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Joseph Campbell
Joseph Campbell (1904–1987) was an American author and teacher best known for his work in the field of comparative mythology. He was born in New York City in 1904, and from early childhood he became interested in mythology. He loved to read books about American Indian cultures, and frequently visited the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where he was fascinated by the museum's collection of totem poles. Campbell was educated at Columbia University, where he specialized in medieval literature, and continued his studies at universities in Paris and Munich. While abroad he was influenced by the art of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, the novels of James Joyce and Thomas Mann, and the psychological studies of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. These encounters led to Campbell's theory that all myths and epics are linked in the human psyche, and that they are cultural manifestations of the universal need to explain social, cosmological, and spiritual realities.
After a period in California, where he encountered John Steinbeck and the biologist Ed Ricketts, he taught at the Canterbury School, and then, in 1934, joined the literature department at Sarah Lawrence College, a post he retained for many years. During the 40s and '50s, he helped Swami Nikhilananda to translate the Upanishads and The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. He also edited works by the German scholar Heinrich Zimmer on Indian art, myths, and philosophy. In 1944, with Henry Morton Robinson, Campbell published A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake. His first original work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, came out in 1949 and was immediately well received; in time, it became acclaimed as a classic. In this study of the "myth of the hero," Campbell asserted that there is a single pattern of heroic journey and that all cultures share this essential pattern in their various heroic myths. In his book he also outlined the basic conditions, stages, and results of the archetypal hero's journey.
Throughout his life, he traveled extensively and wrote prolifically, authoring many books, including the four-volume series The Masks of God, Myths to Live By, The Inner Reaches of Outer Space and The Historical Atlas of World Mythology. Joseph Campbell died in 1987. In 1988, a series of television interviews with Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth, introduced Campbell's views to millions of people.
For more on Joseph Campbell and his work, visit the web site of Joseph Campbell Foundation at JCF.org.
Product description
Review
Campbell's words carry extraordinary weight, not only among scholars but among a wide range of other people who find his search down mythological pathways relevant to their lives today... The book for which he is most famous, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, [is] a brilliant examination, through ancient hero myths, of man's eternal struggle for identity. Time Magazine The Hero With a Thousand Faces was first published 55 years ago, but continues to speak to us with a timeless eloquence and spiritual urgency that quicken the soul. -- Gabor Mate Toronto Globe and Mail
About the Author
Joseph Campbell (1904-1987) was an inspiring teacher, popular lecturer and author, and the editor and translator of many books on mythology, including "The Mythic Image" (Princeton/Bollingen Paperbacks). Clarissa Pinkola Estes is the author of the national bestseller "Women Who Run with the Wolves".
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Product details
Publisher : Princeton University Press; 1st edition (15 April 2004)
Language : English
Hardcover : 496 pages
ISBN-10 : 0691119244
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Joseph Campbell
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The Hero with a Thousand Faces: Commemorative Edition Hardcover – 15 April 2004
by Joseph Campbell (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars 3,863 ratings
Joseph Campbell's classic cross-cultural study of the hero's journey has inspired millions and opened up new areas of research and exploration. Originally published in 1949 the book hit the New York Times Best-Seller List in 1988 when it became the subject of The Power of Myth, a PBS television special. Now, this legendary volume, re-released in honor of the 100th anniversary of the author's birth, promises to capture the imagination of a new generation of readers. The first popular work to combine the spiritual and psychological insights of modern psychoanalysis with the archetypes of world mythology, Campbell's book creates a road map for navigating the frustrating path of contemporary life. xamining heroic myths in the light of modern psychology, it considers not only the patterns and stages of mythology but also its relevance to our lives today - and to the life of any person seeking a fully realized existence. Myth, according to Campbell, is the projection of a culture's dreams onto a large screen; Campbell's book, like Star Wars, the film it helped inspire, is an exploration of the big-picture moments from the stage that is our world.
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Top reviews from Australia
Reviewed in Australia on 16 September 2021
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Everything from Star Wars to The Matrix relies on this excellent narrative.and it’s highly readable.
Reviewed in Australia on 4 June 2020
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Campbell’s writing style is almost artistic in its own right. He presents his finds in a logical order that carries you along with the hero’s journey. Great read.
Reviewed in Australia on 13 October 2018
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I found this very difficult to read. A book shoukd be written in such a way that people can actually enjoy reading it.
Reviewed in Australia on 24 December 2018
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as advertised, would recommend
Reviewed in Australia on 29 August 2020
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Really nicely done by the publisher, and so well written, goes without saying.
Top reviews from other countries
John
4.0 out of 5 stars a bit of a slogReviewed in the United Kingdom on 29 May 2020
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I picked this up off the back of a podcast I watched recently on the art of storytelling. For a long time, I've had a fascination with Joseph Campbell. Probably his known quote is “Follow your bliss” which has remained as the background on my phone ever since I heard it.
The Hero with a Thousand Faces is probably one of his most well-known works. In it he draws from myth and legend, the stories of the ancients, the Vedas, and verses from the bible and unpacks them in his unique way, showing us the underlying similarities each contains and uses them to describe the Hero’s Journey. A process in which an adventure is called to action, and goes through a series of challenges, and eventually returns home with his or her “treasure”. I can expand on this but its probably easier to watch a video on Youtube.
If I’m completely honest I really struggled to get through this. I do not doubt that this isn't a brilliant book and Joseph’s concept has influenced all matter of individuals from songwriters, to movie producers to fellow authors. His work was truly groundbreaking for its time. But boy did I struggle, however I think that's more on me, I’ve always struggled with maintaining interest in myth and legend, ironic considering I’m fascinated by ancient Egypt. It also probably doesn't help that it was written 70+ years ago and how we speak has changed a lot since then. Then is no denying the importance of this book, and I'm glad I read it, but I for those interested it might be best to watch his Netflix series which was produced in the late 80s just before he passed away.
I mean no disrespect to Joseph Campbell, I'm most likely just not intellectual enough to understand where he is coming from. And infact I am going to read Joesph Campbell on his Life and Work, a spin off of the documentary on Nelflix, as it was written much later and I still wish to learn more about his ideas. Funnily enough I actually found that on the side of the road while reading The Hero with a Thousand Faces, and its an old library book from Austin, TX, complete with classroom purchase orders for pizza, airline tickets, and old car hire receipts which are almost 20 years old.
for more reviews please see my website everythingandnothing.co
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Gian Andrea
5.0 out of 5 stars Priceless readReviewed in the United Kingdom on 14 February 2020
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I've learnt how to read thanks to Mythology, a fascination for storytelling that only grew into a deep love for History, Literature and - last but not least - Philosophy. As the all Campbell work is centered around the importance of the monomyth, we see how the same pattern is applicable to any culture and any society, for all of them have ingrained at their core a common truth: universality.
The most immediate takeaway from this book is in fact the similarity in the original message behind any religion or ritual or ancient myth, a path shared by any story we've ever told, in books, movies and beliefs. A primordial, seemingly innate, connection between the outer world and the human mind.
