This was another great book by Joseph Campbell. Some parts left me slightly bored, but honestly, that's not a huge deal for me. I think Campbell really analyzed the Eastern mythologies well, although there were a few tinges of a European take on the myths. Despite the occasional European take, Campbell does his best to analyze the myths for what they are for their culture(s). (I may add to this review a little later, but I'm not too worried about it right now.) ( )

Make no mistake, the Masks of God series by Joseph Campbell is something fierce.

The level of scholarship and devotion to the whole subject of mythology blows me away. Where the first book devoted itself to ancient mythos, the kind we can only infer from lacking sources, this Oriental Mythology tackles time-periods closer to home if not always particularly close.

The exceptions to this are Taoism and Buddhism. Both of these are treated in the perfect storytelling-way that the rest are treated. (And no worries, Christianity will get its day with equal time.)

This is Campbell, after all.

What we get here is Babylonian, Egyptian, Buddhist, Taoist, and a smattering of some others.

Did I enjoy the collective treatment and the positioning that showed us, in grand glory, how traditions and stories carry on from one culture to another? Hell, yeah. Did I appreciate the insight and the perspicacity of the author in laying it out in such an obvious and clear-as-day manner?

What do you think?

Yeah. I'm a fanboy. For good reason. Campbell has reshaped our society in more ways than one. Our whole way of looking at things has changed thanks to him. And no matter what your persuasion, a God Fearing Christian or any other faith, a clear eye is better than none.

I can and will thank the man for this. :)

Never go blindly.



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the space given to india versus china, japan is outrageous; and why even include tibet, w the space given to it?

this is not to mention the exclusion of so many other literary mythic cultures of (jfc) "the orient" (korea, vietnam, burma, thailand, mongolia being the major ones)

do i even have to call this orientalist? given the fucking title? but it is orientalist, just to b clear

god the reductionism and stereotyping is HORRIBLE, and all follows the colonial logics laid out by the likes of mircea eliade, jung, and durkheim; ofc, campbell lacks the analytic insight of any competent structuralist ( )

I love everything ever penned by Campbell-highly recommend! Like Bettelheim with European fairy tales, Campbell delves into the ways folktales used to act as cautionary illustrations to channel human behavior. This would be morality based on the way society actually functions, not on church teachings about how the world should be. Younger readers may not grasp how fabulous Campbell’s worldview first appeared because now it is so thoroughly believed, used, and imitated. But writers take note: His books are Number One on the syllabus for Hollywood Screenwriting 101. Everyone working in the arts or education—or anyone human—should read Campbell. ( )

After examining the mythology of "primitive" societies in his previous volume, here Joseph Campbell turns his examination of mythology to the East, the Orient. He begins with ancient Egypt, before devoting the bulk of his text to the development of various movements (Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism) in India, concluding with relatively short chapters on China, Japan, and Tibet.

Egypt being included in this volume, while the Middle East is included in the succeeding volume on occidental mythology, shows that Campbell is not above glossing over the finer details in pursuit of making the case he wants to make. In this case, the second volume of Masks of God is where Campbell begins to make his argument that Eastern religion drives its adherents to turn away from the world, accepting one's place in the social strata while seeking to end the cycle of death and rebirth by detachment. That Campbell thinks Western religion drives its adherents to focus on what they can achieve with their single life, and is therefore ultimately superior to Eastern religion, isn't laid on super thick but is definitely obvious.

But what we get through that sometimes distasteful bent is a well-researched and interesting examination of the development of Eastern religion. The largest portion of the text is devoted to Buddhism and reading about how it developed, grew in India, and then was pushed out to China, Japan, and Tibet (with mutations in each culture that reflect its unique perspective) is genuinely compelling. The chapter regarding Tibet does not shy away from the atrocities committed against the monks there by the Chinese, but one of Campbell's strengths is that he's not afraid to be critical. He certainly has no problem puncturing the ideals that religions would like you to believe about them by discussing the historical realities of how they actually functioned.

There is a similar psychoanalytic frame of reference here as in the first volume, but it's not as prominent (probably because there's more substance here to work from than there was with the first) and so it's not as problematic. Indeed, this volume is superior to the first all around. It's still thick, and fact-dense, and reads like a textbook, but Oriental Mythology is a more rewarding read, both in information and readability (it's still very slow, though) than its antecedent. ( )