“Taken from the PBS series interview, this book concentrates all of Campbell's many thoughts into one book. He uses the ideas of the hero, happiness, personal evolution, and so on in order to discuss how prevalent myths are in modern culture. I was shocked to learn about how closely us atheists are to Jesus Christ; how Christians apply so many of the Buddhist principles to their beliefs; how myths and stories pervade everything around us. The books discusses everything from the way we organize our architecture, all the way to metaphorical death and rebirth.
Someday, I hope to see another cultural anthropologist apply these ideas to our contemporary, American ways of living; sometimes, I feel we have abandoned principles of self-transformation. Reading this book is truly revelatory, and one can easily reform Campbell's arguments to his or her own universe. It is only a matter of recontextualizing them more a more modern, specified look on things.
I wish he would never have died.”
Anjulie R wrote this review Friday, July 31, 2009.
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