folk art
Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative. The makers of folk art are typically tra ...
, and urban legends that are circulated, not by word of mouth, but by
fax machine
Fax (short for facsimile), sometimes called telecopying or telefax (the latter short for telefacsimile), is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material (both text and images), normally to a telephone number connected to a printer o ...
. Xeroxlore or photocopylore is similar material circulated by
photocopying
A photocopier (also called copier or copy machine, and formerly Xerox machine, the generic trademark) is a machine that makes copies of documents and other visual images onto paper or plastic film quickly and cheaply. Most modern photocopiers ...
; compare
samizdat
Samizdat (russian: самиздат, lit=self-publishing, links=no) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documen ...
in
Soviet-bloc
The Eastern Bloc, also known as the Communist Bloc and the Soviet Bloc, was the group of socialist states of Central and Eastern Europe, East Asia, Southeast Asia, Africa, and Latin America under the influence of the Soviet Union that existed du ...
countries.
The first use of the term xeroxlore was in Michael J. Preston's essay "Xerox-lore", 1974. "Photocopylore" is perhaps the most frequently encountered name for the phenomenon now, because of trademark concerns involving the Xerox Corporation. The first use of this term came in ''A Dictionary of English Folklore'' by
Jacqueline Simpson
Jacqueline Simpson (born 1930) is a prolific, award-winning British researcher and author on folklore.Steve Roud.
Material circulated in faxlore
Some faxlore is relatively harmless.
Cartoon
A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently animated, in an unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved over time, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or series of image ...
s and
joke
A joke is a display of humour in which words are used within a specific and well-defined narrative structure to make people laugh and is usually not meant to be interpreted literally. It usually takes the form of a story, often with dialogue, ...
s often circulate as faxlore, the poor graphic quality becoming worse with each new person who resends the joke to the next recipient. Because faxlore and xeroxlore is the (mis)appropriation of technology owned by the employer, much
humorous
Humour (Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in t ...
faxlore is mildly subversive of the workplace and its values. Like email and
chain letters
A chain letter is a message that attempts to convince the recipient to make a number of copies and pass them on to a certain number of recipients. The "chain" is an exponentially growing pyramid (a tree graph) that cannot be sustained indefinite ...
, office technology has given new life to various forms of practical jokes, urban legends, and folklore. The items are often office-related, such as spoof agenda for meetings, spurious descriptions of ridiculous training programs that all staff will allegedly be required to attend, and so on. Names may be whited out and replaced with someone in the office, making it a joke on a particular person, or details may be altered making an item more topical.
The semi-traditional lists of reasons "why a cucumber is better than a man" or "why a beer is better than a woman" often circulate as faxlore, as has the well known mock German variations of the "
Blinkenlights
Blinkenlights is a neologism for Blinkenlights#Actual blinkenlights, diagnostic lights usually on the front panels on old mainframe computers, minicomputers, many early microcomputers, and modern network hardware. It has been seen as a skeu ...
" poster. Another commonly circulated text contains ethnic humor; a typical version goes:
Heaven is where the police are British, the lovers French, the mechanics German, the chefs Italian, and it is all organized by the Swiss.
Hell is where the police are German, the lovers Swiss, the mechanics French, the chefs British, and it is all organized by the Italians.
Materials of this sort have existed from the beginnings of duplicating technologies. World War II era
blueprint
A blueprint is a reproduction of a technical drawing or engineering drawing using a contact print process on light-sensitive sheets. Introduced by Sir John Herschel in 1842, the process allowed rapid and accurate production of an unlimited numbe ...
s exist of drawings of female nudes with their body parts labeled as if they were the parts of airplanes. With the widespread adoption of photocopying, amateur duplication of this sort of material became available to a much larger social base. Cartoons and other amateur materials were distributed in the workplace, usually in violation of
managerial
Management (or managing) is the administration of an organization, whether it is a business, a nonprofit organization, or a government body. It is the art and science of managing resources of the business.
Management includes the activities ...
restrictions on the use of office supplies, and often in disregard of copyright law.Preston, 1996
Later, during the early 1990s, the widespread adoption of telecopiers made it possible to duplicate these materials remotely. The use of a fax machine to duplicate these materials also changed the emphases of their subjects; various alarms and urban legends were propagated to distant readers over the telephone lines. This use of fax has been somewhat supplanted by email as that technology became more widely used and embedded in the culture; the sort of urban legends that once circulated by fax are now likely to appear as
email hoax
Email spoofing is the creation of email messages with a forged sender address. The term applies to email purporting to be from an address which is not actually the sender's; mail sent in reply to that address may bounce or be delivered to an unre ...
es. Specific computer related alarms are the subject of
virus hoax
A computer virus hoax is a message warning the recipients of a non-existent computer virus threat. The message is usually a chain e-mail that tells the recipients to forward it to everyone they know, but it can also be in the form of a pop-up windo ...
es; email makes forwarding of texts relatively easy, and the frightening nature of the revelation makes it seem important to pass along, despite any doubts the sender might have.
