I focused on several key stages to building the corpus of the legend, which are described in detail later. I examined the stories popularized in these stages, their impact, and possible cultural relevance. Below is how I went about gathering resources for my reserach, and how I assembled it at the end.
At each stage of the timeline, the general perception of Mothman changed as new elements were added or removed from the popular telling of the story.
The Scarberry-Mallette sighting takes place. The bird monster is named "Mothman" by an unknown journalist. Theorists first suggest the Mothman was a sandhill crane.
Tragedy brings the legend to a halt. Point Pleasant tells narratives of grief.
John A. Keel brings the Mothman and Point Pleasant back into public eye. His novel was aimed at American conspiracy theorists, connecting Mothman to a global conspiracy, UFO phenomena, and the Silver Bridge collapse.
The film revives the Mothman legend again based on Keel's novel but
modified for a general American audience.
Fears of the uncertainty of modern times and survilance play a larger role here.
Further incorporates the bridge collapse into the narrative while removing the Men in Black.
The rise of Mothman tourism in Point Pleasant, and the spread of the Mothman myth via the internet.
Mothman tourism spikes after the film's release, resulting in the growth of Mothman based tourism industry in Point Pleasant.
The internet helps spread the legend further, morphing the Mothman into new shapes as it enters new spheres.
From a cultural perspective, the Mothman is a community builder. It means different things to different people, much like how it looks different to different people, but it unites people under a shared concept nonetheless. That is the beauty of the Mothman and what makes stories like it important. We bring the stories we are told in our childhood homes to adulthood, like markers of identity. For it to fragment so much is not necessarily bad. It means the story is migrating. The Mothman legend is being told and retold for new audiences, with new perspectives to view it from. It's expected for the story to fragment and evolve as it migrates. In fact, it's even more expected from a legend like the Mothman which was so vauge to begin with, you could create whatever monster you wanted from it based on the elements you liked best.
American audiences wanted a mystery and a monster, and that's what the Mothman is. There's so much room for interpretation that the creature can be anything you want. It can serve any role society needs: a terrifying monster, a tourist attraction, a scapegoat, an allegory for communism, a dark prophet, or even the perfect boyfriend. The main identifying factors are its red eyes and dark wings, but it's easily recognizable to those who look for it. And if you are looking for it, you'll find Mothman everywhere. Any story of a dark figure with red eyes could be added to the mythos, and thus further fragment the narrative. At a glance, this array of meaning may make Mothman seem pointless, but that is why it matters. The purpose of Mothman is to be mysterious and relevant, to draw attention to and create mysteries within daily life. As time changes, the Mothman changes as well, which begs the question, what stories will we be telling in 20 years? Perhaps they will be the same monster stories, just rebooted to be more relevant.
