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The Endless Chain
| Article
# : |
14996 |
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Section : |
CULTURE
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| Issue
Date : |
9 / 1988 |
6,959 Words |
| Author
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Roger L. Welsch
Plains folklorist Roger L. Welsch is professor of English and
anthropology at the University of Nebraska. |
In this age of space exploration, a computer in every home, and triumphs of reason, Americans are still threatened and thrilled by an object of superstition and fear--the chain letter. Chain letters seem alien to the twentieth century because they express and elicit primitive emotions and ideas--fear and avarice, good and bad luck. They involve mystic powers, talismen, magic numbers and phrases, and communications with power and power systems well outside the control or understanding of technology. But chain letters are here today with much the same strength that they have enjoyed for nearly a century--and with very much the same force.
Chain letters have not faded in the glaring light of modern technology, but have fastened onto it like a parasitic life-form. They have even taken on new vitality. Fifty years ago, letter chains suffered from the tedious requirement of retyping or rewriting the letters anywhere between five and twenty times. Xerography has made copying a minor consideration in the tradition of chain letters. Moreover, while technology may have changed over the past century, the psychological and sociologic underpinnings of the genre remain unchanged.
Chain letters promise everything from simple, unspecified good fortune to tens of thousands of dollars, complete with full and convincing testimony of past successes (and failures) in abundance, including threats against those who might "break the chain," inadvertently or purposefully. To this day I cannot add new chain letters to my bulging file without wincing at the knowledge that I am once again daring the fates by breaking yet another chain.
"While in the
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