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3.94 AVERAGE
3.94 AVERAGE
challenging
informative
reflective
slow-paced
informative
reflective
fast-paced
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
“It is not society that is to guide and save the creative hero, but precisely the reverse.”
As the book that introduced the Hero’s journey, this is the gold standard for anyone who’s interested in taking a deeper dive! It has fascinating insights for mythology, but also for story-telling and morality in general. I found the concept of advancing beyond juvenile psychology and into mature psychology to be very insightful, and the insights from this have already led to improvements in my life.
Some stories and sections are a bit more compelling than others, I’m not as big a fan of dream analysis as I am of mythology, but overall this is a great pick for anyone interested in these topics!
As the book that introduced the Hero’s journey, this is the gold standard for anyone who’s interested in taking a deeper dive! It has fascinating insights for mythology, but also for story-telling and morality in general. I found the concept of advancing beyond juvenile psychology and into mature psychology to be very insightful, and the insights from this have already led to improvements in my life.
Some stories and sections are a bit more compelling than others, I’m not as big a fan of dream analysis as I am of mythology, but overall this is a great pick for anyone interested in these topics!
This book engages in psuedo science, dream analaysis, wide sweeping conjecture, and beyond obtuse langauge. While his knowledge of mythology is vast, the analysis of that knowledge can't be respected. His continued assumption of Frued's and Jung's correctness, as evidence of his own theory's correctness, is obnoxious.
First things first, if I have to un-ironically read the phrase "hero-penis" so do you.
That out of the way, I have spent most of this book wondering why this was never required reading in any of my secondary or post-secondary education classes. To give you some idea of how mentally stimulating I found this book, I highlighted a number of his sources for further research.
Most of what people know about this book is the first half and the steps of the hero's journey and before I read this book, I listened to a string of podcasts that focused on that aspect. However, after reading this book, I found that they were incomplete illustrations of the content. (Unsurprising, I know.)
Simply knowing the steps of the journey doesn't compare to understanding the reasons and examples.
Also there's a whole section of the material on gender androgyny and mythological/spiritual sources of power that's absolutely fascinating and could so easily be inserted into the current discussions on sexuality and gender.
The second half of the book, though less discussed, gave deeper context to the intial heroes cycle, discussing the types of heroic journey and the phases it takes, and also the place of the mythologic in society. One of my favorite discussion points was the ability of mythology to define humanity and how it can make us more than ourselves, and whether we find the illustrations of religion believable in a specific manner, the broader strokes behind it, all of it (not any religion in particular), allows us to create societies that can accomplish more than the sum of its parts.
Also, the look at stereotypical mythological elements as stepping stones of the greater mythology makes more sense than dismissing all tropes and stereotypes as trite.
Certain disclaimers apply: there is a lot of discussion of mother fucking and father killing. It is at once not as weird and exactly as weird as you think. The base discussion requires some adaptation for a presumed female Hero, but as long as you apply the broader strokes it can still be applied. Also... hero-penis.
That out of the way, I have spent most of this book wondering why this was never required reading in any of my secondary or post-secondary education classes. To give you some idea of how mentally stimulating I found this book, I highlighted a number of his sources for further research.
Most of what people know about this book is the first half and the steps of the hero's journey and before I read this book, I listened to a string of podcasts that focused on that aspect. However, after reading this book, I found that they were incomplete illustrations of the content. (Unsurprising, I know.)
Simply knowing the steps of the journey doesn't compare to understanding the reasons and examples.
Also there's a whole section of the material on gender androgyny and mythological/spiritual sources of power that's absolutely fascinating and could so easily be inserted into the current discussions on sexuality and gender.
The second half of the book, though less discussed, gave deeper context to the intial heroes cycle, discussing the types of heroic journey and the phases it takes, and also the place of the mythologic in society. One of my favorite discussion points was the ability of mythology to define humanity and how it can make us more than ourselves, and whether we find the illustrations of religion believable in a specific manner, the broader strokes behind it, all of it (not any religion in particular), allows us to create societies that can accomplish more than the sum of its parts.
Also, the look at stereotypical mythological elements as stepping stones of the greater mythology makes more sense than dismissing all tropes and stereotypes as trite.
Certain disclaimers apply: there is a lot of discussion of mother fucking and father killing. It is at once not as weird and exactly as weird as you think. The base discussion requires some adaptation for a presumed female Hero, but as long as you apply the broader strokes it can still be applied. Also... hero-penis.
I was mistaken.
When I first read this book I couldn’t get passed the importance put on dreams. It’s one of the few unreasonable demands I make of books; no dream sequences. Save for The Dream World of The Wheel of Time, where it’s a realm rather than messages from the subconscious, whenever I come upon a dream sequence in a book, I skim it with a mighty groan of frustration. So when I put the book down all those years ago with a self-righteous indignation, it was because I was not ready for it. And it turned out that the bits about dreams weren’t emphasized much after the second chapter or so.
