Bill MoyersReseñas

The national bestseller, now available in a non-illustrated, standard format paperback edition The Power of Myth launched an extraordinary resurgence of interest in Joseph Campbell and his work. A preeminent scholar, writer, and teacher, he has had a profound influence on millions of people--including Star Wars creator George Lucas. To Campbell, mythology was the "song of the universe, the music of the spheres." With Bill Moyers, one of America's most prominent journalists, as his thoughtful and engaging interviewer, The Power of Myth touches on subjects from modern marriage to virgin births, from Jesus to John Lennon, offering a brilliant combination of intelligence and wit. This extraordinary book reveals how the themes and symbols of ancient narratives continue to bring meaning to birth, death, love, and war. From stories of the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece and Rome to traditions of Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity, a broad array of themes are considered that together identify the universality of human experience across time and culture. An impeccable match of interviewer and subject, a timeless distillation of Campbell's work, The Power of Myth continues to exert a profound influence on our culture.

The national bestseller, now available in a non-illustrated, standard format paperback edition The Power of Myth launched an extraordinary resurgence of interest in Joseph Campbell and his work. A preeminent scholar, writer, and teacher, he has had a profound influence on millions of people--including Star Wars creator George Lucas. To Campbell, mythology was the "song of the universe, the music of the spheres." With Bill Moyers, one of America's most prominent journalists, as his thoughtful and engaging interviewer, The Power of Myth touches on subjects from modern marriage to virgin births, from Jesus to John Lennon, offering a brilliant combination of intelligence and wit. This extraordinary book reveals how the themes and symbols of ancient narratives continue to bring meaning to birth, death, love, and war. From stories of the gods and goddesses of ancient Greece and Rome to traditions of Buddhism, Hinduism and Christianity, a broad array of themes are considered that together identify the universality of human experience across time and culture. An impeccable match of interviewer and subject, a timeless distillation of Campbell's work, The Power of Myth continues to exert a profound influence on our culture.

Campbell writes well and draws exciting references into his argument. Classical myths power our thinking is his central thesis, and follows through much of his work. The problem is that this thesis is never really subjected to a rigorous test. And as such this simple general view of myth powering all thoughts fails to solve explain many of the memetic evolutions we have seen in the last 10 years or so.

I had several problems with this book: The interview transcript format did not work for me, there was too much emphasis on Christianity and Star Wars, the illustrations seemed tokenistic, and in some curious way, remarks that should have been timeless seemed dated. But I opened this book with purpose and in some respects, I found the wisdom I was looking for. I had recently returned from an ancient mountain walk in Japan called the Kumano Kodo. I was struck by the number of small shrines to mountain spirits along the way as well as the way sacred space was delineated by gateless tori gates. So I resolved to assemble a shrine to the mountain spirits that surround me, and create a sacred space where I could be open to my feelings of mystery, awe, and humility.

The stages of human development are the same today as they were in ancient times. As a child, you are bought up in a world of discipline, of obedience, and you are dependent on others. All this has to be transcended when you come to maturity, so that you can live not in dependence but in self-responsible authority. If you can’t cross that threshold, you have the basis for neurosis. Then comes the one after you have gained your world, of yielding it – the crisis of dismissal, disengagement. (p.70)

With this comes an awareness that now, as an old man, I disengage from the from the secular dimensions of the world, I am engaging with the spiritual dimensions of my place in it – in nature. .

Moyers: …What does it Mean to have a sacred space? Campbell: This is an absolute necessity for anybody today…This is a place where you can simply experience and bring forth what you are and what you might be. This is the place of creative incubation. At first you may find that nothing happens there. But if you have a sacred place and use it, something eventually will happen. (p.92)

Curiously, Joseph Campbell then asserts that there are no longer any sacred spaces.

Moyers: Where are the sacred places today? Campbell: They don’t exist. (p.94)

PBS Series in print. Talks with 38 theological "experts"

When I was in the tolerant-Christian-zone, I didn’t ‘get’ Joseph, so to speak. It’s hard to put my finger on one thing; it was just hard to see him as ‘everything’ which is I guess what I preferred when I was a tolerant-Christian. Joseph Campbell isn’t for everybody. Obviously the harmful robots don’t like him, although that never bothered me. His example of a beautiful non-Western cultural experience is visiting Japan or whatever, not going to see a blues band or a Mayan shaman; that’s his choice. He is very respectful but he’s not a Christian. He talks about conversing with a Catholic priest and saying, No, Father, I don’t believe in a personal God. He doesn’t wrastle with him about how God is a tyrant and getting back that he’s a loving tyrant and having it be yes he is no he isn’t yes he is. He just sees the personal God as not being his belief. I once thought of that personal-universal God as being fun and reliable, but now I can appreciate Joseph feeling that it’s a tyranny and I feel similarly. I also wondered at Joseph talking so much about the mythological—the personal—but not putting faith in a personal God, but now I guess he feels that no single face of the hero’s thousand faces is the Ultimate Face, you know. I have come to agree with him about that. I feel actually that the personal-yet-universal, the particular-yet-absolute, god is one of the great misconceptions of our times. Really, it’s one or the other. The Gnostics love the Absolute Impersonal God and ignore the personal god. The bhaktas worship the personal Krishna or whoever and don’t need to see beyond. You can go from closer to one end of the spectrum to closer to another end, like Joseph, usually talking about stories (basically a phenomenon of the relative), and occasionally mentioning what lies beyond. You can travel from New York to LA. But unless you’re so absolute that you’re everywhere or nowhere—and here I’m saying in this metaphor it’s as though relative and absolute were different cities—you can’t be both in Beverley Hills and the Upper East Side. Maybe you can’t even be both primarily an Angeleno and a New Yorker, you know. (Of course, the metaphor breaks down in that both cities are far more similar than say Shankara and Ramanuja, but in the popular speech they’re the bookends of America, so just go with it, okay.)

from his PBS show

Conversations with 34 poets about their works and life

companion to public tv series

After watching Moyer's series on TV, there is no way I would not buy the book. It is a great best-of collection of, mostly, 20c poets, mostly ones accessible to non-specialists like me.

