A while back I started reading
The Hero with a Thousand Faces by Joseph Campbell. I am not sure if I will finish the book or not. First off, it is a dry read (think college history textbook). Second, after reading Stephen King's
opinion that good fiction almost never proceeds from theme to story, I have come to the conclusion that it would be a bad idea to write my story with Campbell's "
monomyth" in mind. I like this
quote by author Neil Gaimon on the subject:
"I think I got about half way through The Hero with a Thousand Faces and found myself thinking if this is true — I don’t want to know. I really would rather not know this stuff. I’d rather do it because it’s true and because I accidentally wind up creating something that falls into this pattern than be told what the pattern is."
So odds are I won't finish
The Hero with a a Thousand Faces. The image above is a cartoon illustration by
Austin Kleon of themes found in the writings of Joseph Campbell.
Yeah, I never got through that book either...it was discussed in one of the mythology classes I took where the teacher had a fondness for Campbell that seemed more than a little unhealthy...I thought that things rarely fit in nice neat little categories when you are dealing with real people...or even fictional people as we deal with
ReplyDelete