The book shows how the various myths of the ancients connect us. The hero’s journey is repeated again and again throughout history. The changes, the differences, are but societal trappings. They’re not important, they just dress the heroes, both immortal and mortal, in clothes their society will understand. While I found not a few of the myths to be uncomfortable, confusing, occasionally repulsive, or far too obsessed with numbers, that didn’t stop me from seeing the thread being pulled through the tapestry of history.
The entire purpose of the book is to prove what I’ve heard the Dali Lama say; all religions are different versions of the same truth. I’ll end with a pair of long-winded quotes. But one caveat before I do; please excuse the anachronistic patriarchal binary language. If you can forgive him his ignorant word choices, the message undergirding it is beautiful.
“In his life-form the individual is necessarily only a faction and distortion of the total image of man. He is limited either as male or as female; at any given period of his life he again limited as child, youth, mature adult, or ancient; furthermore, in his life-role he is necessarily specialized as a craftsman, tradesman, servant or thief, priest leader, wife, nun or harlot; he cannot be all. Hence the totality - the fullness of man - is not in the separate member, but in the body of the society as a whole; the individual can be only an organ.” (330)
“The community today is the planet, not the bounded nation; hence the patterns of projected aggression which formerly served to co-ordinate the in-group now can only break it into factions. The national idea, with flag as totem, is today an aggrandizer of the nursery ego, not the annihilator of an infantile situation.” (335)
And to end the book, is the Earthrise over the moon. A beautiful picture to show what he was just talking about. That’s our community. Not our family, not our friends, not our country. Everyone on Earth.
My original review:
This book joins Atlas Shrugged as the only books I've ever had to put down.
I love mythology. The myths are not only grand examples of storytelling, but they also shed light on their civilizations' way of thinking. From the doomed-to-die Norse Gods to the plagiarist Romans simply renaming Greek Gods, the mythologies across the globe are fascinating on many levels. So a book that traces the similarities between all mythological cannons sounds like a stroke of genius. Too bad Freud's psychoanalytical theories proved to be the thread that wove the tapestry of the story together.
The first chapter begins by presenting dreams as the ultimate source of truth. Ok, fine, I can deal the fact that there's far more going on in dreams than I care to admit. I've never liked dreams, I groan when a character has a dream in a book I'm reading. I shake my head when a movie includes a psychedelic dream sequence. I'm sure the fact that I hardly ever remember my dreams plays a role in my animosity. But that's not the point. The point is, I picked up a book on mythologies and found it was about dreams. So now I've put it down.
When I first read this book I couldn’t get passed the importance put on dreams. It’s one of the few unreasonable demands I make of books; no dream sequences. Save for The Dream World of The Wheel of Time, where it’s a realm rather than messages from the subconscious, whenever I come upon a dream sequence in a book, I skim it with a mighty groan of frustration. So when I put the book down all those years ago with a self-righteous indignation, it was because I was not ready for it. And it turned out that the bits about dreams weren’t emphasized much after the second chapter or so.
The book shows how the various myths of the ancients connect us. The hero’s journey is repeated again and again throughout history. The changes, the differences, are but societal trappings. They’re not important, they just dress the heroes, both immortal and mortal, in clothes their society will understand. While I found not a few of the myths to be uncomfortable, confusing, occasionally repulsive, or far too obsessed with numbers, that didn’t stop me from seeing the thread being pulled through the tapestry of history.
The entire purpose of the book is to prove what I’ve heard the Dali Lama say; all religions are different versions of the same truth. I’ll end with a pair of long-winded quotes. But one caveat before I do; please excuse the anachronistic patriarchal binary language. If you can forgive him his ignorant word choices, the message undergirding it is beautiful.
“In his life-form the individual is necessarily only a faction and distortion of the total image of man. He is limited either as male or as female; at any given period of his life he again limited as child, youth, mature adult, or ancient; furthermore, in his life-role he is necessarily specialized as a craftsman, tradesman, servant or thief, priest leader, wife, nun or harlot; he cannot be all. Hence the totality - the fullness of man - is not in the separate member, but in the body of the society as a whole; the individual can be only an organ.” (330)
“The community today is the planet, not the bounded nation; hence the patterns of projected aggression which formerly served to co-ordinate the in-group now can only break it into factions. The national idea, with flag as totem, is today an aggrandizer of the nursery ego, not the annihilator of an infantile situation.” (335)
And to end the book, is the Earthrise over the moon. A beautiful picture to show what he was just talking about. That’s our community. Not our family, not our friends, not our country. Everyone on Earth.
My original review:
This book joins Atlas Shrugged as the only books I've ever had to put down.
I love mythology. The myths are not only grand examples of storytelling, but they also shed light on their civilizations' way of thinking. From the doomed-to-die Norse Gods to the plagiarist Romans simply renaming Greek Gods, the mythologies across the globe are fascinating on many levels. So a book that traces the similarities between all mythological cannons sounds like a stroke of genius. Too bad Freud's psychoanalytical theories proved to be the thread that wove the tapestry of the story together.
