The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Rating:
Summary: Completely captivating
Review: I purchased this book as a reference for a term paper I was doing for a literature class. The book was extremely interesting and thought-provoking and helped me to better understand the role of a "hero" in today's society. Though at times a little hard to comprehend because I am not used to reading such "deep" material, the book was really informative and I encourage others to read this book and others by Joseph Campbell - a brilliant author and mythologist - who understands the role a hero a lot better than myself or Hollywood screenwriters could ever hope to.

Rating:
Summary: Mythological Gold!--and some dirt...
Review: The premise of this book is amazing. Pulling from a wide selection of ancient world myths, Campbell identifies features common to the Hero, like the Virgin Birth, the Call to Adventure, Crossing the Threshold, Trials, and the Return. If this stuff seems obvious now, it's only because Campbell's book has been so influential.

Parts of the book are great. "Once having traversed the threshold, the hero moves in a dream landscape of curiously fluid, ambiguous forms, where he must survive a succession of trials." Doesn't that make you want to read more? Campbell is at his best when he is talking about the journey of the hero. But he tries to do a lot more than that in this book.

First, he gives too many examples. A few examples are helpful; a lot of examples obfuscate, rather than illuminate, the subject. I wish he had said more and shown less.

Second, when Campbell shifts focus off the hero, the book loses steam. The chapters dealing with the "Cosmogonic Cycle," where the mythology of the universe is covered, just don't fit in here.

I recommend this book. If you have the patience to sift through its dirt, you will find some gold.

Rating:
Summary: Too verbose
Review: I like the overall concept behind _The Hero With a Thousand Faces_, as I am a huge advocate of using a historical/anthropological/mythological approach to solving the mystery of Man's intelligent existence. To its credit, this book was somewhat ahead of its time. The main wave of mythical-anthpological books came either concurrently or later with authors such as Carl Jung, Claude Levi-Strauss, and Alan Watts. Although the aforementioned authors were similar to Joseph Cambell and carried on in his tradition, they all proved to be superior to Campbell in most respects. _The Hero..._ is a decent book within a fascinating genre, but it is marred by an overly-verbose writing style. Campbell often uses flowery descriptive language that would be more appropriate in some kind of cheesy romance novel, and his sentences are festooned with unnecessary adjectives and adverbs to the point of absurdity. It is as if he was suffering from delusions of grandeur when he was writing _The Hero..._, and attempted to infuse it with a melodramatic and emotional tone. Sometimes he succeeds in utilizing a beautiful and ornately descriptive style, but for the most part the fancy descriptiveness detracts from the book. This book would have been better if the style were more dry and sober, and less romantically emotive. This is not a bad book, but you might be better served reading something by the other authors I mentioned above.

Rating:
Summary: Jung, Freud, and Job
Review: If you want to get an understanding of what would happen if you crossed mythology with Freud and Jung's subconscious then this is the book to get. Joseph Campbell takes an in-depth view of mythology and claims that it is really just composed of products of the subconscious. He backs his claim up with many stories from such well known religious stories such as the bet about Job to myths told by the Eskimos. You do not have to believe what he is telling you, but his points are very intriguing ones to think about. This is some pretty heavy stuff, definitely not meant for a light read, but if you have a basic idea of Freud then you will be able to take that knowledge and expand it into the realm of mythology quite easily. You may yet discover that there is still new and intriguing stuff to learn about.

Rating:
Summary: The Evil Twin of Northrop Frye?
Review: Just so you don't get too worked up, the title is a joke.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell is quite often picked up because someone has "discovered" that George Lucas's Star Wars films are based upon Cambell's theories. That is what happened in my case. After reading the book, I came away very unsatisfied. My first problem with the book is that it purports to show that most/all stories fit into a basic structure that is gradually laid out by Campbell, yet the myths and fables that he presents us with do not advance his theory, and in a couple of cases actually contradict it. My second problem is the unusual nature of the myths that Mr. Campbell uses. They are quite often Native American, Indian or Chinese myths that would be unfamiliar to anyone but a specialist in the field. Yes, it is good that he showed good things about other cultures, but it is bad that this interfered with what was supposed to be his main thesis.

If you are looking for an introduction to the theory of archetypes in literature, you would be better served by reading Northrop Frye's Secular Scripture. Or if you want a challenge, you might try Anatomy of Criticism, also by Frye.

Rating:
Summary: A New Hope...
Review: Joseph Campbell is a "love him or hate him" type of guy. The other reviews of his works that I have found on Amazon bear this out. The criticisms seem to be that his examples do not bear out his theories, that he relies on Freudian and Jungian psychology as "proof", and that people do not agree with his world-view. My response is this: we must bear in mind that Joseph Campbell was, above all things, a pioneer. A pioneer need not get everything right the first time out - he is setting up a new paradigm with which to view the world. Freud did not get everything right when he fathered modern psychoanalysis, but he created a new framework and steered it in the direction it needed to go.

The Hero with a Thousand Faces is a comparative study of the religions and myths of the world. Its central theme is that all of their stories are essentially the same. They follow certain archetypal paths that are different in particular circumstances, but in general, follow the same overall arch. Now, this is not 100% true as even he admits - stories get changed around a bit and different things happen, but to the extent that he makes his point, the similarities are astonishing. His conclusion - or ONE possible interpretation - is that this reflects certain archetypal themes that are in every society's collective subconscious (Jung) and that these myths represent eternal truths about life...how to look at it and how to live it.

Now, as to the criticism that his examples don't bear out his theories, Campbell states that he is just choosing an example or two to illustrate his point. The purpose of this book is not to be a comprehensive collection of the world's myths - that book is The Golden Bough. Campbell selects myths that the average reader may not be familiar with. While sometimes similarities may not be immediately apparent, it is open to disagreement as any essay on literature is. Campbell warns though that these myths must be ready as poetry, not prose - so beware of any callow analysis. Personally, I would have like his using more familiar myths - especially Arthurian legends - to illustrate his point.

As for his seeming to rely on Freud and Jung as gospel, that is a bit dated. Even so, the fact that his theories do jibe with Jungian psychology is significant - if not actual "proof" that he's right. And as for disagreements with his world-view, that is irrelevant. Campbell has developed a framework with which to view the world; you do not have to draw the same conclusions from it that he does. Campbell did not believe in a personal God, and I believe he is wrong about that. But the underlying message to me is that, even though people may have divergent beliefs about religion, the underlying ideas and values of religion ARE DEMONSTRATABLY TRUE.

Campbell goes through each stage of the hero's journey, with all its variations. This is meant not only as academia but it is for YOU - the READER. This is how one views one's own life. These ancient stories were not just for entertainment - they showed us how to live. That's what this book is for.

Rating:
Summary: A mythologically supported theme
Review: Campbell took myths from a very new angle. Instead of deciphering how one or another myth had been reflecting our inner psyche before the advent of psychology, he chose to take the hero as his line. He then went through many cultures to show us how each step in the heroic quest has been expressed in various religions.
The book is not as poetic as Murcia Eliade but it is more trans cultural and less shallow. It doesn't yield in intellectual conceit as Jean Pierre Vernant's work and is more accurate. It is as actual as Roland Barthe's mythologies. It is almost as profound as Paul Diel, a rarely quoted author, who gave the keys to understand any mythology in any culture, but offers a different angle. It has the surgical precision of Claude Levy Strauss. There is no twist or additions as in some of Jung's precious works. The insights of the book recall the importance of Freud's Totem and Taboos. It walks well in Bettelheim's steps.
Since the "hero" alternatively concerns, in any psychological analysis, the representation of the self and of the father. This book will speak to any one who has some inclination towards understanding better his own psyche.
It is not only worth reading, it's one of the books one would take on a desert island to feed his mind and soul.

Rating:
Summary: To be read early
Review: After a lot of mythology studying I finally managed to read up on this book although I have been aware of it for a long time but never managed to get hold of it, by then I already knew enough so it was not a revelation. The book is important for the systematization of the monomyth or the Hero myth with examples of the Hero's journey from all the world's cultures used to describe and explain this important narrative applicable to everyone's day to day life. The source of inspiration for New Hollywood directors of the 70's Coppola, Lucas, Milius, Spielberg, Schrader. Read this book and then watch the films from this period again.

If you are familiar with the ideas the book will still be a joy to read and will provide a few insights. As said in the title of review, the earlier you read this book the better as it will save you some digging around.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic
Review: How culture is created. Joseph Campbell is cited and quoted by the most important cultural scholars and intellectuals of our time, and for good reason. His work is a masterpiece.

Rating:
Summary: A Classic
Review: How culture is created and by whom. Joseph Campbell is cited and quoted by the most important cultural scholars and intellectuals of our time, and for good reason. His work is a masterpiece.