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(More customer reviews)This is the edited version of the hundreds of rolls of tapes that Bill Moyers shot of his long socratean dialogues with Joseph Campbell shortly before Joseph Campbell's death in 1987.
The entire collection is split up into six succinct subject-sequences where Moyers and his editor took different parts of the dialogues and organized them together thematically. The Hero's Adventure talks about the existence of the idea of the hero in lots of cultures and what role he or she plays in its mythology. The Message of the Myth talks more about the Jungian idea of the existence of archtypes of the collective unconscious and the metaphorical implications of many well-known myths from various cultures. The First Storytellers talks about the way environment and the basic necessities of everyday life affects the way the earlier hunting and gathering cultures created much of their mythologies and how they came to terms with the way they had to survive through the use of myths. Sacrifice and Bliss talks about the changes that came over different cultures when they changed from herding cultures to aggrarian cultures and how they changed their mythologies to suit their new ways of living and also the importance of the idea of the "here and now"; how heaven and nirvana and things of that sort are not physical places but a metaphorical place within your metaphorical heart and that "bliss" is only to be found in the present as you live your own life in the here and the in the now. Love and the Goddess talks about the idea of person to person love (as opposed to a more spiritual brotherly "Agape" love that for instance Jesus supposedly talked about in such aphorisms as Love thy neighbor/enemy); and how that idea altered the way European cultures thought about arranged marriages and Roman Catholic Society mores in general; and also about Love in general which is Campbell's favorite subject; and also about the idea of the Goddess and the role of woman in many of the world's mythologies and various metaphors that exist that symbolize the Woman's power to give birth and what implications these metaphors have on the here and now. Masks of Eternity talks about the idea of God both the idea of the Personal God (or the vastness of the universe and life given humanized form) and the impersonal god (or the idea that the universe and life has no containable form and that its vastness and all-inclusiveness precludes any kind of mere mortal understanding).
Moyers prepared for these dialogues by reading every one of Campbell's books and the questions he asks can be fairly simplistic at times but at the same time apt and knowledgeable (he asks questions of him and Campbell answers; as a student would quiz a guru in a dialogue from an eastern culture). Campbell is very knowledgeable about many kinds of mythology and religion and answers him back every time with intelligent amusing and interesting anecdotes, countless memorized recitations, verses and many pointed professorial questions which make Moyers pause and think and in the end helps him and the viewer/reader to understand a lot of what he's talking about much better. It's not light viewing/reading I warn you; but with several viewings/readings you will get to understand many of the things that connect you to the human race and the universe and see how tragically pitiful we mere mortals really are in our blind groping for meaning in the face of the unfathomable beauty and mystery of Life (not the milton bradley game).
Click Here to see more reviews about: Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth (1988)
An exhilarating journey into the mind and spirit of a remarkable man, a legendary teacher, and a masterful storyteller, conducted by TV journalist Bill Moyers in the acclaimed PBS series. Includes The Hero's Adventure, The Message of the Myth, The First Storytellers, Sacrifice and Bliss, Love and the Goddess, Masks of Eternity. 360 minutes.
Click here for more information about Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth (1988)