Priceless read.
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David Martin
3.0 out of 5 stars Great ideas, but a difficult readReviewed in the United Kingdom on 27 February 2021
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I'd heard a lot about this book, and I'd previously read The Power of Myth which I really enjoyed. The idea of The Hero's Journey is very interesting, and clearly Campbell has a vast knowledge of mythology. However, I have to say this book was a bit of a let down.
I found the book poorly written, and badly structured. I just couldn't get used to Campbell's writing style, his sentences are long and meandering, with asides within asides. Some paragraphs are composed of one single, unbroken sentence. He also jumps rapidly from story to story, then refers back haphazardly to stories he's previously mentioned. He never seems to fully articulate a point, he makes some vague allusions then jumps to another point. It almost seems like Campbell had so much knowledge that he just couldn't get it all on the page.
I'd say overall that it's still worth reading, although it is a bit of a slog.
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Mark Hill
5.0 out of 5 stars ExcellentReviewed in the United Kingdom on 5 August 2021
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We have done a marvellous job at alienating ourselves from everything real; including ourselves.
The consequences are becoming more obvious every day, yet, still we divert ourselves with trivia.
One way to begin to reconnect ourselves with our essential selves, our own hero, may be through a thorough study and understanding of Campbell's work.
As he mentions, because of our neglect and belittlement of mythology we have become half-creatures, 'the lines of communication between the conscious and the unconscious zones of the human psyche have all been cut, and we have been split in two.'
This book helps us to begin to rebuild ourselves from the piteous state in which contemporary 'education' and upbringing (or lowbringing) has left us.
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Faris
1.0 out of 5 stars not enjoyableReviewed in the United Kingdom on 13 June 2020
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did not enjoy, I was looking for a process detailing the hero's journey so I can learn from it. This was not written for that purpose it seems, but was describing elements of it represented in old civilisations.
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The Hero With a Thousand Faces
by
4.12 · Rating details · 38,166 ratings · 2,404 reviews
The first popular work to combine the spiritual and psychological insights of modern psychoanalysis with the archetypes of world mythology, the book creates a roadmap for navigating the frustrating path of contemporary life. Examining heroic myths in the light of modern psychology, it considers not only the patterns and stages of mythology but also its relevance to our lives today--and to the life of any person seeking a fully realized existence.
Myth, according to Campbell, is the projection of a culture's dreams onto a large screen; Campbell's book, like Star Wars, the film it helped inspire, is an exploration of the big-picture moments from the stage that is our world. It is a must-have resource for both experienced students of mythology and the explorer just beginning to approach myth as a source of knowledge.
Paperback, 2nd edition Bollingen Series XVII, 416 pages
Published March 1st 1972 by Princeton University Press (first published June 10th 1949)
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Jan 16, 2019BlackOxford rated it it was amazing
Shelves: favourites, american, philosophy-theology, criticism
The Divine Aesthetic of Hope
Written in 1948, Hero With A Thousand Faces is only slightly younger than I am. I was introduced to it in my mid-twenties, almost half a century ago. But upon re-reading it I find it as revelatory as it was then. By avoiding the idea of faith entirely, Campbell keeps alive a religion of hope. Hero With A Thousand Faces is a theology of the God of hope. It is a description of this God as a way of perceiving both the world and oneself. It presents, therefore, not an aesthetic idea of God, but God as an aesthetic, the Divine Aesthetic.
Campbell’s Divine Aesthetic is divine because it is “the one, shape-shifting yet marvelously constant story that we find, together with a challengingly persistent suggestion of more remaining to be experienced than will ever be known or told.” It is both universal and infinite. It applies in every culture and in every age. It is constantly the same and yet manifests itself in uncountably many ways, in art, music, dance, science, technology, literature, and of course religion. Its scripture includes fairy tales and learned treatises. Its followers are everyone who can speak, and even infants and the infirm who can’t.
We live in a world of symbols and complex arrangements of symbols we call stories. Some we create for ourselves, some that others create we are born into, and some are essentially eternal. These latter appear to arrive with our genes; they are quite literally bred into us. Befitting their status, these symbols are beyond our control. Hence they appear omnipotent in the specific sense that the Divine Aesthetic includes all aesthetics (including itself, in defiance of pedestrian, finite, human logic). And, who knows, perhaps they are as powerful as they appear. We have no way of assessing their scope or the full character of their existence. They are part of us yet entirely separate. They unite us but allow us to think we are entirely independent of one other. They themselves are not divine, as Plato thought; but they are manifestations of the incomprehensibly divine made suitable for human consumption.
These symbols are gifts; we did nothing to earn them. And their ostensible purpose is to help us through life, and ultimately into death. They are there to comfort and challenge, to explain and confuse, to point out the way forward and to appreciate the road not taken. But above all else, these are symbols of hope, that whoever or whatever is their source knows us better than we know ourselves, and knows us to be bigger, larger, more comprehensive, more inclusive than we can imagine. We are the heroes of our own stories, if we are willing to take these stories seriously.
To call these stories myths is accurate but, in the way of language, vaguely pejorative since the implication is that they are ‘merely’ fictional and therefore not a component of reality. The word disguises the fact that these stories are “the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation.” These are not conventional moral tales; they are stories of adventure, “unpredictable, and dangerous adventure,” from which we will not survive.
We embark on our unique adventure but we are never alone. Our contemporaries are always there to compare notes, to provide encouragement, to share confusion and pain as necessary. And the records of the past adventures of the dead are readily available. So our ‘congregation’ is as large as we care to make it. And aside from access to a reasonable library (ah, the internet!) we have no need for additional resources. The Divine Aesthetic is Green as well as companionable.
Of course there are essential rituals within the Divine Aesthetic, points at which one comes more closely to the source of the symbols and their stories. As Campbell puts it: “from the tomb of the womb to the womb of the tomb, we come: an ambiguous, enigmatical incursion into a world of solid matter that is soon to melt from us, like the substance of a dream.” It is perhaps that point of melting, which is really our extinction, that each ritualistic step in the hero’s journey is meant to emphasize. Dust to dust, but between the two is something exciting. Or at least we are entitled to hope. (less)
Written in 1948, Hero With A Thousand Faces is only slightly younger than I am. I was introduced to it in my mid-twenties, almost half a century ago. But upon re-reading it I find it as revelatory as it was then. By avoiding the idea of faith entirely, Campbell keeps alive a religion of hope. Hero With A Thousand Faces is a theology of the God of hope. It is a description of this God as a way of perceiving both the world and oneself. It presents, therefore, not an aesthetic idea of God, but God as an aesthetic, the Divine Aesthetic.
Campbell’s Divine Aesthetic is divine because it is “the one, shape-shifting yet marvelously constant story that we find, together with a challengingly persistent suggestion of more remaining to be experienced than will ever be known or told.” It is both universal and infinite. It applies in every culture and in every age. It is constantly the same and yet manifests itself in uncountably many ways, in art, music, dance, science, technology, literature, and of course religion. Its scripture includes fairy tales and learned treatises. Its followers are everyone who can speak, and even infants and the infirm who can’t.
