The Power of Myth

by Joseph Campbell with Bill Moyers

Rating: 3.7/5

I came to know about Joseph Campbell through one post of Steven Pressfield which was about the Hero’s journey. This Hero’s Journey has been the structure of many contemporary hollywood & of course bollywood movies- that’s what made it enticing. I wanted to learn it & understand the importance of it. So, i bought this book & started unraveling the power of myth in our lives. Joseph Campbell has studied the bouquet of myths from all around the world & he saw the connections between them. Just like the way we are discovering now and similar to the importance of every event or occasion in the Indian(not specifically Vedic) way of life. He has clarified the role myths play in our life. I was getting wary of all the rituals but after reading this, i have a change in perception.

The book is the conversation between Bil Moyers & Campbell from a PBS series on Myths. Moyers poses his questions to Campbell & then the explanation given by him with Moyers supplementing & complementing his views, gives the book its form. It is divide into eight sections- starting with Myth & the modern world. The journey inwards, first storytellers, sacrifice & bliss, Hero’s adventure, Gift of Goddess, Tales of love & marriage follows with Masks of eternity ending the conversation.

The first section on Modern World impacted most on my current beliefs. The major point i took was that in modern world everything has been made so scientific & easy to do without any hassle that the importance of any occasion has diluted. An individual doesn’t realises when he has entered the next stage. Earlier, it was done through social rituals which are mythological rites. How one child knows that he has become an adult? The other points about conservative religion or attitude calling for old-time and by-doing that they are throwing oneself out of sync with history. Also how there has been increase use of LSDs to experience some mystism which has cropped up due to lack of relevant myths which could have directed them. This section paced me into the book further & had many more connections with contemporary trends & mythology.

Journey inward section had the focal point of finding ones inner self or the soul.The mythologies metaphoric  in a poetic manner not in physical or logical manner.The basic functions of mythology – mystical,cosmological, sociological & pedagogical. This plus the next teo sections had more or less tint of Indian mystic or spritual ideas of myths & rituals. Hero’s adventure was also similar to Kundalini Jagaran of Yogic culture.Campbell showed how the myths & stories have been telling the same stories all around the world.Like the story of essence of life as eating of itself –  Life lives on Life. The hero is the soul again connecting to the unknown-known energy of the existence. Gift of Goddess is underlines how the concept of a superior maternal productive power gave to the male-dominated culture & myth. Love & Marriage and the dichotomies they put a person into is the theme of the next section. ( I lack understanding in this field so probably later i’ll get it). Finally Campbell & Moyers discuss how to connect to this eternal center of the world. Campbell suggests that ‘ Follow your Bliss’ is a way to achieve it in current era.

 I loved how the conversation went & Campbell was putting forth various stories or myths right from African tribes to American Indians to Europeans to Oriental. Campbell has influence of Jung in his explanations whenever subject of unconscious occurs. Campbell being brought up in Christian culture have critiqued the Christian mythology in comparison to myths of other cultures. The idea he put forth of ‘Need for a global myth today which encompasses the planet – is what we are observing now in various movements all around the world. According to him this new myths will be bought about by the artists(don’t limit your idea of artists here – anyone can be a one). There are many more ideas & thoughts i took from this book, it complemented my interest in the Indian mythology & contemporary India. Better to read this book & find out yourself – i think there is something for everyone in it. One suggestion though take it with open mind without any prejudices of your own. I will end this review with few lines from the book:

“Myth is the public dream and the dream is the private myth”

“When the world changes, then the religion has to be transformed”

“Unlike theology, Mythology is poetry & the poetic language is very flexible”

Aarigato.

(S)Trolling the Book Fair

Today I went to Kolkata Book Fair 2012 – excessively crowded with books & people, most of whom(people) were there to have a stroll or picnic with friends & family.I know most of go to such fairs for that purpose only & its fun.Around 12 yr ago when I was in Kolkata & went to such a Book Fair, I thought *Gosh* so many people like reading books.I would have preferred to play games or watch cartoon that time(i still prefer that).Even when I was reading course book or doing homework I used to watch Cartoon Network – I was a multitasker…LOL
Today I observed something else, I observed the similarity in the behaviour of people trolling the websites which provide free content and the people (s)trolling in an Open Entry Book Fair.

Virtual Trollers are similar to our Physical (S)Trollers.