Flawed and opinionated though it may be, Campbell's book was a real impetus for thinking about story and myth.

It was interesting, and full of information, but at the same time, I don’t really know what it’s overall message was. It seemed vaguely religious, but I couldn’t tell if it was pro religion or anti religion. Maybe I missed something, but I’m not sure.

Excellent reference book and Joseph Campbell keeps your interest, bringing some new things to consider when reading fiction fantasy books.

Professor Campell leaves the reader wanting a more profound insight regarding the human person's social, anthropological, and religious need for myth; instead we are left with, well, to use one of his anecdotes: "We don't have a Philosophy, or a Theology... we dance."

And dance he does.

Campbell jumps from one myth to another; dwelling in the fact of its existence and never going beyond to study its meaning, relevance, depth, or "power," making his bias towards Buddhism unblushingly obvious and uninteresting.

This work shows a surprising lack of objectivity coming from an academic. It is not so much a study of myth, the phenomenon, as a presentation of mostly Eastern myths infused with Buddhist world-views

“Myths are stories of our search through the ages for truth, for meaning, for significance.”

Joseph Campbell’s views on mythology were presented in a six-part series on the Public Broadcasting System in 1988. I have not seen it. I was curious to find out more about what he said. This book is structured as an interview, with Bill Moyer asking questions or making statements, and Campbell responding.

Campbell’s ideas portray the role of myths in human societies and identify the ways that the diverse religions of the world utilize core beliefs and stories that are quite similar. They have provided a basis by which modern humans can compare experiences to people in the past. Campbell emphasizes common elements such as compassion. He advocates a metaphorical approach to religion. His explains what lies behind his advice to “follow your bliss.” Some of the most impactful segments are observations about how myths have broken down in our current culture. It emphasizes how much people have in common regardless of our time or location.

“It’s important to live life with the experience, and therefore the knowledge, of its mystery and of your own mystery. This gives life a new radiance, a new harmony, a new splendor. Thinking in mythological terms helps to put you in accord with the inevitables of this vale of tears. You learn to recognize the positive values in what appear to be the negative moments and aspects of your life. The big question is whether you are going to be able to say a hearty yes to your adventure.”

Super interesting and worth forming into a book club and re-reading

Série muito simpática de entrevistas para televisão, onde Campbell mostra-se a figura midiática do sábio que eu tomo por ser, e certamente faz lembrar-me de meu vô Azauri, que tentou instilar algum amor por mitologia em mim, na infância (ser ateu parece, em ambos os casos, algo que abre para a verdadeira fascinação pela mitologia). De resto, é um conteúdo fácil, mas prazenteiro - há nos mitos representações, mensagens, simbolismos que refletem nossa vida inconsciente, que preparam as sociedades para as belezas e sofrimentos da vida e lidam com os anseios do homem em sua universalidade (na sua estrutura corporal e mental profunda). Nisso, certamente é generalista e provavelmente pouco rigoroso. É o preço que se paga, entretanto, pra sorrir com o velhote.

Livro emprestado pela biblioteca da fábrica de cultura Cidade Tiradentes em 15/09/21

There's a great deal of hope in this interview, and a great deal to fascinate and intrigue those who are open to the myths and not distracted by the particulars. There's elements of Truth in every myth

This first volume is almost a summary of the Hero With 1000 Faces. Worth a listen.

I can honestly and confidently say that I LOVE Joseph Campbell’s work. He is such an interesting person, and I feel like I have learned a lot about mythology on the whole from him and his work. I makes me sad that I won’t be able to meet him and have a conversation with him, but this interview (and the televised version that I have access to via Netflix) will have to do.

A good overview of the collected works of Joseph Campbell. If you are interested in comparative mythology and comparative religion, this old interview with Bill Moyers distills much of his work into small, high quality, manageable chunks.

Campbell and Moyers explore Campbell’s ideas and understanding. Individuals are all on a quest to understand themselves.
A lot of what can be called comparative religion, and a lot of reflection on similarities.
Campbell’s friendship with Carl Jung and James Joyce is discussed.
The limitation of using language to discuss or explain spirituality is noted.

Campbell looks upon religion and myth as metaphors.

He looks At individual lives less as having purpose than being processes.

A fundamental question "The Power of Myth" doesn't confront is the existence of a creator. Campbell doesn't seem to think so. His take is that people come up with their own meanings, create stories to relay them to the group and use these stories to define themselves. Instead, I don't think humans are the pinnacle of knowledge but that our inner spirits have an inborn knowledge of a Creator who has communicated with earthlings throughout our history and we use those teachings to try to understand ourselves and our purpose. In my estimation, Campbell skips over this and seems to imagine myths as a brilliant human invention that's used to keep us in our separate tribes of meaning. He sees myths as the creators rather than the creation of religions and talks about Christian myth, for example, as not based in other-worldly teachings but rather as a result of some tribes' desires. In short, the "hero's journey" is good to know about, but I think it has deeper meaning than what he ascribes to it. He thinks that society has lost its glue because we aren't learning our common myths rather than we aren't learning the true purpose of the one common faith of humankind that teaches us, among other virtues, to do unto others and love each other.

I tried listening to the audiobook and I just couldn’t focus on it. Campbell sounds like he was a great teacher, but I’m apparently not interested in his lessons.