Xeroxlore
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Faxlore is a sort of
folklore Folklore is the body of expressive culture shared by a particular group of people, culture or subculture. This includes oral traditions such as Narrative, tales, myths, legends, proverbs, Poetry, poems, jokes, and other oral traditions. This also ...
:
humor Humour ( Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids i ...
ous texts,
folk poetry Folk poetry (sometimes referred to as ''poetry in action'') is poetry that is part of a society's folklore, usually part of their oral tradition. When sung, folk poetry becomes a folk song. Description Folk poetry in general has several characteri ...
,
folk art Folk art covers all forms of visual art made in the context of folk culture. Definitions vary, but generally the objects have practical utility of some kind, rather than being exclusively decorative art, decorative. The makers of folk art a ...
, and
urban legend Urban legend (sometimes modern legend, urban myth, or simply legend) is a genre of folklore concerning stories about an unusual (usually scary) or humorous event that many people believe to be true but largely are not. These legends can be e ...
s that are circulated, not by word of mouth, but by
fax machine Fax (short for facsimile), sometimes called telecopying or telefax (short for telefacsimile), is the telephonic transmission of scanned printed material (both text and images), normally to a telephone number connected to a printer or other out ...
. Xeroxlore or photocopylore is similar material circulated by
photocopying A photocopier (also called copier or copy machine, and formerly Xerox machine, the generic trademark) is a machine that makes copies of documents and other visual images onto paper or plastic film quickly and cheaply. Most modern photocopiers ...
. The first use of the term xeroxlore was in Michael J. Preston's essay "Xerox-lore", 1974. "Photocopylore" is perhaps the most frequently encountered name for the phenomenon now, because of
trademark A trademark (also written trade mark or trade-mark) is a form of intellectual property that consists of a word, phrase, symbol, design, or a combination that identifies a Good (economics and accounting), product or Service (economics), service f ...
concerns involving the
Xerox Xerox Holdings Corporation (, ) is an American corporation that sells print and electronic document, digital document products and services in more than 160 countries. Xerox was the pioneer of the photocopier market, beginning with the introduc ...
Corporation. The first use of this term came in ''A Dictionary of English Folklore'' by
Jacqueline Simpson Jacqueline Simpson (born 1930) is a prolific, award-winning British researcher and author on folklore.Steve Roud Steve Roud (; born 1949) is the creator of the Roud Folk Song Index and an expert on folklore and superstition. He was formerly Local Studies Librarian for the London Borough of Croydon and Honorary Librarian of the Folklore Society. Life and ...
.