Out of all the users and contributors of an open content website(like Wikipedia) only 30%(not actual data) of people contribute back to the site.Most people only use the content and don’t care much to contribute back to the website(even if they use that site most of the time).Comparing the effort one user/contributor will put back into the website content with that to the expenditure on buying books, the open entry book fair was just like Wikipedia.As to a user ,with a computer & net connection, accessing site like Wikipedia is inexpensive;similarly for a middle income family going to a Book Fair situated at one corner of the city is inexpensive.I don’t know whether such type of behaviour is prevalent in every place or just in Kolkata. From a general observation of content people coming out of the Fair carried, in a period of 2 hour, it seems most people were there to have fun & do some window shopping.People were sitting everywhere having *moodhi* , tea & coffee like it was a picnic garden.There were students from college having fun & couples(envy & frustration for me) wandering around and enjoying the fair.I thought at least in a Book Fair people interested in Books would come, i mean i never perceived “A picnic Book Fair”.Got 2 new perspective now, “fairs of any-type can be fun” and also “I need open and quit place to buy books”(can’t check any book in chaotic environment).

Apart from that, I was amazed to find an equivalent physical system already in place which resembles a virtual system.Being interested in open source – free – decentralized physical system which is based on such virtual system – it was enlightening. In future, if I get any chance to do research on that topic – I would surely consider this type of open to public fairs to understand the people behaviour & efficiency of such structure.

Faltu Fundae

Have you read the ” Lockhart’s Lament ” ? The argument he put there was hard on point with the new approaches to education. Making Study a Fun time.

What does that actually mean ? Does this mean that you take the idea of having fun( enjoying, playing & taking pleasure) & fuse it with study ? Does that actually feeds the purpose of making education interesting ? I mean learning maths & science by singing jingles & watching cartoons actually makes the subjects interesting. You know i am a movie lover & an animation junkie, but its not like any movie without animation is tasteless or not exciting Or that every animation movie is awesome. I have seen some animation movies with stodgy story lines & some regular movies with amazing story. What makes a movie is the story & storytelling capability.With fusing the fun erroneously with subjects, most of the time the spirit of the matter dies. Making study a fun time needs to capture the students mind.Inspire & engage them with the subject matter. Then only the subjects get easy moving & learning happens & in the process it might generate some amazing results.(atleast that’s what i think).

” Fun in subject = Andar ki baat hai…….bahar kitna bhi decoration kar lo”

The story of Chiemagauer demonstrates that point aptly. The economic professor,Christian Gelleri, of 16yr old gave a project to his students  on money system to teach them the value & working of money.The name of the currency they used for this was named Chiemagauer.That project got so popular that it is now working as a alternate money system in Germany.It keeps the money in the locality where it is generated & works like the real euro.It has given some boost to the German economy with the hovering financial crisis in europe.Read about it in detail here.

All this brooding on education got me thinking over the farm exodus to metros/urban areas.So many people(don’t ask why i didn’t put poor there) on loose migration, always moving from one city to other.The choice of people or the force on them to live from cities.What are the reasons.Its desirable to have the major share of people living in cities.But it should be at least living not surviving.When i see with the education perspective, it raises some questions to me. Will an educated person be willing to work on a farm – tilling,irrigating & harvesting the produce ?  What is the problem with  College graduates working o1n a Farm ? Is it that only the uneducated & poor people should be made to work on farms ?

” Kamar to tootni hi hai kaam kar ke, chahe garmi me Zameen jot ke toote ya A/c me Code tod ke toote” 

I mean we want to educate every citizen of the country.At a point in future there may be a state where most of the people are educated, then the educated have to work in farms & agricultural jobs. You can’t make a machine or write a code so that you can do the farming siting on your chair (Its not farmville ). If by some good policy implementations we achieve our Sarv Shiksha Mission than 15-20 yr later our kids might have to work in the fields, if we see the job as low-level than who will generate the food.So there should be cultivation of attitude in people for these agri-jobs as on-par with the IT-job or Bank job. There has to be a respect for the labour jobs.This point as to be understood by the educated persons.The idea of the inverted pyramid structure of Service,Manufacturing & Primary sectors is a good & valid point; but there will arise the point of educated people doing labour jobs.(Then there will be point of educational cost which may outweigh the earning/salary).

P.S – I don’t differentiate the IT work sitting in A/c working there ass off with the labour work. They are still doing the bonded labours kind of work.As Chetan Bhagat said on the comment of NRN MRTHY that IT industry are like the cattle farms only. I think the Financial industry is the same.