PaulG at 2015-03-26 18:30:10:
I'm an admirer of Campbell. I came to him through the Ur-texts, the writings of Sigmund Freud and C.J. Jung. My favorite Campbell quote is: "Freud, Jung and their followers have demonstrated irrefutably that the logic, the heroes, and the deeds of myth survive into modern times. In the absence of an effective general mythology, each of us has his private, unrecognized, rudimentary, yet secretly potent pantheon of dream. The latest incarnation of Oedipus, the continued romance of Beauty and the Beast, stand this afternoon on the corner of 42nd Street and 5th Avenue, waiting for the traffic light to change." Every time I visit New York City I try to make a pilgrimage to the New York City Public library on the corner of 42nd Street and 5th Avenue. I stand on the corner and wait for the traffic light to change.
Scott at 2015-03-27 03:15:04:
Awesome. While I'm glad Campbell's ideas have filtered down into the movie business, I regret the way some have try to codify and routinize the Hero's Journey into a sort of formula. Campbell did not see it that way at all. In fact, I have no doubt he would reject those who bastardize his theories like that. He believed in the organic nature of stories. Formulas are the opposite of that. Long live Joseph Campbell. Death to story formulas!