Disappearing Hitchhiker: American Urban Legends and Their Significance: Spine or cover damage

Author: (USA) Bruce Van der Walt
Publisher:
Publish Date: 2006-11-01
Features: This is a work about contemporary American folk tales—many of which have been heard by people and are often taken as real events. The author combines discoveries about famous, funny, weird, thrilling American urban legends and attempts to reveal the various patterns and possible meanings of these modern folk narratives. As the author points out, people spend time telling and listening to legends not only because of their strange and interesting plots, but also because they genuinely convey the context in which creators anders lived and the resulting social psychology, which in turn influences our psychological, knowledge, and behavioral systems. Horror, ghostly, funny, embarrassing "Boyfriend's Death": A couple driving their car is forced to stop. The boyfriend tells his girlfriend to stay in the car while he goes for help. He never returns. The next day, the police who came to rescue warn, "Miss, don’t look back!" The girlfriend, who looks back, is instantly shocked her hair turns white because she sees the "vanishing hitchhiker": A girl asks the driver to take her home. Seeing she is cold, the driver gives her his coat. When they pass by Green Cemetery, the girl asks them to stop for a moment, but she never comes back. Her coat is left hanging on a tombstone, and the person in the photo on the tombstone is the girl. "Embarrassing Nakedness": A boss is upset because his wife and children seem to have forgotten his birthday, so he readily agrees to have lunch with his secretarial assistant, who has always had a crush on him, at her apartment. When the assistant comes back with a cake—followed by the boss’s wife and children—they discover: The boss is completely naked, only wearing socks. "Fart in the Dark": Jenny goes on her first date with a boy, and her stomach is bloated from eating spicy food at lunch. While the boy opens her door and moves to the other side, she lets out a fart that sounds like thunder. She rolls down the window to fan the smell away, thinking everything is fine, only to find two people in the backseat.