Material circulated in faxlore

Some faxlore is relatively harmless.
Cartoon A cartoon is a type of visual art that is typically drawn, frequently Animation, animated, in an realism (arts), unrealistic or semi-realistic style. The specific meaning has evolved, but the modern usage usually refers to either: an image or s ...
s and
joke A joke is a display of humour in which words are used within a specific and well-defined narrative structure to make people laugh and is usually not meant to be interpreted literally. It usually takes the form of a story, often with dialogue, ...
s often circulate as faxlore, the poor graphic quality becoming worse with each new person who resends the joke to the next recipient. Because faxlore and xeroxlore is the (mis)appropriation of
technology Technology is the application of Conceptual model, conceptual knowledge to achieve practical goals, especially in a reproducible way. The word ''technology'' can also mean the products resulting from such efforts, including both tangible too ...
owned by the employer, much
humorous Humour (Commonwealth English) or humor (American English) is the tendency of experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement. The term derives from the humoral medicine of the ancient Greeks, which taught that the balance of fluids in t ...
faxlore is mildly subversive of the workplace and its values. Like
email Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...
and
chain letters A chain letter is a message that attempts to convince the recipient to make a number of copies and pass them on to a certain number of recipients. The "chain" is an exponentially growing pyramid (a Tree (graph theory), tree graph) that cannot b ...
, office technology has given new life to various forms of practical jokes,
urban legends Urban legend (sometimes modern legend, urban myth, or simply legend) is a genre of folklore concerning stories about an unusual (usually scary) or humorous event that many people believe to be true but largely are not. These legends can be e ...
, and folklore. The items are often office-related, such as spoof agenda for meetings, spurious descriptions of ridiculous training programs that all staff will allegedly be required to attend, and so on. Names may be whited out and replaced with someone in the office, making it a joke on a particular person, or details may be altered making an item more topical. The semi-traditional lists of reasons "why a cucumber is better than a man" or "why a beer is better than a woman" often circulate as faxlore, as has the well known mock German variations of the "
Blinkenlights In computer jargon, blinkenlights are diagnostic lights on front panels of old mainframe computers. More recently the term applies to status lights of modern network hardware (modems, network hubs, etc.). Blinkenlights disappeared from more re ...
" poster. Another commonly circulated text contains
ethnic humor An ethnic joke is a remark aiming at humor relating to an ethnic, racial or cultural group, often referring to an ethnic stereotype of the group in question for its punchline. Perceptions of ethnic jokes are ambivalent. Christie Davies gives ex ...
; a typical version goes:
Heaven is where the police are British, the lovers French, the mechanics German, the chefs Italian, and it is all organized by the Swiss. Hell is where the police are German, the lovers Swiss, the mechanics French, the chefs British, and it is all organized by the Italians.
Materials of this sort have existed from the beginnings of duplicating technologies.
World War II World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
era
blueprint A blueprint is a reproduction of a technical drawing or engineering drawing using a contact print process on light-sensitive sheets introduced by Sir John Herschel in 1842. The process allowed rapid and accurate production of an unlimited number ...
s exist of drawings of female nudes with their body parts labeled as if they were the parts of airplanes. With the widespread adoption of photocopying, amateur duplication of this sort of material became available to a much larger social base. Cartoons and other amateur materials were distributed in the workplace, usually in violation of
managerial Management (or managing) is the administration of organizations, whether businesses, nonprofit organizations, or a government bodies through business administration, nonprofit management, or the political science sub-field of public administra ...
restrictions on the use of office supplies, and often in disregard of
copyright A copyright is a type of intellectual property that gives its owner the exclusive legal right to copy, distribute, adapt, display, and perform a creative work, usually for a limited time. The creative work may be in a literary, artistic, ...
law.Preston, 1996 Later, during the early 1990s, the widespread adoption of telecopiers made it possible to duplicate these materials remotely. The use of a fax machine to duplicate these materials also changed the emphases of their subjects; various alarms and urban legends were propagated to distant readers over the telephone lines. This use of fax has been somewhat supplanted by
email Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...
as that technology became more widely used and embedded in the culture; the sort of urban legends that once circulated by fax are now likely to appear as
email hoax Email spoofing is the creation of email messages with a forged sender address. The term applies to email purporting to be from an address which is not actually the sender's; mail sent in reply to that address may bounce or be delivered to an unrel ...
es. Specific computer related alarms are the subject of
virus hoax A computer virus hoax is a message warning the recipients of a non-existent computer virus threat. The message is usually a chain e-mail that tells the recipients to forward it to everyone they know, but it can also be in the form of a pop-up wi ...
es; email makes forwarding of texts relatively easy, and the frightening nature of the revelation makes it seem important to pass along, despite any doubts the sender might have.


Faxlore and urban legends

Other sorts of faxlore have had more serious consequences. A number of more notorious urban legends have circulated in faxlore. The notorious "
Blue Star Blue star or bluestar may refer to: * O-type star (a.k.a. blue star), a stellar classification Animals * ''Linckia laevigata'', a sea star from the Indian and West Pacific Oceans * ''Phataria unifascialis'', a sea star from the East Pacific Busi ...
Acid An acid is a molecule or ion capable of either donating a proton (i.e. Hydron, hydrogen cation, H+), known as a Brønsted–Lowry acid–base theory, Brønsted–Lowry acid, or forming a covalent bond with an electron pair, known as a Lewis ...
"
hoax A hoax (plural: hoaxes) is a widely publicised falsehood created to deceive its audience with false and often astonishing information, with the either malicious or humorous intent of causing shock and interest in as many people as possible. S ...
is one well known example. The "lights out" hoax, which claimed that people who were driving in the dark with their headlights out might be gang members, and that those who flashed their headlights at these drivers might be marked for
murder Murder is the unlawful killing of another human without justification (jurisprudence), justification or valid excuse (legal), excuse committed with the necessary Intention (criminal law), intention as defined by the law in a specific jurisd ...
as part of a
gang A gang is a social group, group or secret society, society of associates, friends, or members of a family with a defined leadership and internal organization that identifies with or claims control over Wiktionary:territory#Noun, territory in a ...
initiation, was another hoax that was widely circulated as faxlore. The poor graphic quality of the frequently re-sent faxes, which often were made out to appear to have originated with the police department of a distant
city A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...
, only made these hoaxes seem more credible.


