Joseph Campbell (1) (1904–1987)

I've been wanting to re-read this for years now. I was 25 the first time I picked up this book (I'm 45 now), and it completely changed my life. Not only did the words of Joseph Campbell show me that I was on the right path, living by following my bliss, but it helped me put my philosophies into words and show me how to continue. I opened a different copy of the same book hoping to glean something new.

First, the bad. I found out soon after reading this book for the first time, that Mr show more Campbell was a bit of a misogynist. When Sarah Lawrence Colloge (where he taught, and met his wife) announced they were building a structure that would have his name, there were big protests. Reading it agiain this time, he definitely doesn't hide being a big and seeing women as objects. The way he talks about what a “man” is vs what a “woman” is just rubbed me the wrong way. Finally, there's a weird section where he brags about that fact that he told a Black man that his race didn't matter, that nothing bad happened to him because he was Black, and he should just get over it and join the one human race. Meh.

Mixed in with those parts though, are some real gems. Campbell's knowledge of what seems like all religions and mythologies, and his ability to tie them together and find the common thread, also connections with a lot of other books I've read in the gap between my readings of Reflections. It was a good reminder that one should make one's own path, follow one's bliss, and most importantly seek truth as one who's hair is on fire seeks a pond. show less

I know this is a classic, and perhaps without this book later mythological studies would not have been so world-encompassing, and I know Campbell was a product of his time. But having to read such a deep book with so much now-disputed scholastic inquiry is a slog. Yes, it is what it is, and I think as more cultures begin to reclaim their own voices, the impact of this book will remain in the far-off footnotes of mythological research rather than at the vanguard of world mythologies.

"There's an old romantic idea [...] which says that the ideas and poetry of the traditional cultures come out of the folk. They do not. They come out of an elite experience, the experience of people particularly gifted, whose ears are open to the song of the universe." -Campbell, the Power of Myth

Because "the folk" can never have their ears open to the song of the universe? What kind of unjustified garbage is this? The delight of listening to an old white man make unsupported generalizations show more about "the elite" and "the folk" palls quickly. show less

There are now years of hesitation in getting into Campbell's longer works; somehow I just end up exploring a page here and there, at times chapters, go back watching his audiovisual conversations and then spend my days and nights thinking about his ideas. It is like someone being unable to strike a balance between one's excitement and one's fear in his first bungee diving, or for that matter first glacier hike, railway or air journey.

In all these years of ideological wooing, he remains one show more of my favorite thinkers. He oscillates between Freud and Jung, takes sparingly from them, moves ahead of them, goes back and forth at times, never assertively formulaic like Freud, never too abstract in his individualism like Jung.

Sometimes I do remind myself that I haven't read any of his longer works from cover to cover! I think part of the reason is my personal approach to reading where culmination of a reading project necessarily means a break, a kind of emotional closure of sorts, a disconnect while assimilating the fragments of memories, not memories of ideas but memories of reading experience. I don't want closure with Campbell. He is like Jung in this aspect; you should bank on him if you get past that sexagenarian barrier; I want to keep wooing him till he prepares me for death, the final dream, or metadream of sorts.

These conversations are similar attempts at ideological wooing; they would prepare you to undertake some amazing journeys into the life of mind with him; and no preparation is enough if you really want to connect with the inner meaning of Campbell's philosophies of myth. show less