We live in a world of symbols and complex arrangements of symbols we call stories. Some we create for ourselves, some that others create we are born into, and some are essentially eternal. These latter appear to arrive with our genes; they are quite literally bred into us. Befitting their status, these symbols are beyond our control. Hence they appear omnipotent in the specific sense that the Divine Aesthetic includes all aesthetics (including itself, in defiance of pedestrian, finite, human logic). And, who knows, perhaps they are as powerful as they appear. We have no way of assessing their scope or the full character of their existence. They are part of us yet entirely separate. They unite us but allow us to think we are entirely independent of one other. They themselves are not divine, as Plato thought; but they are manifestations of the incomprehensibly divine made suitable for human consumption.
These symbols are gifts; we did nothing to earn them. And their ostensible purpose is to help us through life, and ultimately into death. They are there to comfort and challenge, to explain and confuse, to point out the way forward and to appreciate the road not taken. But above all else, these are symbols of hope, that whoever or whatever is their source knows us better than we know ourselves, and knows us to be bigger, larger, more comprehensive, more inclusive than we can imagine. We are the heroes of our own stories, if we are willing to take these stories seriously.
To call these stories myths is accurate but, in the way of language, vaguely pejorative since the implication is that they are ‘merely’ fictional and therefore not a component of reality. The word disguises the fact that these stories are “the secret opening through which the inexhaustible energies of the cosmos pour into human cultural manifestation.” These are not conventional moral tales; they are stories of adventure, “unpredictable, and dangerous adventure,” from which we will not survive.
We embark on our unique adventure but we are never alone. Our contemporaries are always there to compare notes, to provide encouragement, to share confusion and pain as necessary. And the records of the past adventures of the dead are readily available. So our ‘congregation’ is as large as we care to make it. And aside from access to a reasonable library (ah, the internet!) we have no need for additional resources. The Divine Aesthetic is Green as well as companionable.
Of course there are essential rituals within the Divine Aesthetic, points at which one comes more closely to the source of the symbols and their stories. As Campbell puts it: “from the tomb of the womb to the womb of the tomb, we come: an ambiguous, enigmatical incursion into a world of solid matter that is soon to melt from us, like the substance of a dream.” It is perhaps that point of melting, which is really our extinction, that each ritualistic step in the hero’s journey is meant to emphasize. Dust to dust, but between the two is something exciting. Or at least we are entitled to hope. (less)
Mar 08, 2008Trevor (I sometimes get notified of comments) rated it it was amazing
Shelves: psychology, social-theory, philosophy, religion
We studied the Myth Cycle at Uni and I was interested enough to come back to this book years later and read the whole thing. It is well worth a read – an endlessly fascinating book by a fascinating man.
The idea is that there is basically only one story, the grand story of our lives, the monomyth. This story is told in millions of different ways, but ultimately every story ever told is either just a retelling of this grand story, or it is a re-telling of certain aspects of this more complete story.
I read, probably about a decade ago now, that if you submit a screenplay to Disney for consideration they basically use the myth cycle to ‘judge’ the worthiness of your script. And they’ll say things like, “So, I wonta hear what you got to say, where’s the supernatural assistance from a female divine for gad sake – ay, where’s dat at?” Or however it is that Disney executives speak.
I fall somewhere further from that particular tree. I think the Myth Cycle is a fascinating idea, fascinating in the real sense that in fixates the mind once you begin contemplating it, and it is something I’m very glad I’ve heard about. But would I use it to structure every story I ever write? Well, no. Is it the touchstone I return to when appraising a work of fiction? Again, no. Like feminist criticism, Marxist criticism, Freudian criticism, Structuralist criticism, deconstructionalist criticism – this particular variety of Jungian criticism is good to know about, but any schema that seeks to encompass the whole of literature is only ever going to end up being a girdle. After a short while the constraints and pinching imposed on literature by the theory are sure to become too much to suffer and the restrictive garment needs to be taken off, if not cast aside. We may not be nearly as pretty or shapely with these garments off, but at least we can breath.
Ideas in the cycle like ‘the rejection of the call’ come into my mind constantly while reading or watching films – the rejection of the call to adventure is a cliché in so many texts – as it is in life. And that is the point, Campbell doesn’t see his ideas as being about interpreting literature, but that the interpreting of literature is a way to come to an understanding of our own lives – and that is something I wholeheartedly agree with. So, rather than take this work as the last word on the structure of stories and the monomyth and the possibilities of self-transcendence, this is a book that is better read as an introduction to thinking about literature as a way of coming to understand our own lives.
And what better task is there? And what surer guide than literature?
(less)
The idea is that there is basically only one story, the grand story of our lives, the monomyth. This story is told in millions of different ways, but ultimately every story ever told is either just a retelling of this grand story, or it is a re-telling of certain aspects of this more complete story.
I read, probably about a decade ago now, that if you submit a screenplay to Disney for consideration they basically use the myth cycle to ‘judge’ the worthiness of your script. And they’ll say things like, “So, I wonta hear what you got to say, where’s the supernatural assistance from a female divine for gad sake – ay, where’s dat at?” Or however it is that Disney executives speak.
I fall somewhere further from that particular tree. I think the Myth Cycle is a fascinating idea, fascinating in the real sense that in fixates the mind once you begin contemplating it, and it is something I’m very glad I’ve heard about. But would I use it to structure every story I ever write? Well, no. Is it the touchstone I return to when appraising a work of fiction? Again, no. Like feminist criticism, Marxist criticism, Freudian criticism, Structuralist criticism, deconstructionalist criticism – this particular variety of Jungian criticism is good to know about, but any schema that seeks to encompass the whole of literature is only ever going to end up being a girdle. After a short while the constraints and pinching imposed on literature by the theory are sure to become too much to suffer and the restrictive garment needs to be taken off, if not cast aside. We may not be nearly as pretty or shapely with these garments off, but at least we can breath.
Ideas in the cycle like ‘the rejection of the call’ come into my mind constantly while reading or watching films – the rejection of the call to adventure is a cliché in so many texts – as it is in life. And that is the point, Campbell doesn’t see his ideas as being about interpreting literature, but that the interpreting of literature is a way to come to an understanding of our own lives – and that is something I wholeheartedly agree with. So, rather than take this work as the last word on the structure of stories and the monomyth and the possibilities of self-transcendence, this is a book that is better read as an introduction to thinking about literature as a way of coming to understand our own lives.
And what better task is there? And what surer guide than literature?
(less)
Jan 05, 2008Bracken rated it did not like it
Recommends it for: intellectual masochists
Shelves: book-club-books
I was very excited to read this work because of its potential to teach me a great deal about mythology, but found that it was a total piece of tripe. I felt like Campbell was trying too hard to prove his knowledge, which was apparent in the great diversity of myths referenced in the work, but he failed to logically plan the layout of the text. I can understand the overall layout of the text, but it didn't work on the chapter/section scale. It was so disorganized that I often felt like a member of a disaster cleanup team assigned to salvage and rebuild a town. Horribly hacked and detached bits of myth were scattered all over the place seemingly stochastically. If he would have picked a few myths and analyzed each using his methods and arguments, the book would have flowed much better and I would have enjoyed it much more.
