[Shaahayda Rizvi]

James

Thank you for your very generous and comprehensive answer to my question, which was about Vogler’s analysis of the Hero’s journey – 17 steps vs. 12.  You write, “Nothing wrong with Vogler’s approach concerning story telling; but each individual has their own unique life course; and Joseph’s point about the individual’s ability to respond to whatever life throws at them does not follow a sequence pattern in this regard. Yes; these are elements involved within this alchemical process and the validity of these aspects run true”  Yes indeed James. Wonder if you would have time to write all this and a bit more in the comments to Hannah Yang?  Her website is Hannahyang.com

Additionally, my complaint was that there are so many new experts on the internet, who are analyzing the various stages of Joe’s Hero’s Journey, but, I find these articles lack accuracy, they distort information, for example, there was one that referred to Joe Campbell, as ‘gender biased’ before proceeding to describe the hero’s journey. And all this while using his scholarship to enhance their particular work. Can JCF do something about it?  I agree Policing the internet is not possible even for mega high techs like Google, so yes, Stephen can not police them, but maybe ask these writers for their credentials. They are surely not on JCF website, nor do they contribute to the mythblast. There are at least two articles per day on the topic. People like Vogler, who have benefitted from Joe’s work, should at least contribute to the foundation.

All through his life, Joe edited books, and papers of other scholars for nothing, and I recall reading somewhere that he was finally getting tired of that, although when Marija Gimbutas asked him to write a foreword to her book, he immediately set aside his projects, and wrote a magnificent foreword.

So at least now, we have a foundation and its members standing up for him. Today’s article on the net was by Hannah Yang. Among other things, she cited two criticisms of the hero’s journey  a) reduces the world to simple binary choices. Good vs. Evil; Us vs. Other; Victory vs. False etc. She then writes, if all stories followed this layout of the journey, writers would not be able to express a nuanced perspective? Huh? I am not sure what she is trying to say here. b) that it favors male protagonist.

Yes, I have heard a good deal on point b, but not much on Joe Campbell reducing the world to binary choices. Have you, James, Stephen, Sunbug, Rcubed and Mars?

Moreover what irks me are statements such as, (Joseph Campbell is saying just what Freud and Jung said). What about Joe’s original work?  — THE HISTORICAL DEVELOPMENT OF MYTHOLOGY. Neither Jung nor Freud wrote on that.

Well, there’s more reason to be irked but that would mar the reason for writing this, which is how best to address this issue?

Shaahayda