Talk:The Slender Man/@comment-35447404-20180430044721

There is a very early reference to the slender man, or a like entity, in a tale called "In the Court of the Dragon" by Robert W. Chambers book The King in Yellow, from 1895. This entity pursues the main character in a fashion very similar to the slender man, appearing menacingly and disappearing as its prey looks away, and it only "catches" its target after he is cornered and decides to defiantly stare back at his pursuer. This entity is described as very pale, practically paper white, clad in very black clothes, specifically a XIX century church's organists outfit; and is unnaturally tall with very long arms, enough to seem like a torture device. During the tale the pursuing entity is actually called "slender man" on more than one occasion.

The pursuit begins at a church where this "slender man" is apparently playing the organ at a ceremony in Paris, France. The music disturbs the main character who looks at the instrument above and sees an organist leave only to be plagued by deja vu and thus the game of cat and mouse begins. The author is very deliberate in describing the main character looking away from his chaser whenever he encounters this entity, even going at lenght to narrate a passage where the hunted stops to look at a fixed point for hours on end out of fear of glancing this slender man and afterwards attempting a flight to safety.

The main reason this pursuit is taking place is because the main character has read a forbidden document, in this case, the titular "The King in Yellow", a fictional three acts play that supposedly drives mad anyone that glances over it from the second act onwards, a recurring device in this anthology. Any person that looks at any page beyond that act is overcome by an obsession to finish reading the book and whoever actually finishes it is driven completely insane. In this particular tale it is not known how far into the book the narrator character has gotten, it is merely stated that he read the book for some time, was very disturbed by it and went to church to try to purge his memories of it.

Upon arriving on church the character is finding some manner of peace of mind until disturbed by erratic organ music. After looking around for this disgruntled organist our character's eyes meets the "slender man", and his soul is done for it.

Alas, the similarities with the creepypasta ends here, as this particular "slender man" is described to have a face or, at least, to have eyes or being able to show expression. The narrator describes looking at the face of the entity and seeing unbridled hatred towards him and pondering what had he ever done to be deserving of that, after which he tries to fool himself that this visage was of no consequence. After experiencing deja vu, seeing the same man again walking away again, he flees the church only to be chased by this entity till the bitter end. This slender man is also seen walking occasionally, as its described as moving around from the organ to the street door, twice, and walking in the midst of mobs of people more than once. Everyone else besides the narrator is described as being unfased by its presence.

Finnaly the book The King in Yellow (CHAMBERS, 1895) is a collection of tales that features its namesake play as a motif throughout. As stated above, the fictional playbook is described as driving the reader mad. Published in 1985 it later served as an inspiration, and is refercenced in, the Cthulhu mythos of H.P. Lovecraft. Apparently the tale of the slender man is older than we think and may have its roots in Cthonian entities, be inspired by them or, even still, be rooted more firmly in the collective unconscious than once thought. There are more similarities between the "Slender Man" of Dragon Courts and his more modern counterpart than otherwise. It is advised for fans of the new slender man to read at least this tale or to procure a copy of The King in Yellow (the CHAMBERS tale anthology, not the "original" play).

As once stated by the famous intelectual Dross Rotzank: "And I bid you Good Night".