Legal aspects

In the
United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...
, collections of supposedly sinister symbols have been circulated among
school A school is the educational institution (and, in the case of in-person learning, the Educational architecture, building) designed to provide learning environments for the teaching of students, usually under the direction of teachers. Most co ...
administrators and
police department The police are a constituted body of people empowered by a state with the aim of enforcing the law and protecting the public order as well as the public itself. This commonly includes ensuring the safety, health, and possessions of citize ...
s; in the 1980s these symbols were frequently alleged to be " Satanic symbols", and in the 1990s they were alleged to be "gang symbols".
Political Politics () is the set of activities that are associated with decision-making, making decisions in social group, groups, or other forms of power (social and political), power relations among individuals, such as the distribution of Social sta ...
or
religious Religion is a range of social- cultural systems, including designated behaviors and practices, morals, beliefs, worldviews, texts, sanctified places, prophecies, ethics, or organizations, that generally relate humanity to supernatural ...
symbols, like the
peace symbol A number of peace symbols have been used many ways in various cultures and contexts. The dove and olive branch was used symbolically by early Christians and then eventually became a secular peace symbol, popularized by a ''Dove'' lithograph b ...
, the
Star of David The Star of David (, , ) is a symbol generally recognized as representing both Jewish identity and Judaism. Its shape is that of a hexagram: the compound of two equilateral triangles. A derivation of the Seal of Solomon was used for decora ...
, the
Rosary The Rosary (; , in the sense of "crown of roses" or "garland of roses"), formally known as the Psalter of Jesus and Mary (Latin: Psalterium Jesu et Mariae), also known as the Dominican Rosary (as distinct from other forms of rosary such as the ...
, the
ankh The ankh or key of life is an ancient Egyptian hieroglyphic symbol used to represent the word for "life" and, by extension, as a symbol of life itself. The ankh has a T-shape topped by a droplet-shaped loop. It was used in writing as a tri ...
, or the
pentagram A pentagram (sometimes known as a pentalpha, pentangle, or star pentagon) is a regular five-pointed star polygon, formed from the diagonal line segments of a convex (or simple, or non-self-intersecting) regular pentagon. Drawing a circle around ...
were mingled with other cryptic or fanciful symbols in these faxed and recirculated sheets, and the entire collection was condemned. On the authority of these anonymous, hard-to-trace, and impossible-to-
cross-examine In law, cross-examination is the interrogation of a witness by one's opponent. It is preceded by direct examination (known as examination-in-chief in Ireland, the United Kingdom, Australia, Canada, South Africa, India and Pakistan) and may be f ...
sources, school administrators sometimes acted to ban the wearing of Stars of David and similar symbols of minority religions. Typically, no compiler or author is given for the collection of symbols, though frightening descriptions are often given about their "secret meaning." A number of
civil liberties Civil liberties are guarantees and freedoms that governments commit not to abridge, either by constitution, legislation, or judicial interpretation, without due process. Though the scope of the term differs between countries, civil liberties of ...
lawsuit A lawsuit is a proceeding by one or more parties (the plaintiff or claimant) against one or more parties (the defendant) in a civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today ...
s were filed over actions taken by school administrators who took these anonymous sources seriously. A similar claim that the
Procter & Gamble The Procter & Gamble Company (P&G) is an American multinational consumer goods corporation headquartered in Cincinnati, Ohio. It was founded in 1837 by William Procter and James Gamble. It specializes in a wide range of personal health/con ...
logo was a " satanic symbol" was linked in the 1980s to the activity of several
Amway Amway Corp. (short for "American Way") is an American multi-level marketing (MLM) company that sells health, beauty, and home care products. The company was founded in 1959 by Jay Van Andel and Richard DeVos and is based in Ada Township, Michi ...
distributors, Amway being one of Procter & Gamble's competitors; the hoax was spread by fax, photocopier, and later by
voice mail A voicemail system (also known as voice message or voice bank) is a computer-based system that allows callers to leave a Voice recording, recorded message when the recipient has been unable (or unwilling) to answer the Telephone, phone. Calls may ...
and email. Another occasional hoax claims that clothing and memorabilia of various
universities A university () is an educational institution, institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several Discipline (academia), academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly ...
or
sports Sport is a physical activity or game, often competitive and organized, that maintains or improves physical ability and skills. Sport may provide enjoyment to participants and entertainment to spectators. The number of participants in ...
teams are "gang symbols".''Jeglin'', 1993; Roberts et al., 2005


