librarian actually agreed to let me borrow the collection. It's got its own sealed box and everything. I'll be going through it very soon, and I'll log it through notes and video.

Regarding that floppy disk I found in the tunnels: it's gone missing. I could kick myself in the teeth. I am so angry at myself. I thought I had it in my research journal, but sometime in the past few days it's wandered off somewhere. If anything else, I had wanted to see if it was related to the tunnel creep. Now it's doubtful I'll ever know.

Research log #6: interview log

Well, it appears that the recordings I've done re: the interviews have gotten corrupted somehow. So the video is completely shot, but the audio seems to be okay.

That having been said, I'm putting it up here anyway. God only knows if it'll disappear entirely like the skype call I had with M, so I want to make a record, even if it is remarkably shitty. 

By now I just kind of want to punch everything in the face. 

In other frustrating tech news, I've been having problems reading that floppy disk I found. Still an uncracked mystery. I'll try again tonight. If I keep having sleep troubles like I've been having, I'll have all night to do it.

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.