by Ben Spatz
I used to be really excited about the idea of "urban myths" before I knew what they were. People use the term to refer to urban folklore, rumors, circulating gossip in the big city. And in some sense, this is very true to the original meaning of myth. In ancient Greece, there was a myth about Oedipus. This myth was in the form of stories and must have been passed around orally, which means we have no documentation of it. The play(s) about Oedipus come afterwards, as embodiments of that particular myth in art.
But this isn't what I originally imagined an "urban myth" to be, when I first heard the term. For me, a "myth" is something that deals in powerful archetypes. The urban myths I have heard are more specific than that. I'm not sure exactly the quality I'm trying to isolate here, but the "mythic" quality is for me very different than the quality of a rumor. When I envision an "urban myth," I expect it to have archetypal characters, like the Warrior and the Thief and the King. Most of my archetypes come from history. That's what makes them so powerful. If there were a King of America, I would not have the same loose and myth image of a "King" in my head. Instead, my primary image of a King is Aragon from _The Lord of the Rings_ or King Richard the Lionheart as he is portrayed in _Robin Hood_. In other words, fiction. And I remember being surprised as a kid to learn that many countries still have Kings. In eurocentric history, the teach you that kings are things of the past.
My favorite scene in _The Fifth Element_ is the opening scene in the desert. Here we have a golden temple in the desert which turns out to have been created by futuristic majestic metallic aliens. It is the collision of ancient and modern that I love. Of course, deserts and temples are not ancient, but once again I was raised to think that they were, and the archetype remains lodged in my head that way.
There are several other movies which do this, more or less obviously:
- Blade Runner - The golden Tyrell buildings vs. the blue streets of LA.
- Twelve Monkeys - The colorful modern world vs. the dark future.
- Night on Earth - The archetypal cities vs. the individual stories.
- The Fisher King - The old mythic fantasy vs. the real modern world.
- The English Patient - The golden desert remembered vs. Italy afterwards.
- Titanic - The golden past remembered vs. the modern expedition.
- Star Wars Trilogy - The mythic Force vs. the technological empire.
At the center of all of this is the Golden City vs. the modern city.
The golden city is the center of my mythology. Did anyone see _Mysterious Cities of Gold_? It was an early morning cartoon I watched when I was about eight years old and never forgot. I will never know whether I loved the Golden City before watching that show or because of it. I do know that in traveling around Europe I found many places that looked like some form of the Golden City from far away, only to turn real and complicated when I approached.
I absolutely love it when archetypes I percieve as old and mythic encounter the modern world. I love the idea of a Perfect Warrior or a samurai waking up one day in New York City or Los Angeles. And I love it when music begins with a classical or lyrical melody and then lays a phat beat on top of it.