A review by ddhoffman
The Flight of the Wild Gander: Explorations in the Mythological Dimension by Joseph Campbell

5.0

A great piece. Campbell expounds upon ideas captured in his other works here, only the emphasis is on the personal experience from understanding the symbols of myth. My favorite part of the work was section five, which contains the name sake "flight of the wild gander." Throughout he weaves through different sources –-including Native American , Occidental, and Oriental mythology as well as modern psychology and novels-- to detail how stories are a metaphysical coping mechanism. However, the crux of his message in this book (and in his other works) is that there is a point beyond the symbol --as he quotes, "the space between two thoughts". A ultimate, transcendant wisdom that is unteachable. We come into contact with it through stories and art, which act as a bow and our souls the arrows. The tales catapult us past both the concrete world and the metaphysical world, elevating us, if only for a moment, into that realm. This penultimate identity is all we have to describe the ultimate, and this is what is captured in the flavor and texture of a myth.