[Dennis Slattery]

Thank you so much, Marianne, for your rich response. What I enjoy about it most is the river of associations that it brought up for you. The concrete image of the coat with a lining brought you back to your mother’s dress and the lavendar soap. You have the memento of those moments in the last bar of soap that you treasure. I think that Campbell’s mythodology is analogical and comparative in that his keen imagination senses forms that repeat themselves in literature and mythology and he nurtures them through his writing, always inviting us into the world that he lays out.

I share with you his informal style, his twinkling prose and his keen ability to peel back the layers to show the infrastructure–a word getting a lot of currency today–that supports the whole but is largely invisible, like myths themselves. Much gratitude to you for your rich response