Faxlore and urban legends
Other sorts of faxlore have had more serious consequences. A number of more notorious urban legends have circulated in faxlore. The notorious " Blue Star
Acid
In computer science, ACID ( atomicity, consistency, isolation, durability) is a set of properties of database transactions intended to guarantee data validity despite errors, power failures, and other mishaps. In the context of databases, a sequ ...
" hoax is one well known example.
The "lights out" hoax, which claimed that people who were driving in the dark with their headlights out might be gang members, and that those who flashed their headlights at these drivers might be marked for murder as part of a gang initiation, was another hoax that was widely circulated as faxlore. The poor graphic quality of the frequently re-sent faxes, which often were made out to appear to have originated with the police department of a distant city, only made these hoaxes seem more credible.
Legal aspects
In the United States, collections of supposedly sinister symbols have been circulated among school administrators and
police department
The police are a constituted body of persons empowered by a state, with the aim to enforce the law, to ensure the safety, health and possessions of citizens, and to prevent crime and civil disorder. Their lawful powers include arrest and th ...
s; in the 1980s these symbols were frequently alleged to be " Satanic symbols", and in the 1990s they were alleged to be "gang symbols". Political or religious symbols, like the peace symbol, the Star of David, the Rosary, the
ankh
Progressive ankylosis protein homolog (ANK ilosis H omolog) is a protein that in humans is encoded by the ''ANKH'' gene.
This gene encodes a multipass transmembrane protein that is expressed in joints and other tissues and controls pyrophosphat ...
, or the
pentagram
A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha, pentangle, or star pentagon) is a regular five-pointed star polygon, formed from the diagonal line segments of a convex (or simple, or non-self-intersecting) regular pentagon. Drawing a circle aroun ...
were mingled with other cryptic or fanciful symbols in these faxed and recirculated sheets, and the entire collection was condemned.
On the authority of these anonymous, hard-to-trace, and impossible-to-
cross-examine
In law, cross-examination is the interrogation of a witness called by one's opponent. It is preceded by direct examination (in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, South Africa, India and Pakistan known as examination-in-chief) and ...
sources, school administrators sometimes acted to ban the wearing of Stars of David and similar symbols of minority religions. Typically, no compiler or author is given for the collection of symbols, though frightening descriptions are often given about their "secret meaning." A number of
civil liberties
Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties may ...
lawsuits were filed over actions taken by school administrators who took these anonymous sources seriously.
A similar claim that the Procter & Gamble logo was a " satanic symbol" was linked in the 1980s to the activity of several
Amway
Amway (short for "American Way") is an American multi-level marketing (MLM) company that sells health, beauty, and home care products. The company was founded in 1959 by Jay Van Andel and Richard DeVos and is based in Ada, Michigan. Amway and it ...
distributors, Amway being one of Procter & Gamble's competitors; the hoax was spread by fax, photocopier, and later by voice mail and email. Another occasional hoax claims that clothing and memorabilia of various universities or sports teams are "gang symbols".''Jeglin'', 1993; Roberts et al., 2005
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web (WWW), commonly known as the Web, is an information system enabling documents and other web resources to be accessed over the Internet.
Documents and downloadable media are made available to the network through web se ...
, email, instant messaging, and social networking sites are now available to quickly and widely spread the sort of material that formerly circulated as faxlore. The hoax warnings of things such as dire and terrible
computer virus
A computer virus is a type of computer program that, when executed, replicates itself by modifying other computer programs and inserting its own code. If this replication succeeds, the affected areas are then said to be "infected" with a compu ...
es that still occasionally circulate, carry on one tradition of the bogus
cautionary tale
A cautionary tale is a tale told in folklore to warn its listener of a danger. There are three essential parts to a cautionary tale, though they can be introduced in a large variety of ways. First, a taboo or prohibition is stated: some act, lo ...
that used to circulate as faxlore, now known as ''
copypasta
A copypasta is a block of text that is copied and pasted across the Internet by individuals through online forums and social networking websites. Copypastas are said to be similar to spam as they are often used to annoy other users and disrupt o ...
