Mario as Folklore

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dpatters28

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Hi everyone,

My name is Doug and I am a student at Northern Kentucky University. I am currently taking a course on Folklore and Pop Culture, and for my final project I am writing a paper discussing the ways Mario has transcended pop culture and has become a part of folklore. I plan on accomplishing this by 1.) exploring the folklore connections to the original story of Mario (i.e. the idea of a damsel in distress being saved by a "warrior") and 2.) discuss how Mario fits into the realm of modern-day folklore analyzing the groups, performances, authenticity, tradition and the fandom associated with it. My goal is to obtain this information through interviews, observations and already published documentation. I was wondering if anyone would be willing to answer a few questions about your experience being a Mario fan. Anyone who participates in the interview will final say about their contributions before I turn the paper in.

If anyone would be willing to participate, please either contact me here (if this is the wrong place to put pose such a question I apologize - please re-direct me) or e-mail me at: douglas.patterson81@yahoo.com.

Thank you so much for your time. This is a fascinating topic and I look forward to working with you all.
 
I feel like the classic definition of folklore is stories told between generations orally. But in modern society, so much of communication is now via text, and communities can be centred around interests rather than geography. The series has also been around long enough to span generations: our userbase alone ranges at least from 11-30, I personally inherited my SNES and Super Mario World from an adult neighbour (having been introduced to videogames by my parents via Atari earlier), and I'll always remember the parting words of one former admin who said he'd like to introduce his eventual kids to the wiki someday. In fanfiction too, you can see how writers often pick things up from earlier stories when it comes to vaguely defined characters like the Koopalings, and in the series as a whole, you can see the propagation of various memes and urban legends (List of rumors and urban legends about Mario), which are in themselves a sort of modern folklore.

Overall, I think it sounds like a very interesting topic to look at Mario and its fandom through a lens like this, and I'd be more than happy to answer questions for your project.
 
I think you can talk about the technical legacy that Mario has set: for instance, Mario has introduced or refined several things that are now commonplace in video gaming, especially in terms of 3D platformers.

The name "Mario" itself is now more associated with the video game character than anything.

I've been a Mario fan ever since I was 5-ish (and I'm 20 at the time of this post), but I won't mind answering questions related to being a Mario fan. I've drawn about Mario, wrote about Mario, dreamed about Mario, thought about Mario, well, everything. I'm quite devoted to him and his franchise. :)
 
Thanks for the replies so far everyone! I think the whole is Mario folklore debate is really interesting and something I think I want to explore a bit further. I'll e-mail the folks who want to be interviewed some questions over the weekend. In the meantime, is there a place I could possibly take this question where it would get more traffic/responses? Thanks!
 
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