Heroes Journey

Ok, it wasn't going anywhere anyway (excpet to say that all those authors are in the top ten nost popualr ever... maybe not Isaac Asimov, but then he is the biggest seeling sci-fi guy ever...)

An interesting point to note, thouygh, is that whether Campbell was right or not, his theories have been given 'retroactive' (as it were) credence by its supporters re-inforcing this.

Star Wars is the biggest and most perfect example. Even if the Hero's Journey WASN'T something as engrained as he suggested, Star Wars has now become such a basic piece of storytelling (and is so based on his work) that these parts of Campbell's ideas ARE a very much a part of modern day culture. You cannot write a sci-fi or fantasy story without it being in some way comparied to Star Wars.

Just goes to show...

I was watching a documentry on The Shawshank Redemption last night and the writer/ director, Frank Darabont said that the Tim Robbins character was a "Joseph Campbell, mythical hero type, that came in and changed everything".

Post-Campbell hero, more like.

What does that mean?

Well, look at SR. The hero there is, in no way, a Camplbell type.

But since Campbell defined the hero idea, there have been a lot of people playing around with that idea, taking different looks at what a hero really is.

Post-Campbell heros aren't like the ones from the past. Star Wars is against the grain, really, hence its retro value.

Well Darabont himself said he was.

But what exactly did he mean by that? Andy clearly is not a traditional Campbell hero is he? So I guess he was talking more conceptually than meaning it was a direct Campbell-based tale. Hence post-Campbell.

They were talking about why SR is so popular and why Andy Dufraine(spe) was so liked and Darabont said "he's a Joseph Campbell mythical hero type". He was saying that was why the people in the film were so drawn to him.He then went on to make religious referances which I never thought of before but were quite interesting.

Yeah, there was always this religious sub-text. But as I say, he is not a traditional Campbell tye, and it;s CERTAINLY not a Campbell-type story...

I never noticed the religious connotaitions before. Like the dinner table scene where he's telling them all about hope. It's like the other inmates were his deciples.

The main image for SR was him in the position of the cross, and so on, but yes, it was very subtle stuff.