CHAIN LETTER THIS

This morning is still rather a blur. Due to studying for finals and the resulting insomnia prompted by unsolicited algebraic expressions invading my brain followed by oversleeping due to Dramamine ingestion to cure the aforementioned insomnia and arriving at work minutes late with make-up artfully applied over severe mattress face, I open my e mail this morning to find that I had been

TAGGED

by a few of my fellow bloggers.

Some strange non-English speaking tongue was used and the word “MEME” kept creeping into the content. I don’t know what MEME is and it is more than likely yet another word invented by some poor kid with broken glasses who has yet to lose his (or her) virginity that will no doubt find its way into the lexicon of the English speaking world thereby managing to force its way into the next edition of the Oxford English Dictionary. . .if “BLING” can make it in, one can be reasonably sure MEME is soon to follow.

I detest all things that smack of Chain Letter, because I see them all as a low-fi form of marketing designed to frighten, a.k.a. bilk me of my nonexistent millions or get me to sign my life insurance policy over to someone who needs to know how many books or DVD’s I own and if I don't send that same inquiry to five other people within X number of hours I am surely to keel over from some horrible thing that makes me die instantly while still leaving me attractive. . .like Joaquin Phoenix in LADDER 49...isn’t he just the cutest?

I got a little interested in the history of this locust plague on the serenity of millions who trustingly open their mail and or email each day only to be threatened with DEATH.

Turns out, it has a religious beginning.

Religious: The first form near the beginning of the 1900’s were Letters from Heaven which claimed to have been written by God or some divine agent, commanding observance of the Sabbath to ward off “various misfortunes.”

Luck: These were also called “prayer chains” because many would start with either a Prayer or Bible verse, and appealed to superstition to encourage their copying or circulation. Beginning around 1900, copy quotas and deadlines were added, and claims of divine authorship and magical protection were removed.

Charity. This letter requests money or some item be sent to a particular address, ostensibly for charitable, political or memorial purposes.

Petition. I think we saw a lot of these during the last election. Chain petitions request their own reproduction, circulation and delivery of signatures. A early example was an attempt to draft Calvin Coolidge as the Republican nominee for President [1927], but their use in political campaigns goes back at least to 1912 (NYT).

Money. Money chain letters urge the recipient to send money to one or more prior senders, claiming that one can likewise benefit in the future. Money chain letters originated in the United States in the spring of 1935.

Exchange. The exchange chain letters ask that an item small value, such as a recipe or postcard, be sent to one or more prior senders, promising that if the chain is not broken the sender will in turn receive many such items. They first appeared in 1935, modeling the infamous Send-a-Dime money chain letter [1936].

"World Record". In the 1980's (as if the 1980’s didn’t have enough on it’s plate what with the president, the hair, the hyper pigment shirts, ya da ya da) a certain postcard exchange chain letter specialized to circulate among children and falsely claimed that its faithful continuation would soon result in a Guinness world record for chain letters [1985]. By the new millennium the request for postcards had been deleted and the letter is now motivated solely by its promise of a world record (crediting each sender!) and the threat that anyone who breaks the chain will spoil this effort and be identified [2000].

Parody. Very soon after the first publicity (April 19, 1935) of the Send-a-Dime craze, parodies appeared that mocked both the language and the geometrical progression of Send-a-Dime. Examples mentioned in the press include "Send-a-Pint" and the "Drop Dead Club" (shoot the first person on the list).

Chain E-mail. For "chain e-mail" (frequently forwarded e-mail) there are a large and growing number of motives for replication. Hoaxes, humor and expressions of friendship are prominent. The following is an alphabetic list of some of the many topics observed since 1993: admonitions (duty to friends, sobriety, safe sex), anti chain letters, aphorisms, ASCII art and scrollers, communication experiments and demonstrations, consumer warnings, friendship, hoaxes (virus warnings, charity, giveaways, false quotations), human rights alerts, humor (single jokes and lists, office humor items, stories), inspiration, Internet protection (modem tax, phone charges, anti-censorship), good luck (often in sex or romance), missing children, money chains, number guessing tricks, parodies, patriotism, personality tests, petitions, poems, political commentary, practical jokes (especially April Fools Day), prayer requests, protests, rumors, school & exams, seasonal (Christmas, St. Valentine's Day, Halloween, Thanksgiving Day), speeches, surveys, tag (snowball fight, mooning), urban legends (warnings, humor), Web page suggestions and voting recommendations. Many of these topics appear in combination, such as a humor item with a short luck chain attached.

Okay, so now with that little history lesson – I feel safely confident that I can, with all the sincerity that one finds within the contents of a chain letter or e mail, let the next person who sends one know, and I deliver this message with the utmost of respect and love, that their genitalia will disappear and never return. I promise.

Feel free to pass this along to five of your closest friends.

source: Chain Letter Evolution, Daniel W. VanArsdale ©1998, 2002