I found myself wondering, “Who is the audience of the book?” At times, it was written for colleges and students of mythology and philosophy, but in other passages it was written for those with a rudimentary knowledge of mythology.
Another complaint I had was that Campbell often cited dreams in his arguments about the “monomyth,” but did little to tie those dreams to the myths or topics he was discussing in the section. It seemed like he felt obliged to include psychoanalytical elements to stay cool with his contemporaries.
Overall, like a very painful endurance race, I feel like a better man having read it. I did glean out some mythology tidbits and was able to follow where Campbell was trying to lead me. Unfortunately, the experience hurt needlessly.
While I’m still on my soapbox, I would just like to mention how lame it is when authors add figures to their work, but don’t reference (or even mention) them in their text.
(less)
I found myself wondering, “Who is the audience of the book?” At times, it was written for colleges and students of mythology and philosophy, but in other passages it was written for those with a rudimentary knowledge of mythology.
Another complaint I had was that Campbell often cited dreams in his arguments about the “monomyth,” but did little to tie those dreams to the myths or topics he was discussing in the section. It seemed like he felt obliged to include psychoanalytical elements to stay cool with his contemporaries.
Overall, like a very painful endurance race, I feel like a better man having read it. I did glean out some mythology tidbits and was able to follow where Campbell was trying to lead me. Unfortunately, the experience hurt needlessly.
While I’m still on my soapbox, I would just like to mention how lame it is when authors add figures to their work, but don’t reference (or even mention) them in their text.
(less)
Mar 04, 2012Lucas rated it it was amazing
I first read this book when I was 19. It saved both my step-father's ass and my soul.
I have always been a fan of mythology and folklore, and Joseph Campbell pulls tales from many cultures to show how mankind has virtually the same heroic journey tucked away in its subconscious regardless of culture or even time. He also explains the importance of myths, which is something lots of people can't grasp because they can't get over the fact the stories aren't real. Myths were never meant to be facts and would lose their significance if they were. They are meant to be sources of inspiration that a person of flesh can turn to in order to face a harsh reality with courage.
Here's how this book saved a soul and an ass. There's a chapter that at first made no sense to me called "The Hero as Emperor and as Tyrant." My problem with the chapter was that heroes aren't tyrants; they slay tyrants! Shortly after reading this my drunken violent step-father got out of line with me.
I had pushed back against my step-father for years, but suddenly this fight went very different. There was a point where we both realized that if I kept fighting it would be a massacre. He retreated, and I wanted to give chase. I wanted to make him pay for the tiny child he terrorized for years (and that kid's sister too). Then the chapter suddenly made sense. So I beat him to a pulp, then what? Is violence now my new answer to everything? Perhaps I could figure out an appropriate line to draw where I would turn away from reason and towards force....maybe. The more I thought about it, the more It seemed like I would only end up supplanting one monster with a bigger stronger one.
I then realized that if I was going to prove my true strength, I would have to abandon the easy (and probably satisfying) task of crushing my step-father and instead take on the more daunting task or conquering my own rage. So I let him get away, though I did spend the next six months shooting him looks that made him clear out of my vicinity.
I seem to have a weird kind of luck in that I often end up reading the book I need at the time I need it, and this is a perfect example. But personal anecdotes aside, I found the entire book enjoyable (less)
I have always been a fan of mythology and folklore, and Joseph Campbell pulls tales from many cultures to show how mankind has virtually the same heroic journey tucked away in its subconscious regardless of culture or even time. He also explains the importance of myths, which is something lots of people can't grasp because they can't get over the fact the stories aren't real. Myths were never meant to be facts and would lose their significance if they were. They are meant to be sources of inspiration that a person of flesh can turn to in order to face a harsh reality with courage.
Here's how this book saved a soul and an ass. There's a chapter that at first made no sense to me called "The Hero as Emperor and as Tyrant." My problem with the chapter was that heroes aren't tyrants; they slay tyrants! Shortly after reading this my drunken violent step-father got out of line with me.
I had pushed back against my step-father for years, but suddenly this fight went very different. There was a point where we both realized that if I kept fighting it would be a massacre. He retreated, and I wanted to give chase. I wanted to make him pay for the tiny child he terrorized for years (and that kid's sister too). Then the chapter suddenly made sense. So I beat him to a pulp, then what? Is violence now my new answer to everything? Perhaps I could figure out an appropriate line to draw where I would turn away from reason and towards force....maybe. The more I thought about it, the more It seemed like I would only end up supplanting one monster with a bigger stronger one.
I then realized that if I was going to prove my true strength, I would have to abandon the easy (and probably satisfying) task of crushing my step-father and instead take on the more daunting task or conquering my own rage. So I let him get away, though I did spend the next six months shooting him looks that made him clear out of my vicinity.
I seem to have a weird kind of luck in that I often end up reading the book I need at the time I need it, and this is a perfect example. But personal anecdotes aside, I found the entire book enjoyable (less)
Full circle, from the tomb of the womb to the womb of the tomb, we come: an ambiguous, enigmatical incursion into a world of solid matter that is soon to melt from us, like the substance of a dream. And, looking back at what had promised to be our own unique, unpredictable, and dangerous adventure, all we find in the end is such a series of standard metamorphoses as men and women have undergone in every quarter of the world, in all recorded centuries, and under every odd disguise of civilization.
Joseph Campbell engages here in a comprehensive comparative study of these 'standard metamorphoses', looking at the primary sources coming from all corners of the world and throughout the ages of mankind. From the earliest Assirian records to the dream trances of Siberian shamans, through the labyrinth of the Indian pantheon and into the lofty halls of the Greek Olympos, equally fascinated by the African tribal oral traditions as by the Native American legends or the cosmologies of the Pacific Islands. He sees the common threads linking Buddha to Jesus, Tezeus to Viracocha or to Cuchulain : the personalities (heroes, prophets, gods, role models) that stand out of the crowd and define what it means to be human, to be alive, to transcend the limits of the flesh.
Campbell calls his conclusion of the study The Monomyth : the fundamental structure that appears in different disguises in all the stories, mythologies, fables and folktales he comes across:
My hope is that a comparative elucidation may contribute to the perhaps not-quite-desperate cause of those forces that are working in the present world for unification, not in the name of some ecclesiastical or political empire, but in the sense of human mutual understanding. As we are told in the Vedas: "Truth is one, the sages speak of it by many names."
