It’s fashionable in academic circles to trash Joseph Campbell. At lunch, a colleague in the middle school mentions she’s read “that book” about myth by Joseph Campbell, and a Humanities rock star from the high school sneers and says “he’s light stuff.” A Great Courses series I purchased about myth has a long intro by the professor about how Joseph Campbell is not really a specialist in mythology, he oversimplifies everything for a popular audience, and if you expect that sort of New Age nonsense then you made a bad decision buying this lecture series. When I taught at Universities as a lowly adjunct I often heard the Full Professors gang up on old Joe C.
Professional jealousy, much?
Joseph Campbell was a professor of literature who happened to think about myth a lot. He used Jungian analytical tools to break down literature, including myths, and to discuss what he found. I think his “Power of Myth” is definitely fluff–but that’s more Bill Moyers’ fault than Campbell’s. When I was a teen, The Masks of God series changed my life. Maybe The Hero With a Thousand Faces is “light stuff.” But is it wrong? Or harmful? No.
And let’s not forget that Joseph Campbell “got” James Joyce and was advocating for Joyce’s genius early. Campbell wrote an excellent Skeleton Key to Finnegan’s Wake, and his lectures about Joyce On Wings of Art are essential. I also highly recommend his discussions of Joyce and Mann.
Academics need to back off their gunning for Joe C. It’s like hipsters who saw The Dude in The Big Lebowski trashing the Eagles, and they trash the Eagles because The Dude is cool and that’s their favorite film while not really ever having heard the band. But the Eagles could write songs, they could sing tight four-0r five part harmony, and they could play their instruments at high levels of proficiency and inventiveness. Likewise, academics who trash Joe Campbell for being “light” are missing out on some great guitar work.
Robert Anton Wilson covers the importance of Campbell in the chat above, which I just discovered yesterday.
Mysterium Coniunctionis 