9/11 chain letters, legends, and parodies

Among the more prolific textual e-lore items that circulated after the events of 9/11 were chain letters. Many of the early ones I received called on people to stage patriotic candlelight vigils on specific nights, and others were peace petitions. (Only the items related to the former are included here.)

As many folklorists speculated, it didn't take long for legends related to the attacks began to circulate as well. The most widely circulated of these all revolved around a similar theme: thoughtful terrorist warns individual of upcoming attack; individual forwards warning to others to prevent further tragedy. Another uses numerology to suggest that the events of 9/11 were preordained. It's hard not to read these items as post-traumatic wish fulfillment: if only someone had received such a warning or correctly interpreted the numbers before 9/11, maybe tragedy could've been averted. The irony being, of course, that pre-9/11, such e-lore items would likely not have been taken very seriously, since there was little context for belief in such stories in the U. S.

What's notable is that it also didn't take long for parodies of these items to appear as well. This is fascinating, as it suggests that even after the events of 9/11, few people found such stories believable. I also wonder if the parodies don't represent a kind of folk resistance to post-tragedy hysteria, in that they seem to call on people to keep their wits about them and not allow their fears to overwhelm their logic. In some sense, the parodies may thus be a form of political dialogue about the events and the public response to them as well.