Quirky App Of The Day: Urban Legends
by Kathryn Zane
June 12, 2011
I love urban legends. They speak to us about what we're worried about the most. Usually, they're about people who just want to do the right thing, but they are preyed upon by the cunning and cutthroat. There are also the stories of those who are maniacally and surreally cruel. They are violent and lash out for no reason, other than the fact that they can. There are even urban legends about the supernatural. Monsters prowl darkened alleys at night and people see shifting forms and figures.
These stories speak about the fragility of human nature and existence. They share a common theme of the circumstances being beyond the control of the victim in some form. Either they are ignorant of the true intentions of a sadistic being, they are powerless against someone supernaturally superior, or they were at the mercy of natural disasters. No matter what story, someone is lacking in power.
Urban Legends is a compilation of a few of these stories. I won't ruin them for anyone wanting to download it. The quirkiness comes is an intelligent form this time. Most people scoff at urban legends. Some defend them, but most pawn them off. Once the superficial layer is removed, it's interesting what truly lies at the heart of them. Most cry out against not being able to foresee the future.
There are a few stories in Urban Legends that center around meeting someone that you think you know or that you are helping. Suddenly, they are the one out to get you. They turn and bite the hand that fed them friendship or help. Isn't that still the scary thing today? Can you really pull over to help that old man change a tire? What about the pregnant woman walking down the road? The two types of people we believe we should help out of principle are at the heart of multiple horror stories of gruesome murders and scams. People seem to feed and leech off of goodness and warm intent.
The other stories focus on the uncertainty of heinous crime. What sort of a person murders on a given day? Did they wake up planning it? Would they have believed only a short time ago, maybe even the hours before it happened, that there would come a time that they would take a life? I think we'd like to believe that there is a common denominator to the sociopathic. That if we crunch enough numbers and divide by proper calculations, we can arrive at safe and predictable answers.
It would be easier, wouldn't it? To believe that all violent crimes are crimes of passion and accidents? How do we cope in a world where some sadists plan out how to inflict terror and pain in another human being? Sometimes, the victim has done nothing to deserve it. Yet, there's no way to fight back against those who know your face, but you aren't even aware that they exist. So, we tell ourselves these stories. We take a strange comfort in the fact that we can vicariously live through these horrible situations. We can tell ourselves, "I'd have done this" or "They could have done that" to calm our own worries about our possible inadequacies.
Urban Legends bring out the quirky nature in human to never look away from the wreck. Even though we know it will be messy, and what has been seen and heard will never be forgotten, we can't resist the need to suffer alongside others. So, even when there is no shortage of violence and fear, we still tell ourselves urban legends to remind ourselves that not everyone can be trusted, nothing is for certain, and nothing is as it seems.
For spine-tingling stories, download Urban Legends for the awesome price of FREE!