An extremely ambitious project that is hampered in the eyes of the modern reader by too heavy a reliance on the Freudian psychanalysis instruments so popular at the time the book was written. But I can find no fault in the humanist impulse that started the project of mapping the elements that unite us instead of those that divide us and leads us to wars or alienation or simply despair at trying to make sense of the modern world. Plus, the encyclopaedic richness of Campbell's bibliographic sources - folklore, historical, literary, philosophical, psychological - leaves the reader in awe of the monumental scope and the thoroughness in compiling all the disparate elements into a coherent theory. The beauty of his approach to the study of mythology is that the same modern reader doesn't feel obliged to accept Campbell's conclusions as dogma: they can and should be challenged in the parts that are forced or poorly argumented (again that Freudian bias). The body of evidence Campbell collected remains the main argument for calling this a seminal work that influenced a plethora of scientists and artists in the aftermath of the first publication. (see the wikipedia article for an impressive list of emulators)
The wonder is that the characteristic efficacy to touch and inspire deep creative centers dwells in the smallest nursery fairy tale - as the flavor of the ocean is contained in a droplet or the whole mystery of life within the egg of a flea.
What is the monomyth? According to Campbell it is like a mathematical equation using mythical symbols to describe the hero's journey: the cyclical , universal quest of the human soul for understanding the meaning of life, for transcendence, for renewal of the forces of life in face of the abbyss. Not everybody is capable of making the journey, and this is where the hero comes in: he is the chosen one, the special person who hears the call for adventure, sets out on the perilous road to knowledge, wins the ultimate prize (slays the dragon, marries the fair maid, steals the fire from the gods, reaches Nirvana) and comes back with the boon to offer it back to his fellow men.
It has always been the prime function of mythology and rite to supply the symbols that carry the human spirit forward, in counteraction to those constant human fantasies that tend to tie it back. In fact, it may well be that the very high incidence of neuroticism among ourselves follows from the decline of such effective spiritual aid.
While the main initial appeal for me was in the examples Campbell uses to illustrate the different stages of the hero journey, looking through the numerous bookmarks I made while reading it turns out that what I am left with at the end of the lecture is the connection the author makes to the world of today, arguing that myths and symbols are as important now as they were in antiquity. He quotes Arnold J Toynbee in support of the thesis, before engaging in some speculations of his own:
Schism in the soul, schism in the body social, will not be resolved by any scheme of return to the good old days (archaism), or by programs guaranteed to render an ideal projected future (futurism), or even by the most realistic, hardheaded work to weld together again the deteriorating elements. Only birth can conquer death - the birth, not of the old thing again, but of something new. Within the soul, within the body social, there must be - if we are to experience long survival - a continuous "recurrence of birth" (palingenesis) to nullify the unremitting recurrences of death. (from Arnold J Toynbee - A study of History, 1934)
Campbell's is not the first study of camparative religion and myth that I've read (Mircea Eliade still stand at the top of my list) and this book failed to convince me from time to time in the soundness of his arguments, but what I really appreciated in him is the clarity of the exposition, erudite without turning populist, the passion and often the lyrical turn of phrase that evidence his deep rooted humanism:
The multitude of men and women choose the less adventurous way of comparatively unconscious civic and tribal routines. But these seekers, too, are saved - by virtue of the inherited symbolic aids of society, the rites of passage, the grace-yielding sacraments, given to mankind of old by the redeemers and handed down through millenniums. It is only those who know neither an inner call nor an outer doctrine whose plight truly is desperate; that is to say, most of us today, in this labyrinth without and within the heart. Alas, where is the guide, that fond virgin, Ariadne, to supply the simple clue that will give us the courage to face the Minotaur, and the means then to find our way to freedom when the monster has been met and slain?
Witnessing the degradation of the popular religions (Gott ist Tot spracht Zarathustra) and philosophies after two devastating world wars, the rise in psychological problems for the stressed out modern man, Campbell tries to reinvent, to breath new life into the old symbols, to push back against the terror, the unknown, the void. This is the role reserved for the hero, in his guise as the redeemer and custodian of rites of passage:
Beyond them is darkness, the unknown, and danger; just as beyond the parental watch is danger to the infant and beyond the protection of his society danger to the member of the tribe. The usual person is more than content, he is even proud, to remain within the indicated bounds, and popular belief gives him every reason to fear so much as the first step into the unexplored. Thus the sailors of the bold vessels of Columbus, breaking the horizon of the medieval mind - sailing, as they thought, into the boundless ocean of immortal being that surrounds the cosmos, like an endless mythological serpent biting its tail - had to be cozened and urged on like children, because of their fear of the fabled leviathans, mermaids, dragon kings, and other monsters of the deep.
Campbell's symbols allow for integration of all road openers, creators/gods and spiritual fathers into the structure of the monomyth. They are the force that oppose stagnation / death with renewal / life. The heroes are the ones who answer yes to the call of adventure:
Whether small or great, and no matter what stage or grade of life, the call rings up the curtain, always, on a mystery of transfiguration - a rite, or moment, of spiritual passage, which, when complete, amounts to a dying and a birth. The familiar life horizon has been outgrown; the old concepts, ideals, and emotional patterns no longer fit; the time for the passing of a treshold is at hand.
And again, the author reflects on how these myths and legends are still relevant to us:
The psychological dangers through which earlier generations were guided by the symbols and spiritual exercises of their mythological and religious inheritance, we today (in so far as we are unbelievers, or, if believers, in so far as our inherited beliefs fail to represent the real problems of contemporary life) must face alone, or, at best, with only tentative, impromptu, and not often effective guidance. This is our problem as modern, "enlightened" individuals, for whom all gods and devils have been rationalized out of existence.
I feel I am rambling in my notes, so before I continue I must point out that Campbell is organized to the point of fussiness, where every item of his equation has its proper place and order that must be followed like the above mentioned Ariadne's thread to the logical conclusion he wants to make. This is an aspect of the book that raised some questions to me about cherry-picking the evidence and choosing only those examples that best describe the monomyth while ignoring the counter-arguments. Sticking to the path also fragments the myths and legends used in the text, leaving me with bts and pieces of the stories where I wished I could read the whole shebang. So let's see once again what are the stages of the journey:
I - Departure : the chosen one is called on the quest. He is reluctant to leave his old life behind but supernatural forces push him on, usually in the form of a wise on who offers aid or advice. The road to the magical realm is barred and the gate is usually guarded by a monster. After crossin the gate to the new realm, the hero is beset by adversity (Campbell calls this chapter The Belly of the Whale )
II - Initiation : The hero must pass a series of dangerous tests in order to prove his worth. ( "Or do ye think that ye shall enter the Garden of Bliss without such trials as came to those who passed away before you?" - Quoran - 2:214 ) He meets with the rulers of the supernatural world (Earth Mother, Temptress, Father figure) and then he receives knowledge and powers of his own. This chapter was particularly drowned in Freudian imagery and rants about the power of the subconscious.
III - Return : a hero who keeps all these boons to himself (wisdom, immortality, treasure, etc) is not much use to the rest of the world, so he must return to the lower plane of existence. Not all of them do though, choosingto remain detached in their bliss, gazing at their navels or whatnot. Others get chased by the Gods of the magical world who would like to keep the secrets of life the universe and everything to themselves. The road back is a riddled with perils as the one leading in. But the succesful hero is now master of both worlds (what Mircea Eliade calls The Sacred and The Profane) and gifts his hard won knowledge to the people left behind.
IV - The Keys : the author tries to identify the nature of the treasure the hero has brough back from his journey. the individual has only to discover his own position with reference to this general human formula (the monomyth?), and let it then assist him past his restricting walls. Who and where are his ogres? Those are the reflections of the unsolved enigmas of his own humanity. What are his ideals? Those are the symptoms of his grasp of life.
This is only the first part of the book. The second one takes a more metaphysical approach and instead of focusing on the details of the hero journey, chooses a cosmological perspective and looks at the dualities of existence - at something creating out of nothing, at the cycle of the universe reflected in the rhythm of the solar cycle, of the day/night sequence, at birth / growth / death in all that lives. One could say the first part is descriptive / informative and the second speculative / meditative. The sources are the same, with more emphasis on genesis stories and folk tales and less on literary, historical one; the faces of the heroes familiar ones, whether he or she is a warrior, a lover, a wise Emperor or an abusive tyrant, a saint or mystic redeemer. I'm afraid I'm running out of space for a regular Goodreads review, and I have so many quotes saved that I don't want to lose, so I finish with them and maybe return for more comments at a later date:
In most mythologies, the images of mercy and grace are rendered as vividly as those of justice and wrath, so that a balance is maintained, and the heart is buoyed rather than scourged along its way.
---
Humor is the touchstone of the truly mythological as distinct from the more literal-minded and sentimental theological mood.
---
About Viracocha and the creation of the world: The essence of time is flux, dissolution of the momentarily existent; and the essence of life is time. In his mercy, in his love for the forms of time, this demiurgic man of men yields countenance to the sea of pangs; but in his full awareness of what he is doing, the seminal waters of life that he gives are the tears of his eyes.
---
Stars, darkness, a lamp, a phantom, dew, a bubble
A dream, a flash of lightning, and a cloud:
Thus we should look upon all that was made.
Vajracchedika, 32 (Sacred Books of the East, transl. Max Muller)
---
a message against intolerance, an appeal to consider the bigger picture instead of the little slice inherited by your group: Instead of clearing his own heart the zealot tries to clear the world. The laws of the City of God are applied only to his in-group (tribe, church, nation, class, or what not) while the fire of a perpetual holy war is hurled (with good conscience, and indeed a sense of pious service) against whatever uncircumsiced, barbarian, heathen, "native" or alien people happens to occupy the position of neighbor.
---
why all religions are worthy of study: Symbols are only the 'vehicles' of communication; they must not be mistaken for the final term, the 'tenor', of their reference. No matter how attractive or impressive they may seem, they remain but convenient means, accomodated to the understanding. Hence the personality of personalities of God - whether represented in trinitarian, dualistic or unitarian terms, in polytheistic, monotheistic or henotheistic terms, pictorially or verbally, as documented fact or apocalyptic vision - no one should attempt to interpret as the final thing. The problem of the theologian is to keep his symbol translucent, so that it may not block out the very light it is supposed to convey.
---
an argument against stagnation: A god outgrown becomes immediately a life-destroying demon. The form has to be broken and the energies released.
---
about the need to belong: The problem of mankind today is precisely the opposite to that of men in the comparatively stable periods of those great coordinating mythologies which now are known as lies. Then all meaning was in the group, in the great anonymous forms, none in the self-expressive individual; today no meaning is in the group - none in the world: all is in the individual.
---
the joy of diversity: It is necessary for men to understand, and be able to see, that through various symbols the same redemption is revealed. "Truth is one," we read in the Vedas; "the sages call it by many names." A single song is being inflected through all the colorations of the human choir. General propaganda for one or another of the local solutions, therefore, is superfluous - or much rather, a menace. The way to become human is to learn to recognize the lineaments of God in all of the wonderful modulations of the face of man.
---
and finally, the true need for the hero: It is not society that is to guide and save the creative hero, but precisely the reverse. And so every one of us shares the supreme ordeal - carries the cross of the redeemer - not in the bright moments of his tribe's great victories, but in the silences of his personal despair.
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Feb 05, 2021Ahmad Sharabiani rated it really liked it
Shelves: mythology, philosophy, history, classics, 20th-century, non-fiction, fantasy, united-states, writing, anthropology
The Hero With a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell
Campbell explores the theory that mythological narratives frequently share a fundamental structure. The similarities of these myths brought Campbell to write his book in which he details the structure of the monomyth.
He calls the motif of the archetypal narrative, "the hero's adventure". In a well-known quote from the introduction to The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell summarizes the monomyth: A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش نسخه فارسی روز ششم ماه فوریه سال 2008میلادی
عنوان: قهرمان هزارچهره؛ نویسنده جوزف کمپبل؛ برگردان شادی خسروپناه؛ مشهد: گل آفتاب، 1385؛ در 399ص؛ شابک 9645599644؛ چاپ دوم 1386؛ چاپ سوم 1387؛ چاپ چهارم 1389؛ چاپ پنجم 1392؛ شابک 9789645599643؛ چاپ ششم 1394؛ چاپ هشتم 1396؛ موضوع روانکاوی - اسطوره شناسی - از نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده 20م
قهرمان هزارچهره، مشهورترین و بهترین اثر «جوزف کمپبل»، نویسنده و اسطوره شناس مشهور «آمریکایی» است، که سیر و سفر درونی انسان را، در قالب قهرمانان اسطوره ای، پی میگیرد، و با بررسی قصه ها، و افسانه های جهان، نشان میدهد، که چطور این کهن الگو، در هر زمان و مکان، خود را در قالبی نو، تکرار میکند، تا انسان را، به سیر و سفر درونی، و شناخت نفس، راهنمایی کند
کمپبل در این کتاب، بسیاری از نمادهای مذهبی، و اسطوره ای جهان را، بررسی کرده، و با در کنار هم قرار دادن آنها، نشان داده است، که چطور افسانه ها، و نمادهای اقوام، و مذاهب گوناگون، معادل و موازی یکدیگرند؛ او در میان این شباهتها، به دنبال راستیهای بنیادین میگردد، که انسان در طول هزاران سال زندگی، بر روی کره ی خاکی، براساس آنها، روزگار خود را، بگذرانده است؛ به راستی این کتاب، جزو کتابهای کلاسیک و رسمی رشته های «ادبیات»، «اسطوره شناسی» و «فیلمنامه نویسی» است، و کارگردانان مشهور «هالیوود»، تحت تاثیر آن، با بازسازی اسطوره های کهن، در کالبدی نو، پرداخته اند؛ «جنگ ستارگان»، «ارباب حلقه ها»، «ماتریکس» و...؛ از این کتاب الهام گرفته اند؛
یکی از کسانیکه بسیار تحت تاثیر این کتاب قرار گرفته؛ «جرج لوکاس»، فیلمساز نامدار «آمریکایی» است، ایشان فیلمنامه های «جنگهای ستاره ای» را، بر اساس ساختار روایت اسطوره ای «قهرمان هزار چهره»، که در این کتاب توضیح داده میشود، بنا کرده اند؛ نخستین بار این کتاب، در سال 1949میلادی به چاپ رسید، و بارها تجدید چاپ شد؛ بعدها در سالهای پایانی دهه هشتاد میلادی، «کریستوفر ووگلر، فیلنامه نویس» با الهام از «قهرمان هزار چهره» کتاب «سفر نویسنده» را، بنگاشتند، که در آن، تمامی تئوریهای ارائه شده، توسط «کمپبل» را، برای نوشتن فیلمنامه روزآمد و بهنگام کردند
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 18/11/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی (less)
Campbell explores the theory that mythological narratives frequently share a fundamental structure. The similarities of these myths brought Campbell to write his book in which he details the structure of the monomyth.
