The Hero's Journey - Joseph Campbell (on his life and work)

 Joseph Campbell's book is often cited to understand the essence of script writing. He is considered one of the greatest mythologists of the twentieth century and certainly one of our greatest story tellers. This book however is a series of interviews between Campbell and some of those he inspired - poets, rock stars, writers and so on.

Campbell's journey is interesting. He spent almost all his life teaching at a girl's college in the US and moved to Hawaii at some point (or did he frequently vacation there?) Much of the conversations are centred around his book 'The Hero with a Thousand Faces' which I propose to read soon as some loving soul gifts it to me. Of course the book starts with 'The Call to Adventure'. To quote Campbell - 'The Call to adventure signifies that destiny has summoned the hero and transferred his spiritual center of gravity within the pale of this society to a zone unknown. This fateful region...is always a place of strangely polymorphous beings, unimaginable torments, superhuman deeds and impossible delights'

Campbell was an athlete of repute, was part of a music band, went to Europe and perhaps to India later because he learned Sanskrit and then went deep into the vedas, yoga and all sorts of stuff. 

'The secret of art is love...Art brings out the grand lines of nature.' - Antoinne Bourdelle

'What is it that we are questing for? It is the fulfillment of that which is potential in each of us. Questing for it is not an ego trip; it is an adventure to bring into fulfillment your gift to the world, which is yourself.' - Joseph Campbell

'If you are gong to describe a person as an artist, you must describe the person with ruthless objectivity. It is the imperfections that identify them. It is the imperfections that ask for our love.' - JC, Pathways to Bliss

JC describes his writing and how he went about it - 'you can get a lot of work done if you just stay with it and are excited and its play instead of work. I would write one book in the morning, one in the afternoon and one in the evening. There were three things going on at the same time.'

'Our highest god is our highest obstruction. It represents the consummation of the highest thoughts and feelings that you can have. Go past that.'  - JC

'Mythology is an organisation of symbolic images and narratives metaphorical of the possibilities and fulfillment in a given culture in a given time. Mythology is a metaphor. God, angels, purgatory, these are metaphors.'

The conversations are delightful and easy to read. Joseph Campbell comes across as a kind, loving, wonder struck person who is in wonder with the world around him. I liked the Indian connection, the Sanskrit connection, the vedas and the connect to the Orient. But mostly he comes across as a normal person, one who is looking at himself and his journey with wonder. Thank you so much for the gift. It's precious.