The first chapter begins by presenting dreams as the ultimate source of truth. Ok, fine, I can deal the fact that there's far more going on in dreams than I care to admit. I've never liked dreams, I groan when a character has a dream in a book I'm reading. I shake my head when a movie includes a psychedelic dream sequence. I'm sure the fact that I hardly ever remember my dreams plays a role in my animosity. But that's not the point. The point is, I picked up a book on mythologies and found it was about dreams. So now I've put it down.
The concepts in this book were breakthroughs at its time in the 1940s, but the book itself is held together with Jungian and Freudian psychoanalytics, cherry picked mythology stories (even if they have alternative versions that conflict with what he's talking about), and dreams.
Campbell hardly spends any time actually discussing what he's actually trying to focus on in between the things mentioned above, but uses heavy jargon to try and distract you from that.
Campbell hardly spends any time actually discussing what he's actually trying to focus on in between the things mentioned above, but uses heavy jargon to try and distract you from that.
Oh, how I wish you were still teaching at SLC when I attended. At least we walked the same halls and grass.
Este es, posiblemente, mi libro favorito del año.
Es como el Dummies para entender el funcionamiento de la mitología. Desde la perspectiva del autor, que lo enlaza con la psicología. Quisiera no ser muy técnica en mi review, porque se va a notar que no sé muchas cosas y que otras todavía las estoy digiriendo.
Yo desde jovencita he tenido mucho interés en la mitología. Pero veía los relatos como fantasía, como historias de héroes fantásticos y apasionados romances. Ahora con el autor he podido retomar esas historias desde otro punto de vista. Y enlazar con mis antiguos, muy antiguos y empolvados conocimientos de las clases de prepa de psicología y filosofía. Y analizar el proceso de comprensión de la religión, que tenía también muy estancado desde la “muerte de Dios” que dice Papini en su libro Gog. Ya hace tiempo que solita había llegado a la conclusión de quién era Dios y por qué lo necesito en mi vida. Pero no sé explicar cómo lo comprendo en este momento. El libro me ayudó a definirlo un poco mejor. No es el punto principal y no espero que a los demás les ilumine en el mismo sentido que a mi, creo que a cada quien le puede servir como instrumento de aclaración de algunas ideas. O para ampliar dudas. Ahora yo tengo interés en leer a Jung y también de conocer mejor la cultura mahometana, la mitología africana y las religiones de la India. Y me hizo retornar a mi curiosidad por los trabajos de Patrick Johansson sobre los antiguos mexicanos y su filosofía.
Retomo para comentar, es un libro muy sencillo de entender. Con muchas referencias. Al principio, si estás algo oxidado (como yo), a lo mejor cuesta un poco arrancar, pero una vez encarrilado te avientas toda su propuesta del monomito de un jalón. Es muy interesante y, ya sea que estés de acuerdo con lo que argumenta o no el autor, puede darte pie a cuestionarte cosas y querer investigar más, lo que siempre es un ejercicio muy rico para el cerebro.
Lo recomiendo para comprar. Es de los títulos que de vez en cuando en la vida dan ganas de releer para comprobar si sigues pensando lo mismo que pensaste la primera vez o has evolucionado y sorprenderte con la respuesta.
Es como el Dummies para entender el funcionamiento de la mitología. Desde la perspectiva del autor, que lo enlaza con la psicología. Quisiera no ser muy técnica en mi review, porque se va a notar que no sé muchas cosas y que otras todavía las estoy digiriendo.
Yo desde jovencita he tenido mucho interés en la mitología. Pero veía los relatos como fantasía, como historias de héroes fantásticos y apasionados romances. Ahora con el autor he podido retomar esas historias desde otro punto de vista. Y enlazar con mis antiguos, muy antiguos y empolvados conocimientos de las clases de prepa de psicología y filosofía. Y analizar el proceso de comprensión de la religión, que tenía también muy estancado desde la “muerte de Dios” que dice Papini en su libro Gog. Ya hace tiempo que solita había llegado a la conclusión de quién era Dios y por qué lo necesito en mi vida. Pero no sé explicar cómo lo comprendo en este momento. El libro me ayudó a definirlo un poco mejor. No es el punto principal y no espero que a los demás les ilumine en el mismo sentido que a mi, creo que a cada quien le puede servir como instrumento de aclaración de algunas ideas. O para ampliar dudas. Ahora yo tengo interés en leer a Jung y también de conocer mejor la cultura mahometana, la mitología africana y las religiones de la India. Y me hizo retornar a mi curiosidad por los trabajos de Patrick Johansson sobre los antiguos mexicanos y su filosofía.
Retomo para comentar, es un libro muy sencillo de entender. Con muchas referencias. Al principio, si estás algo oxidado (como yo), a lo mejor cuesta un poco arrancar, pero una vez encarrilado te avientas toda su propuesta del monomito de un jalón. Es muy interesante y, ya sea que estés de acuerdo con lo que argumenta o no el autor, puede darte pie a cuestionarte cosas y querer investigar más, lo que siempre es un ejercicio muy rico para el cerebro.
Lo recomiendo para comprar. Es de los títulos que de vez en cuando en la vida dan ganas de releer para comprobar si sigues pensando lo mismo que pensaste la primera vez o has evolucionado y sorprenderte con la respuesta.