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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
I'll admit I came to this book with very high expectations: it had been so highly recommended to me by more than a few people, and it had a long waiting list at the library, so I thought it must be very good. Instead, I found it outdated and so heavily biased in favor of the male perspective as to be almost completely irrelevant to a female reader.
I really can't see what the hype surrounding this book is all about.
Meh.
I really can't see what the hype surrounding this book is all about.
Meh.
It refers to a lot of outdated ideas, but The Hero With a Thousand Faces is still a wonderful and thoughtful exploration of stories and what we might actually mean when we tell them.
I've heard this book referenced a lot, and indeed it provides a great foundation for storytelling, and goes well beyond that to identify the similarities and differences amongst myths of many cultures. While at times I felt that the book was rooted in ancient beliefs and norms, Campbell does turn it around in the Epilogue and soothes my complaints.
Hero with a Thousand Faces serves as a good foundation for those exploring myths or working on telling stories. It's fascinating to explore and leaves me wanting to go so much deeper and push the structures Campbell offers further.
Hero with a Thousand Faces serves as a good foundation for those exploring myths or working on telling stories. It's fascinating to explore and leaves me wanting to go so much deeper and push the structures Campbell offers further.
Started this book with fairly high expectations given that (1) I always had an interest in mythology, and (2) Ray Dalio, of all people, had recommended this.
It's all fun and games to scan the entire plethora of mythologies and legends and fables and fairy tales available in the world, and try to run a common thread through them and distill them into a single "Monomyth".
But it reeks of confirmation bias and pseudoscience and New Age woo-woo mumbo-jumbo to try to point out the real-world relevance and applicability of this Monomyth, especially when your frame of reference is Freudian and Jungian psychoanalysis, no less.
For example, the book describes a tale of a princess whose golden ball dropped into a spring while she was playing with it, which resulted in a chance encounter with a talking frog. Campbell follows this with: "As Freud has shown, blunders are not the merest chance. They are the result of suppressed desires and conflicts....And these may be very deep - as deep as the soul itself." WHAT???
Another example: the book described a tribal legend of a Father Snake smelling the foreskins of teenagers at the edge of puberty. Campbell links this to Carl Jung's analysis of a dream where some dude dreamt that a snake bit him in his genitals, and that this dream had happened when dude was "beginning to free himself from the bonds of the mother-complex." Drawing the parallels between legend and dream, Campbell thus declares authoritatively the utmost relevance of such legends, and then proceeds to lay judgment about how in the United States, wives of many husbands are still on the search for love, "which can come to them only from the centaurs, sileni, satyrs, and other concupiscent incubi..... or as in our popular, vanilla-frosted temples of the veneral goddess, under the make-up of the latest heroes of the screen." WHAT??????
As another reviewer has put it - this book explains everything, just like a horoscope.. and a horoscope can provide you with any truth one so desires.
If you want your dose of healing crystals and tarot cards and Gelleresque spoon-bending and late night TV seances, read this book. Otherwise, one is better off like, visiting a museum of tribal artifacts if one desires to learn about world mythologies.
It's all fun and games to scan the entire plethora of mythologies and legends and fables and fairy tales available in the world, and try to run a common thread through them and distill them into a single "Monomyth".
But it reeks of confirmation bias and pseudoscience and New Age woo-woo mumbo-jumbo to try to point out the real-world relevance and applicability of this Monomyth, especially when your frame of reference is Freudian and Jungian psychoanalysis, no less.
For example, the book describes a tale of a princess whose golden ball dropped into a spring while she was playing with it, which resulted in a chance encounter with a talking frog. Campbell follows this with: "As Freud has shown, blunders are not the merest chance. They are the result of suppressed desires and conflicts....And these may be very deep - as deep as the soul itself." WHAT???
Another example: the book described a tribal legend of a Father Snake smelling the foreskins of teenagers at the edge of puberty. Campbell links this to Carl Jung's analysis of a dream where some dude dreamt that a snake bit him in his genitals, and that this dream had happened when dude was "beginning to free himself from the bonds of the mother-complex." Drawing the parallels between legend and dream, Campbell thus declares authoritatively the utmost relevance of such legends, and then proceeds to lay judgment about how in the United States, wives of many husbands are still on the search for love, "which can come to them only from the centaurs, sileni, satyrs, and other concupiscent incubi..... or as in our popular, vanilla-frosted temples of the veneral goddess, under the make-up of the latest heroes of the screen." WHAT??????
As another reviewer has put it - this book explains everything, just like a horoscope.. and a horoscope can provide you with any truth one so desires.
