Monomyth and Joseph Campbell (Hero's Journey)

I do have an old copy of "The Hero with a Thousand Faces" lying about. It is considered a seminal work by many noted scholars and word smiths alike.

In it, Campbell describes the "Hero's Journey". It basically breaks down many of the great stories of the world. He contends that these stories have survived thousands of years, simply because they have a universal, cross-cultural appeal. They strike a chord in us at some basic level. George Lucas was one who obviously used this MonoMyth in "Star Wars"

I've seen several movies deconstructed using this formula including, believe it or not, "Annie Hall".

I'm just in my learning phase in preparation for writing a story and the more groundwork I do now, will make my job easier in the long run. I'm laying a solid foundation first.

So, does anyone in this forum subscribe to this method of understanding story?

The thing that prompted me to start this thread is this:

I remember seeing Bill Moyers sit down with Joseph Campbell in a multi part series on Public TV where they discussed this MonoMyth. ( I know Campbell died in 1987) In this series Campbell was talking about "The World Navel" and "The Crossing of The First Threshold" and all this "stuff" that left me bewildered. But I knew something was true here on a subliminal level... I don't know when this series ran, but it must have been 10 years ago or more.

Second, on my recent journey of discovery on the craft of story telling, I have run into this again.

Myth: [SIZE=-1]a traditional story accepted as history; serves to explain the world view of a people.

Mono: One.

MonoMyth = One Story.




Post Script: dpaterso, thanks for the links. It will do a service to this thread.

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