He calls the motif of the archetypal narrative, "the hero's adventure". In a well-known quote from the introduction to The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell summarizes the monomyth: A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man.
تاریخ نخستین خوانش نسخه فارسی روز ششم ماه فوریه سال 2008میلادی
عنوان: قهرمان هزارچهره؛ نویسنده جوزف کمپبل؛ برگردان شادی خسروپناه؛ مشهد: گل آفتاب، 1385؛ در 399ص؛ شابک 9645599644؛ چاپ دوم 1386؛ چاپ سوم 1387؛ چاپ چهارم 1389؛ چاپ پنجم 1392؛ شابک 9789645599643؛ چاپ ششم 1394؛ چاپ هشتم 1396؛ موضوع روانکاوی - اسطوره شناسی - از نویسندگان ایالات متحده آمریکا - سده 20م
قهرمان هزارچهره، مشهورترین و بهترین اثر «جوزف کمپبل»، نویسنده و اسطوره شناس مشهور «آمریکایی» است، که سیر و سفر درونی انسان را، در قالب قهرمانان اسطوره ای، پی میگیرد، و با بررسی قصه ها، و افسانه های جهان، نشان میدهد، که چطور این کهن الگو، در هر زمان و مکان، خود را در قالبی نو، تکرار میکند، تا انسان را، به سیر و سفر درونی، و شناخت نفس، راهنمایی کند
کمپبل در این کتاب، بسیاری از نمادهای مذهبی، و اسطوره ای جهان را، بررسی کرده، و با در کنار هم قرار دادن آنها، نشان داده است، که چطور افسانه ها، و نمادهای اقوام، و مذاهب گوناگون، معادل و موازی یکدیگرند؛ او در میان این شباهتها، به دنبال راستیهای بنیادین میگردد، که انسان در طول هزاران سال زندگی، بر روی کره ی خاکی، براساس آنها، روزگار خود را، بگذرانده است؛ به راستی این کتاب، جزو کتابهای کلاسیک و رسمی رشته های «ادبیات»، «اسطوره شناسی» و «فیلمنامه نویسی» است، و کارگردانان مشهور «هالیوود»، تحت تاثیر آن، با بازسازی اسطوره های کهن، در کالبدی نو، پرداخته اند؛ «جنگ ستارگان»، «ارباب حلقه ها»، «ماتریکس» و...؛ از این کتاب الهام گرفته اند؛
یکی از کسانیکه بسیار تحت تاثیر این کتاب قرار گرفته؛ «جرج لوکاس»، فیلمساز نامدار «آمریکایی» است، ایشان فیلمنامه های «جنگهای ستاره ای» را، بر اساس ساختار روایت اسطوره ای «قهرمان هزار چهره»، که در این کتاب توضیح داده میشود، بنا کرده اند؛ نخستین بار این کتاب، در سال 1949میلادی به چاپ رسید، و بارها تجدید چاپ شد؛ بعدها در سالهای پایانی دهه هشتاد میلادی، «کریستوفر ووگلر، فیلنامه نویس» با الهام از «قهرمان هزار چهره» کتاب «سفر نویسنده» را، بنگاشتند، که در آن، تمامی تئوریهای ارائه شده، توسط «کمپبل» را، برای نوشتن فیلمنامه روزآمد و بهنگام کردند
تاریخ بهنگام رسانی 18/11/1399هجری خورشیدی؛ ا. شربیانی (less)
Aug 09, 2017Morgan Blackledge rated it it was amazing
Mythology helps us experience the rapture of being alive. I think this is the central takeaway from Campbell's work.
Modern academics have (absolutely correctly) criticized Campbell's work, e.g. his broad sweeping assertions and shaky (at best) methodologies. But on this basic point Campbell was (and maybe still is) nonpareil.
You can dismiss Campbell on many levels. But on this one point. I don't think you can easily dismiss him or this impactful text - which is pretty much his master work.
I know people get overly reverent about the man and his work, and overlook a lot of flaws that make serious scholars scream. So yeah. I get it. It's a 70 year old text. It's got some flaws and the field has progressed.
But I think you can throw the baby out with the bath water if you don't get that one key insight - mythology helps people experience the rapture of being alive.
If you fail to get that one -really important- takeaway, you have wasted your time reading this text. Start over from page one. Watch the Bill Moyers PBS thing. Do what ever you have to do. But get that nugget.
Beyond that, I actually don't have anything more to contribute to the volumes of rightful praise this book has already received.
But I can feel an overwrought, really pretentious, crabby, and potentially even dickish rant bubbling up from the depths of my soul.
So consider yourself warned.
I'm ranting because another GR user gave this brilliant text a 1 star review, which is not so special, but 43 other GR users liked that POS review, and it is now ranked at #3 based on said likes.
1 star?
Really?
1 star......like 1 star.
For real......
You (and 43 other geniuses) think Joseph Campbell's utterly original, ground breaking, world changing, comprehensive comparative survey of world mythology, and subsequent discovery of a meta-framework (i.e. the mono-myth) that underlies just about all of the worlds mythological systems, and the additional absolutely astounding achievement of integrating this insight with Jungian psychoanalytic theory, written in the 1940's, on a manual typewriter, and researched in books, before google, and adopted by popular culture and highbrow literature alike in the form of the 'heroes journey', which provided the basis for films like Star Wars, and well, just about every other piece of modern story telling......that's a 1 star achievement.
Hmmmm....
That same GR user refered to Campbell's staggeringly important text as 'a total piece of tripe'.
Wow......
Total tripe?
Meaning, nonsense, or rubbish.
That seems a little ungenerous.
So what are the reviewer's (let's call him Lone Star) complaints?
I'm assuming it's is a dude because....we'll....1 star.
Anyway....
Lone Star quips that [Joseph Campbell] 'failed to logically plan the layout of the text' and didn't 'work on the the chapter section/scale.'
That same user gave an (admittedly cool af looking) graphic novel 5 stars.
Ok.
So would Lone Star have given Campbells masterwork an additional star or two if it were limited to 30 pages, and illustrated with Manga style pictures and word bubbles?
Would Lone Star also complain that Henry Ford's (first ever) 1913 assembly line was crappy because it only produced 1 car every 12 hours?
Would Lone Star assert that Mozart's music has too many notes, or that Lincoln's Gettysburg address is too long, and should have been a TED talk, or that Shakespeare says old sounding words and should talk normal, or that the Sistine Chapel would be better if it was animated, or that the film adaptation of Streetcar Named Desire should have been in color, or that the sermon on the mount should have been shortened to 140 characters and dropped on Twitter?
Get it?
I just provided an ironic list of examples of important works of culture, and then gave intentionally banal critiques of them, based on a comical (fictional) misunderstanding of the historical context of the work, that would have to be considered in order to to properly understand it.
Get it?
LOL right?
Anyway.......
Lone Star continues: [Campbell's peerless work of scholarship contained] 'horribly hacked and detached bits of myth, scattered all over the place seemingly stochastically.'
Stochastically?
Touché......
Did Lone Star select that little zinger of a word from the thesaurus feature on the smart phone he was working on?
Maybe he originally put random, but looked it up and picked 'stochastically' because it sounded smarter.
Damn!
To bad Campbell didn't just do that kind of thing when he wrote his visionary text that changed everything.
Anyway......
Here's a couple of quotes from another DWM that express my feelings far better than I myself am able:
"Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see."
-Arthur Schopenhauer
"or appreciate."
-Me
"Every man takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world."
-Arthur Schopenhauer
"particularly college undergrads."
-Me
So how lame is it for a 50 year old man (me) to troll a random 20 year old on GR.
Exceedingly lame.
Admittedly.
But 1 star, and 43 likes?
Dude!!!!! (less)
Modern academics have (absolutely correctly) criticized Campbell's work, e.g. his broad sweeping assertions and shaky (at best) methodologies. But on this basic point Campbell was (and maybe still is) nonpareil.
You can dismiss Campbell on many levels. But on this one point. I don't think you can easily dismiss him or this impactful text - which is pretty much his master work.
I know people get overly reverent about the man and his work, and overlook a lot of flaws that make serious scholars scream. So yeah. I get it. It's a 70 year old text. It's got some flaws and the field has progressed.
But I think you can throw the baby out with the bath water if you don't get that one key insight - mythology helps people experience the rapture of being alive.
If you fail to get that one -really important- takeaway, you have wasted your time reading this text. Start over from page one. Watch the Bill Moyers PBS thing. Do what ever you have to do. But get that nugget.
Beyond that, I actually don't have anything more to contribute to the volumes of rightful praise this book has already received.
But I can feel an overwrought, really pretentious, crabby, and potentially even dickish rant bubbling up from the depths of my soul.
So consider yourself warned.
I'm ranting because another GR user gave this brilliant text a 1 star review, which is not so special, but 43 other GR users liked that POS review, and it is now ranked at #3 based on said likes.
1 star?
Really?
1 star......like 1 star.
For real......
You (and 43 other geniuses) think Joseph Campbell's utterly original, ground breaking, world changing, comprehensive comparative survey of world mythology, and subsequent discovery of a meta-framework (i.e. the mono-myth) that underlies just about all of the worlds mythological systems, and the additional absolutely astounding achievement of integrating this insight with Jungian psychoanalytic theory, written in the 1940's, on a manual typewriter, and researched in books, before google, and adopted by popular culture and highbrow literature alike in the form of the 'heroes journey', which provided the basis for films like Star Wars, and well, just about every other piece of modern story telling......that's a 1 star achievement.
Hmmmm....
That same GR user refered to Campbell's staggeringly important text as 'a total piece of tripe'.
Wow......
Total tripe?
Meaning, nonsense, or rubbish.
That seems a little ungenerous.
So what are the reviewer's (let's call him Lone Star) complaints?
I'm assuming it's is a dude because....we'll....1 star.
Anyway....
Lone Star quips that [Joseph Campbell] 'failed to logically plan the layout of the text' and didn't 'work on the the chapter section/scale.'
That same user gave an (admittedly cool af looking) graphic novel 5 stars.
Ok.
So would Lone Star have given Campbells masterwork an additional star or two if it were limited to 30 pages, and illustrated with Manga style pictures and word bubbles?
Would Lone Star also complain that Henry Ford's (first ever) 1913 assembly line was crappy because it only produced 1 car every 12 hours?
Would Lone Star assert that Mozart's music has too many notes, or that Lincoln's Gettysburg address is too long, and should have been a TED talk, or that Shakespeare says old sounding words and should talk normal, or that the Sistine Chapel would be better if it was animated, or that the film adaptation of Streetcar Named Desire should have been in color, or that the sermon on the mount should have been shortened to 140 characters and dropped on Twitter?
Get it?
I just provided an ironic list of examples of important works of culture, and then gave intentionally banal critiques of them, based on a comical (fictional) misunderstanding of the historical context of the work, that would have to be considered in order to to properly understand it.
Get it?
LOL right?
Anyway.......
Lone Star continues: [Campbell's peerless work of scholarship contained] 'horribly hacked and detached bits of myth, scattered all over the place seemingly stochastically.'
Stochastically?
Touché......
Did Lone Star select that little zinger of a word from the thesaurus feature on the smart phone he was working on?
Maybe he originally put random, but looked it up and picked 'stochastically' because it sounded smarter.
Damn!
To bad Campbell didn't just do that kind of thing when he wrote his visionary text that changed everything.
Anyway......
Here's a couple of quotes from another DWM that express my feelings far better than I myself am able:
"Talent hits a target no one else can hit. Genius hits a target no one else can see."
-Arthur Schopenhauer
"or appreciate."
-Me
"Every man takes the limits of his own vision for the limits of the world."
-Arthur Schopenhauer
"particularly college undergrads."
-Me
So how lame is it for a 50 year old man (me) to troll a random 20 year old on GR.
Exceedingly lame.
Admittedly.
But 1 star, and 43 likes?
Dude!!!!! (less)
Sep 13, 2011Nandakishore Mridula rated it it was amazing · review of another edition
Shelves: favourites, myth-fairy-tales
Ever since I was a child, I have been fascinated by the similarities between Hindu myths and Greek myths. Then during my early twenties, I discovered Campbell and said to myself: "Voila! Somebody has noticed it before me!" Ever since then, I've been a Campbell fan.
The structure of the monomyth is so prevalent in many hero cycles, fairy tales, children's stories and popular films so it's a wonder how anybody can miss it. Campbell does an exhaustive job of digging through various mythologies of the world and bringing the similarities to light.
Whether you are a serious student of myth or just an ordinary person who loves stories, this book will hold you spellbound. (less)
The structure of the monomyth is so prevalent in many hero cycles, fairy tales, children's stories and popular films so it's a wonder how anybody can miss it. Campbell does an exhaustive job of digging through various mythologies of the world and bringing the similarities to light.
Whether you are a serious student of myth or just an ordinary person who loves stories, this book will hold you spellbound. (less)