If you want your dose of healing crystals and tarot cards and Gelleresque spoon-bending and late night TV seances, read this book. Otherwise, one is better off like, visiting a museum of tribal artifacts if one desires to learn about world mythologies.
Poorly written but exhaustive research paper.
Where to begin with this ... wow. It's a very lengthy and deep book analyzing not only ancient myths but also Freudian couch conversations. The central thesis of a number of common life stories is great and rings very true. There are also some truly inspiring points paint, particularly in the final chapter which wraps up the thesis. The key idea that "humanity" is now our central mystery and we can't be tribal anymore is very powerful and moving... so based on all of that this would be a five...
However, I really struggled with parts of the book, it's long detailed and turgid. Really reading like a PhD thesis in places. I have to admit skimming some sections just because of the fatigue it induced. This would make it a 2 or a 3 score. However, I'm glad I caught some of the later pieces since there is true gold there. This is probably a book to dip in and out of as a reference.
For an actual overview of the stories of the Myths I'd recommend Mythology by Edith Hamilton instead...
However, I really struggled with parts of the book, it's long detailed and turgid. Really reading like a PhD thesis in places. I have to admit skimming some sections just because of the fatigue it induced. This would make it a 2 or a 3 score. However, I'm glad I caught some of the later pieces since there is true gold there. This is probably a book to dip in and out of as a reference.
For an actual overview of the stories of the Myths I'd recommend Mythology by Edith Hamilton instead...
Joesph Campbell demonstrates that the narrative of ‘the hero’ is a theme that runs through every story, and transcends cultures and eras, from ancient Greece to today’s comic book heroes.
It’s tough to get into, and probably goes on a bit too long - but ultimately enjoyable.
It’s tough to get into, and probably goes on a bit too long - but ultimately enjoyable.
informative
reflective
medium-paced
The hero's journey... it's epic.
I think all people of the Earth ought to read this text. Joseph Campbell did a great job at describing the monomyth, a pattern of storytelling that is central to all civilizations, to all humanity, a storyboard that is engraved within the human psyche.
First, the call to adventure pulls the hero out of his normal life. Then he meets a mentor who guides him or her into the next important step: the underworld. This is where the hero confronts difficulty and either fails, or most usually, with the keys previously provided by the mentor, defeats a inner or outer problem. This problem is easily understood by the idea of the dragon guarding the princess. The knight must face the dragon with a sword provided by an external source, the mentor. Finally, the hero returns to his normal life to aid his community with boons acquired from his difficult journey into the underworld.
I thought the hero's journey to be very similar to some of the phenomena I have experienced during psychedelic experiences with LSD. I wonder, did the monomyth evolve and engrave itself upon the psyche as a result of human action and historical events, or is the monomyth a biologically built-in "software" that guides the human creature? If so, where does the story come from?
This text allows for a lot of unanswered questions, which is great.
My only critical comment would be that I thought Campbell relied too heavily on excerpts from external sources, ancient translated stories which he used to exemplify specific points within the pattern of the hero's journey. Sometimes I thought the stories were a bit boring and at other times, I didn't really understand the translated writing, or how the text related to the point in the hero's journey.
Anyways, great read if your into the human psyche, myth, history, or whatever.
I think all people of the Earth ought to read this text. Joseph Campbell did a great job at describing the monomyth, a pattern of storytelling that is central to all civilizations, to all humanity, a storyboard that is engraved within the human psyche.
First, the call to adventure pulls the hero out of his normal life. Then he meets a mentor who guides him or her into the next important step: the underworld. This is where the hero confronts difficulty and either fails, or most usually, with the keys previously provided by the mentor, defeats a inner or outer problem. This problem is easily understood by the idea of the dragon guarding the princess. The knight must face the dragon with a sword provided by an external source, the mentor. Finally, the hero returns to his normal life to aid his community with boons acquired from his difficult journey into the underworld.
I thought the hero's journey to be very similar to some of the phenomena I have experienced during psychedelic experiences with LSD. I wonder, did the monomyth evolve and engrave itself upon the psyche as a result of human action and historical events, or is the monomyth a biologically built-in "software" that guides the human creature? If so, where does the story come from?
This text allows for a lot of unanswered questions, which is great.
My only critical comment would be that I thought Campbell relied too heavily on excerpts from external sources, ancient translated stories which he used to exemplify specific points within the pattern of the hero's journey. Sometimes I thought the stories were a bit boring and at other times, I didn't really understand the translated writing, or how the text related to the point in the hero's journey.
Anyways, great read if your into the human psyche, myth, history, or whatever.
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced