The Hero with a Thousand Faces

Rating:
Summary: Incredible book for writers, artists, even lawyers
Review: The other reviewers have done a fine, and at times not so fine, job of recapping the book. In fact, they do it over and over and over.... The work does not need another re-explanation, merely a vote "yes" or "no." I vote "yes!"

Rating:
Summary: Seminal study, despite detractors and cult followers.
Review: Campbell's writing, though less genial, can be more persuasive than his spoken discourse. First, he doe not succumb to the need to give something to everyone, the assurance that every story is worthy of inclusion in the "monomyth." Instead, he frequently assumes the mantle of cultural critic, like T. S. Eliot dismissing the fragmented "stories" of a society that has lost touch with its authentic ritualist traditions. Second, he writes in the form of paradox and metaphor not easily reduced to the formulaic schemes his popularizers and followers seem so anxious to apply to pop-culture texts and pet projects.

Perhaps the reader's greatest challenge in understanding Campbell's archetypal scheme, not to mention his own odyssey, is comprehending the difference between the "innocence" the child emerges from in his circular journey and that to which he returns. Apparently each of us must break free of an infantile egotism and selfishness, continue to struggle against the regressive cathexes that bind us to it, but then seek to return to the same place with a heightened consciousness uniting us to our first god minus the selfish impulses. Campbell's explanation is both Jungian and Freudian, mystical and rational, logical yet paradoxical--never as "tidy" or accessible as his popularizers suggest.

Somewhat disappointing is the relatively little attention Campbell gives to Western myth and literary archetypes. But 50 years ago the author's emphasis on Hindu and Buddhist traditions may have seemed more conclusive evidence of his positions--at least to readers for whom Western traditions were not as unfamiliar as Eastern. Regarded dismissively by many modern academics as a sponsor of mushy, "new-age" thinking, Campbell is best seen as a unique, courageous and compelling voice among the numerous Marxist, post-structural, post-colonial critical voices that emerged with Barthes, Derrida, Foucault, making deconstructionist thought the academic rage of the 1970s and 80s. His identification of universal myths and his rhetorical representations of them were reactionary reassurances in the midst of much skepticism and intellectual arrogance.

Rating:
Summary: Very insightful
Review: This is a wonderful book. The first 100 pages or so are absolutely breathtaking and it's fun to draw parallels from famous adventure stories. George Lucas is a huge fan of Campbell, and the Star Wars storyline fits his philosophy like a glove. My one tiny gripe is the amount of time he devoted to eastern religions. He seemed to be repeating himself and reading about Krishna got old after awhile.

Rating:
Summary: A wonderful book
Review: Much has been said about Joseph Campbell and much praise has been accorded to him, all very much deserved. I would highly recommend this book to anyone interested in mythology, psychology, sociology or multi-cultural studies.

When a friend gave me this book, I was a freshman in college - studying business and intent on a career with computers and technology. For me, reading this book was like being taken aloft in a airplane - my head was soon spinning with enormous vistas of thoughts and imaginings of which I had only dimly been aware. And at the same time, with almost each page that I read, a resounding "Yes!" arose from the depths of my being - confirming in my mind thoughts who's edges I had only brushed up against.

I couldn't put the book down.

This book changed the direction of my life (I ended up graduating in psychology), and the direction of my thoughts. I wore out the paperback. Now, 15 years later, I still return periodically to the book and re-read it, and find new depths to plumb. James Hillman says that books can be initiators into the spiritual realm. This was the book that brought me in.

Rating:
Summary: Profound, World Shakingly Influential & Changing.
Review: All may roads may lead to Rome, but for me, this year, all books seemed to lead to Joseph Campbell's Hero With 1000 Faces.

I have discovered that this book is probably one of the most influential, widely read books of the 20th century. It's no wonder the author, Joseph Campbell, was featured in a Bill Moyers special on The Power of Myth (with an accompanying book, as usual for Bill Moyer's specials.)

I was reading books on writing-- on story structure-- Particularly, Christopher Vogler's excellent Writer's Journey, and it was based on this book. Ironically, I was already reading another of Campbell's series of books on myth. But then I started looking deeper into this realm-- the idea of the Hero's journey, -- the call to adventure, refusing the call, finding a mentor, encountering threshold guardians, crossing the threshold, facing the worst evil, winning the elixir--- and I discovered that dozens of books have been written about the concepts Joseph Campbell first broached.

It's such a powerful idea, and so useful in conceptualizing life's changes. I used it as an element in a presentation I just gave this past weekend on how the art and science of story can be applied to healing and helping people grow. 80% of the people attending the lecture were familiar with the concept.

This is such powerful material, you might consider essential for helping you understand the way movies are made, and how the contemporary world has been affected by advertising and the loss of sacred rituals in everyday life.

One way I gauge a book is by how many marks I make in the margins, to indicate wise ideas or quotable material ( I collect quotes, and quotation books big-time, owning over 400 quotation books) and this book's margins are just packed. The depth of knowledge in mythology and anthropology is awesome, providing a wealth of examples, metaphors, ancient stories and myths which deepen your understanding of human nature. The only problem with this book is how often, in conversations, I've found it to be relevant, whether talking about a friend who is going through some tough times, or someone who is making some changes in his business.

Rob Kall

Rating:
Summary: New Age garbage?
Review: I must admit, I'd never heard that Campbell's work was New Age garbage that is not accepted by most scholars. This book is copiously footnoted, allowing the reader to go to the sources if he/she is not satisfied with the conclusions. Campbell certainly demonstrates an incredible knowledge of mythology from around the entire world, and he weaves stories together seamlessly. As for the complaint that he picks and chooses examples to support his ideas while ignoring the rest of the evidence: Campbell admits in this book that not every single myth fits his formula exactly, but a great many do. He simply couldn't include all of these examples, because that would have made the book far too long. All of this aside, I did have one problem: Campbell relies far too much on the work of early psychoanalysts (especially Freud and Jung) to interpret symbolism in mythology.

Rating:
Summary: The hero goes out the door, the hero comes in the door...
Review: Campbell's reputation gives every indication of gathering momentum, now that he's passed away,

"Everybody loves you, when you're six feet in the ground."

and some of us who were reading Campbell over 10 years ago have ambivalent feelings about the March violets which are springing up, uncritically singing his praises. It's positive, but would Campbell have approved of this sort of adulation? (He described himself as "a maverick", not a hero.)

1. "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" is the starting point for Bill Moyers' six videotaped conversations with Campbell: "The Power of Myth", (videocassette no.1 - THE HERO'S ADVENTURE). My personal recommendation is to buy the videos first to come down with a good case of the author's infectious enthusiasm about his subject.

2. This book is not a bad starting point for a first reading of Campbell. It was my first Campbell book.

A drawdown is the less-than-typically-engaging style, making it not the most enjoyable read of his extensive opus. (Campbell's first major tome -if memory serves- perhaps it was written with an eye toward critical peer reviews?)

On the other hand, the book is well-crafted, satisfying, and does not drag; you're carried along by the interest of discovery, (much like a detective novel), unveiling skeins of meaning in apparently unrelated, seemingly indecipherable, symbols and traditions.

It clearly persuades of unifying themes in diverse traditions while outlining certain basic rites of passage in every hero adventure: real, fantastic, or mythological.

3. So, what do heroes do? A hero is one who gives himself to something bigger than himself, or other than himself.

Campbell points out that heroes evolve as cultures evolve, describing heroes who perform war/physical acts, a la Beowulf and Gilgamesh, then progressing to other feats of altruistic endurance: Spiritual, emotional, or intellectual.

Jesus, the Buddha, Mahomet, Moses - all participate in the standard format of Spiritual heroic achievement, (the first two with close parallels).

Briefly, the hero leaves for adventure, willingly or unwillingly, summoned or unsummoned. (Or the adventure may occur serendipitously on the way to somewhere else.)

There is often a messenger to arouse the hero to action: the old milkwoman in Joyce's "Ulysses"; Gandalf in "The Lord of the Rings"; Athene in Homer's "Odyssey"; Phillipe in Disney's "Beauty and the Beast"; the White Rabbit in Alice's adventures, Obi-Wan in Lucas' "Star Wars", etc...

There is usually a barrier, peopled by guardians, between the everyday world whose knowledges and perceptions the hero has assimilated, and the foreign world of unknown and waiting adventures. Successful passage of this obstacle gives entree to the mythic realm of "the Soul's high adventure".

Another common thread in hero tales is "the descent into the dark". This can be viewed not only as the trip into the unknown (sketched above), but also as an especially nasty sub-variant of it, which occurs along the way. At this point, one of two things happens: either the hero is cut to pieces (to be later resurrected), or escapes, renewed. I always recall the Steadfast Tin Soldier of Hans Andersen, who sails a paper boat through the sewer only to then be swallowed by a fish. (Subsequently rescued, subsequently destroyed, subsequently subliminally resurrected.)

Having successfully completed his mission, the hero ultimately returns from his travels, or his return is forecasted (King Arthur, Jesus, etc..), to guide and help others.

4. The hero's journey may be represented as a trek into a labyrinth, and at the center of every labyrinth there waits a minotaur. The purpose of the journey, the catalyst, being the hero's own Soul, which seeks out those adventures it requires for further growth:

"The adventure he's ready for is the adventure he gets".

This is not one of the great books of the age, if for no other reason because Campbell wrote so many more, but it IS a definite must-read for someone interested in acquiring the rudiments of a perception of the heroic themes and motifs in his own and others lives.

5. The book's signal strength is that it serves to blur the mind's eye to the distinction between mythology, religion, and philosophy. And this is a major thrust of Campbell's work: to create an even ground for all the spiritual traditions of mankind (with circumspection). This crucial psychological insight is Ariadne's thread - we escape the chthonic, claustrophobic labyrinth of dead men's thoughts and fossilized traditions, emerging exultant to breathe clean, cold mountain air: the meaning and message of these tales, bequeathed to us from those who have already lived what we are living; having returned from the foreign shores of the Soul's circumference, these men and women's charts are still as modern as tomorrow afternoon, and we do well to consult them.

Campbell's work is to give us a feel for our commonality with all men and women of all times and climes: this book succeeds, making us better citizens of the world.

Rating:
Summary: An excellent introduction to a serious study of MYTHOLOGY...
Review: Joseph Campbell and Mircea Eliade are, perhaps, the preeminent accessible scholars in the field of mythology in the 20th century. I eliminate writers like Harold Bloom whose blatant gnosticism often blurs intended explication of mythological traditions and renders them bewildering and solipsistic rather than "illuminating". The great "political" mythologist Czeslaw Milosz' vision is...as he himself declares...a bit "eccentric" for the beginner. Hence: Campbell and Eliade. The former explains the "players" (would-be heroes). The latter explains the nature of the "field" (the cosmos & history), the nature of the TWO kinds of time: sacred and profane; be they WESTERN/linear/; or EASTERN/ cyclical)...... THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES is, I submit, Campbell's best and perhaps only important work. Why? The book provides clear definition of THE HEROIC QUEST and why the hero is the foundation of all mythologies. Axiom: societies must have heroes; mythologies are stories of heroes who incarnate values upon which a society, nation or world-order thrives or dies. THE CALL...THE ORDEAL...(Trials by "Fire & Water") THE GREAT TEMPTATION...AND THE RETURN (Final apotheosis as NAMED hero) initiate the hero. All kinds of cool jargon, freighted with the cultural values of the West (LOGOS)or East (TAO)are employed by Campbell along with stories adjuged by great cultures to Re-Present themselves to their own traditions and the WORLD embodying their notion of THE HEROIC. It's good stuff and very accessible. Campbell's later work..."The Masks of God" and his studies in the mythological dimension of dreams...becomes less so as he apparently succumbs to the "gnostic" temptation himself. After studying THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES, the reader is advised to take-on Eliade. THE COSMOS & HISTORY: The Myth of the Eternal Return; and SYMBOLISM, the SACRED & the ARTS. Then, if your interest has been piqued, you're ready for Eliade's literally encyclopediaec study of religions and myth. Or not. No, I have not forgotten Frazer,Graves,Ceram or Corcoran...explicators; nor Lewis, Tolkien or for that matter A.A.Milne..."creators" of mythical heroes and their quests. But with Campbell's THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES, the student of mythology can acquire some formidable tools for judgment of culture and ethical ultimates. Petronious (Emperor Nero's "minister" of culture) once composed a mock-heroic quest called THE SATYRICON. It is about the daring struggle of two homosexuals ...against odds and foes, arch and otherwise...to leach a free meal EVERYDAY! An inspirational goal (GRAIL) of truely heroic archetype. Of course historically, Petronius was slain by Nero for participating in an assassination plot. Nero himself reluctantly committed suicide aided by a courtier Then followed civil war (and, in a single year, four violent aspirants to the Emperor's chair and SPQR). The final point: "Who wants to be a hero?" in a culture which has devolved into another quest called "Who wants to be a millionaire?" THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES helps to suggest which answer is important; why and how such heroes prevail...or the consequences of failure in even the REFUSAL of the Call. It's an important book...not because Campbell was George Lucas' mentor and STAR WARS was conceptualized on Campbell's ideas. But because this society now does not know the difference among heroes, entertainers and celebrities (the famous for being famous). This book...an excellent introduction to the serious study of mythology...suggests answers to what provides a society with essential VITALITY to EXIST...and that is the purpose of all TRUE MYTH..........

Rating:
Summary: "Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain..."
Review: I'm tempted not to bother writing a review here, simply because most of what I would say has already been said: The true value of a myth lies in the lesson imparted behind the words; If you believe the words of a myth, you destroy it; All myths have a common origin in the complex behavior patterns that are humanity. It would be quite human of me to lavish praise on Campbell, and say that he is one of the great minds of the 20th Century, and I might even be right in doing so. But ultimately I don't think that's what Campbell would have wanted. More, I think that he, along with other great minds, wish to impart an understanding that reason can never be found within words, only behind them. Only by being on that path can we gain something meaningful from the book, but then we are forced to say also that the book itself is meaningless. And it's true: There are many books that can teach us the same things, and yet there are many who will never learn this lesson, no matter what they read.

The real value this book had for me is that I know I am not alone. There are others who have travelled the lonely path, and I can do nothing better than to examine their footprints in history. Don't iconize Campbell. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain. But do follow his signposts, of which there are plenty in this well-written manuscript.

Rating:
Summary: The modern day "Golden Bough"
Review: This book reminds me of Frazer's "Golden Bough" or Graves' "The White Goddess". Both of those books (and Campbell's) have in common that they have a grand unified theory of mythology and marshall lots of examples to support them. They also have in common that they are so interesting that it would be cool if they were true! They also have in common that they distort the original that they seek to use as proof and thus aren't accepted by experts in the field.

These books are useful if you want to tell a story according to their formulas, but don't mistake them for good scholarship.