Growing obsolescence

With the rise of the
Internet The Internet (or internet) is the Global network, global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a internetworking, network of networks ...
, media such as
World Wide Web The World Wide Web (WWW or simply the Web) is an information system that enables Content (media), content sharing over the Internet through user-friendly ways meant to appeal to users beyond Information technology, IT specialists and hobbyis ...
,
email Electronic mail (usually shortened to email; alternatively hyphenated e-mail) is a method of transmitting and receiving Digital media, digital messages using electronics, electronic devices over a computer network. It was conceived in the ...
,
instant messaging Instant messaging (IM) technology is a type of synchronous computer-mediated communication involving the immediate ( real-time) transmission of messages between two or more parties over the Internet or another computer network. Originally involv ...
, and
social networking sites A social networking service (SNS), or social networking site, is a type of online social media platform which people use to build social networks or social relationships with other people who share similar personal or career content, interests ...
are now available to quickly and widely spread the sort of material that formerly circulated as faxlore. The hoax warnings of things such as dire and terrible
computer virus A computer virus is a type of malware that, when executed, replicates itself by modifying other computer programs and Code injection, inserting its own Computer language, code into those programs. If this replication succeeds, the affected areas ...
es that still occasionally circulate, carry on one tradition of the bogus
cautionary tale A cautionary tale or moral tale is a tale told in folklore to warn its listener of a Risk, danger. There are three essential parts to a cautionary tale, though they can be introduced in a large variety of ways. First, a taboo or prohibition is ...
that used to circulate as faxlore, now known as ''
copypasta A copypasta is a block of text copied and pasted to the Internet and social media. Copypasta containing controversial ideas or lengthy rants are often posted for humorous purposes, to provoke reactions from those unaware that the posted text is ...
'' (an altered compound of common computer functions
copy and paste Cut, copy, and paste are essential Command (computing), commands of modern human–computer interaction and user interface design. They offer an interprocess communication technique for transferring data (computing), data through a computer's us ...
).


See also

*
Junk fax Junk faxes are a form of telemarketing where unsolicited advertisements are sent via fax transmission. Junk faxes are the faxed equivalent of spam or junk mail. Proponents of this advertising medium often use the terms ''broadcast fax'' or ''fax ...
*
Meme A meme (; ) is an idea, behavior, or style that Mimesis, spreads by means of imitation from person to person within a culture and often carries symbolic meaning representing a particular phenomenon or theme. A meme acts as a unit for carrying c ...
*
Samizdat Samizdat (, , ) was a form of dissident activity across the Eastern Bloc in which individuals reproduced censored and underground makeshift publications, often by hand, and passed the documents from reader to reader. The practice of manual rep ...


