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Glurge is a neologism describing a certain kind of melodramatic, saccharine story. The defining characteristic of glurge is that, while its purpose is to make the reader happy, the feel-good aspect is so overdone that some readers are likely to be nauseated rather than inspired. It often has a religious theme and is most commonly circulated via e-mail in the form of a chain letter. The term was coined in 1998 by regular Urban Legends Reference Pages forum contributor Pat Chapin as an onomatopoeia to communicate the feeling evoked by reading these missives. According to the Urban Legends Reference Pages, glurge is "the sending of inspirational (often supposedly 'true') tales that conceal much darker meanings than the uplifting moral lessons they purport to offer, and that undermine their messages by fabricating and distorting historical fact in the guise of offering a 'true story.'" "Glurge Gallery" at the Urban Legends Reference Pages *. Includes analysis of some examples.
Common motifs
Common themes in glurge are man's relationship with God or children protected by angels or cute animals. While most glurge is of a Christian nature, glurge may also be associated with other religions, atheism, patriotism or nostalgia.
Glurge sometimes contains a menacing subtext of fatalism or xenophobia. In such examples, happiness and success are linked to following the message's religious or social beliefs; education, hard work, and achievement are irrelevant or subversive. People not members of the favored group may be portrayed as sinister and untrustworthy, and the deaths or misery of such people ignored or even celebrated if it brings one of them to accept the beliefs of the missive.
Anti-glurge
The pervasiveness of such stories has spawned a backlash of "anti-glurge", which is either old glurge edited to convey a much more cynical point of view or completely new glurge written with the intent of creating a parody of the style.
References
External links
- Glurge.com, database of glurge collected from the Internet.
- * Snopes' Glurge database.
"Glurge"