[Stephen Gerringer]

Shaheda,

I apologize to you and Norland for being out of the loop; I’ve been dealing with technological issues that, ultimately, required purchasing a new computer (I’m typing this on my old one, which is on fumes – might be knocked offline for another day or so as I figure out how to migrate data from the old machine to the new).

Thank you for your appreciation (though I can’t take complete credit for the email “reminder” – that’s a function of the forums plug-in: I have been enjoying yours, Nandu’s, and Captsunshine’s comments in the thread on The Ripening Outcast, which began back in July as a discussion dedicated to an earlier  MythBlast essay by Dr. Téllez – it is satisfying to see that conversation still in play well over four months later – so I thought I’d let alert participants in a post that Norland had a published a new MythBlast essay; the email was an automatic notification of a new comment in that conversation).

Unfortunately, I’m sorry to report that Joseph Campbell did not say, “Where there is crime, there is life, and where there is life, there is crime.” If you can track down a source, we’ll glad change that position, but as it stands, it doesn’t sound like something Joe would say  (“crime” is a legal construct – mammals, birds, reptiles, fish, mollusks, etc. are not bound by human law and so cannot commit crimes).

What you may have heard could have been closer to “Where there is killing, there is life, and where there is life, there is killing” – a very different emphasis. Though I don’t find a source for this statement either, that phrasing seems much more in sync with points Campbell did make.