References


Citations


Academic sources

* Brunvand, Jan ** ''The Truth Never Stands in the Way of a Good Story'' (2000, Univ. Illinois: )collecting examples ** ''The Choking Doberman'' (Norton, 1984; ) ** ''Curses! Broiled Again!'' (Horton, 1989; )collecting examples, inc. "Blue Star Acid" * Dundes, Alan and Pagter, Carl R.: ** ''Work Hard and You Shall Be Rewarded: Urban Folklore from the Paperwork Empire''. (Rev. ed., Wayne State Univ. 1992; ) ** ''When You're Up to Your Ass in Alligators... More Urban Folklore from the Paperwork Empire'' (Wayne State Univ. 1997; ) ** ''Never Try to Teach a Pig to Sing: Still More Urban Folklore from the Paperwork Empire'' (Wayne State Univ. 1991; ) ** ''Sometimes the Dragon Wins: Yet More Urban Folklore from the Paperwork Empire'' (Syracuse, 1997; ) * Ellis, Bill: ''Raising the Devil: Satanism, New Religions, and the Media'' (Univ. Kentucky, 2000; ) * Hatch, Mary Jo; Jones, Michael Owen: "Photocopylore at work: aesthetics, collective creativity and the social construction of organizations", in ''Culture and Organization'', vol. 3, no. 2 (July 1997) * Michael, Nancy. "Censure of a Photocopylore Display." ''
Journal of Folklore Research The ''Journal of Folklore Research: An International Journal of Folklore and Ethnomusicology'' is a triannual peer-reviewed academic journal covering research on folklore, folklife, and ethnomusicology. It was established in 1942 and is published ...
'', vol. 32, no. 2 (May–August 1995). * Preston, Michael J. ** "Traditional Humor from the Fax Machine: 'All of a Kind'", in ''Western Folklore'', vol. 53, no. 2 (April 1994) ** "Xeroxlore", in ''American Folklore: An Encyclopedia'', Jan Brunvand, editor in chief. (Garland, 1996; )


Analysis

* Emery, David:
Trademark of the Beast
'', byline June 10, 1998, accessed Nov, 9, 2007The Procter & Gamble logo hoax * Bunch, Michael: "Technology Aided Spread of Terrifying Hoax", ''
San Diego Union-Tribune ''The San Diego Union-Tribune'' is a metropolitan daily newspaper published in San Diego, California, that has run since 1868. Its name derives from a 1992 merger between the two major daily newspapers at the time, ''The San Diego Union'' and ...
'', Oct. 4, 1993"Lights Out" gang initiation legend spreads by fax and copier. * Hofstadter, Douglas: ''
Le Ton beau de Marot ''Le Ton beau de Marot: In Praise of the Music of Language'' is a 1997 book by Douglas Hofstadter in which he explores the meaning, strengths, failings and beauty of translation. The book is a long and detailed examination of translations of a mi ...
: In Praise of the Music of Language'' ()contains a linguistic discussion of the ''Blinkenlights'' text


Legal

* ''Chalifoux v. New Caney Independent School District'', 976 F.Supp. 659 (S.D. Tex. 1997)School board rule forbidding wearing of the rosary as a necklace, claimed to be a "gang symbol", struck down by court. * ''Jeglin v. San Jacinto Unified School District'', 827 F.Supp. 1459 (C.D. Cal. 1993){{sndSchool board dress code forbidding the wearing of sports logos, claimed to be "gang symbols", partially struck down by court. * Roberts, Kesler T., Littrell, Elizabeth L., Weber, Gerald R.
Plaintiff's Memorandum of Law in Support of her Motion for Summary Judgment
in ''Tillman v. Gwinnett County School District'', (N.D. Ga., case no. 1:04-CV-01180-BBM). Apr. 9, 2005, accessed Nov. 9, 2007. Brief filed on behalf of the
American Civil Liberties Union The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is an American nonprofit civil rights organization founded in 1920. ACLU affiliates are active in all 50 states, Washington, D.C., and Puerto Rico. The budget of the ACLU in 2024 was $383 million. T ...
Foundation for Georgia. Shows school administrators relying on anonymous printouts and rumors to condemn, among other things,
University of North Carolina The University of North Carolina is the Public university, public university system for the state of North Carolina. Overseeing the state's 16 public universities and the North Carolina School of Science and Mathematics, it is commonly referre ...
logos and clothing, and a patch reading
España Spain, or the Kingdom of Spain, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe with territories in North Africa. Featuring the Punta de Tarifa, southernmost point of continental Europe, it is the largest country in Southern Eur ...
, as "gang symbols".


External links


Blue Star Acid
at
snopes.com ''Snopes'' (), formerly known as the ''Urban Legends Reference Pages'', is a fact-checking website. It has been described as a "well-regarded reference for sorting out myths and rumors" on the Internet. The site has also been seen as a source ...
.
The "Lights Out" hoax
at snopes.com
"Xeroxlore"
at everything2.com.
"Mississippi high school bars student's Star of David"
(''Jewish News Weekly'', August 29, 1999)

at textfiles.com Fax Folklore Jokes Spamming Urban legends