Katabasis in Myth and Film

Katabatic Journeys in Everyday Life

            For my project I decided to use a popular Youtube video parodying the magician David Blaine. When technical specialist Jim Groom came into our class and explained to us the vast number of multi media tools available to us on the Internet for free, I was eager to explore a unique means for presenting my project. I pulled a video off the Internet and spliced it, adding my own storyline using a free program called Comic Life. I also added music and it through this combination of multi media elements created a katabatic narrative with a comical spin about a journey through time into a prehistoric universe.

            The youtube video I used as a basis portrays Evan, who is materialistic and shallow, only caring about his distressed Abercrombie jeans, his Carrie Underwood and Chamillionaire CDs, and his Honda sedan. Evan is deathly afraid of David Blaine who is constantly pestering him, so after listening to Evan complain about his material possessions David uses his magic to send him through time to spend a week in the prehistoric age. Right after Evan disappears he appears seconds later in a dumpster looking quite distressed and battered. In between these scenes is where I cut the video, adding my own storyline of what happened to Evan while he was gone. It is this journey that represents his dissent into hell as he fights for his survival, searching for food, shelter, water, and tries to avoid the carnivorous creatures all around him. While in prehistoric times Evan encounters a shaman who represents the prophet who Odysseus met in Homer’s The Odyssey that informed him of all the trials and tribulations he would have to endure in order to make it home. Through his struggles he realizes all he had once taken for granted and ultimately emerges with a greater appreciation for the simple comforts in his life.  

His personal loss was that of his material possessions, but he also lost his best friend Peter for David sent him to dinosaur times by himself. The losses he suffered are similar to those of other katabatic heroes we have studied this semester like Odysseus, Demeter, and Aenaes to name a few. The dinosaurs that threatened to eat him alive were similar to the youth in City of God because they are both innocent in that they don’t know anything more than what they have to do.

            Though he did not fully comprehend at first, David Blaine permanently altered Evan’s life. He would never again think so lightly of all the things he enjoyed in his everyday life. David Blaine, although an annoying pest most times to the two protagonists in the video, had knowingly sent Evan on a journey that would forever change his life. In this respect, David Blaine is similar to the Gods of the Odyssey and “Hymn to Demeter” who interfere with the lives of mortals. Being deprived form his 21^st century lifestyle led him to become a real man, capable of overcoming anything.

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