'' (an altered compound of common computer functions
copy and paste
In human–computer interaction and user interface design, cut, copy, and paste are related commands that offer an interprocess communication technique for transferring data through a computer's user interface. The ''cut'' command removes the ...
* Brunvand, Jan
** ''The Truth Never Stands in the Way of a Good Story'' (2000, Univ. Illinois: )collecting examples
** ''The Choking Doberman'' (Norton, 1984; )
** ''Curses! Broiled Again!'' (Horton, 1989; )collecting examples, inc. "Blue Star Acid"
* Dundes, Alan and Pagter, Carl R.:
** ''Work Hard and You Shall Be Rewarded: Urban Folklore from the Paperwork Empire''. (Rev. ed., Wayne State Univ. 1992; )
** ''When You're Up to Your Ass in Alligators... More Urban Folklore from the Paperwork Empire'' (Wayne State Univ. 1997; )
** ''Never Try to Teach a Pig to Sing: Still More Urban Folklore from the Paperwork Empire'' (Wayne State Univ. 1991; )
** ''Sometimes the Dragon Wins: Yet More Urban Folklore from the Paperwork Empire'' (Syracuse, 1997; )
* Ellis, Bill: ''Raising the Devil: Satanism, New Religions, and the Media'' (Univ. Kentucky, 2000; )
* Hatch, Mary Jo; Jones, Michael Owen: "Photocopylore at work: aesthetics, collective creativity and the social construction of organizations", in ''Culture and Organization'', vol. 3, no. 2 (July 1997)
* Michael, Nancy. "Censure of a Photocopylore Display." ''
Journal of Folklore Research
The ''Journal of Folklore Research: An International Journal of Folklore and Ethnomusicology'' is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal covering research on folklore, folklife, and ethnomusicology. It was established in 1942 and is published ...
'', vol. 32, no. 2 (May–August 1995).
* Preston, Michael J.
** "Traditional Humor from the Fax Machine: 'All of a Kind'", in ''Western Folklore'', vol. 53, no. 2 (April 1994)
** "Xeroxlore", in ''American Folklore: An Encyclopedia'', Jan Brunvand, editor in chief. (Garland, 1996; )
Analysis
* Emery, David: Trademark of the Beast ', byline June 10, 1998, accessed Nov, 9, 2007The Procter & Gamble logo hoax
* Bunch, Michael: "Technology Aided Spread of Terrifying Hoax", ''
San Diego Union-Tribune
''The San Diego Union-Tribune'' is a metropolitan daily newspaper published in San Diego, California, that has run since 1868.
Its name derives from a 1992 merger between the two major daily newspapers at the time, ''The San Diego Union'' and ...
'', Oct. 4, 1993"Lights Out" gang initiation legend spreads by fax and copier.
* Hofstadter, Douglas: ''
Le Ton beau de Marot
''Le Ton beau de Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language'' is a 1997 book by Douglas Hofstadter in which he explores the meaning, strengths, failings and beauty of translation. The book is a long and detailed examination of one short translati ...
: In Praise of the Music of Language'' ()contains a linguistic discussion of the ''Blinkenlights'' text
Legal
* ''Chalifoux v. New Caney Independent School District'', 976 F.Supp. 659 (S.D. Tex. 1997)School board rule forbidding wearing of the rosary as a necklace, claimed to be a "gang symbol", struck down by court.
* ''Jeglin v. San Jacinto Unified School District'', 827 F.Supp. 1459 (C.D. Cal. 1993){{sndSchool board dress code forbidding the wearing of sports logos, claimed to be "gang symbols", partially struck down by court.
* Roberts, Kesler T., Littrell, Elizabeth L., Weber, Gerald R. Plaintiff's Memorandum of Law in Support of her Motion for Summary Judgment in ''Tillman v. Gwinnett County School District'', (N.D. Ga., case no. 1:04-CV-01180-BBM). Apr. 9, 2005, accessed Nov. 9, 2007. Brief filed on behalf of the
American Civil Liberties Union
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is a nonprofit organization founded in 1920 "to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to every person in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States". T ...
Foundation for Georgia. Shows school administrators relying on anonymous printouts and rumors to condemn, among other things, University of North Carolina logos and clothing, and a patch reading
España
, image_flag = Bandera de España.svg
, image_coat = Escudo de España (mazonado).svg
, national_motto = ''Plus ultra'' (Latin)(English: "Further Beyond")
, national_anthem = (English: "Royal March")
, i ...
snopes.com
''Snopes'' , formerly known as the ''Urban Legends Reference Pages'', is a fact-checking website. It has been described as a "well-regarded reference for sorting out myths and rumors" on the Internet. The site has also been seen as a source f ...