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Bashing Joseph Campbell: Is He Now the Hero of a Thousand Spaces?

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Bashing Joseph Campbell: Is He Now the Hero of a Thousand Spaces? Volume 18 Number 1 Article 9 Fall 10-15-1991 Bashing Joseph Campbell: Is He Now the Hero of a Thousand Spaces? Coralee Grebe Follow this and additional works at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore Part of the Children's and Young Adult Literature Commons Recommended Citation Grebe, Coralee (1991) "Bashing Joseph Campbell: Is He Now the Hero of a Thousand Spaces?," Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: Vol. 18 : No. 1 , Article 9. Available at: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol18/iss1/9 This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Mythopoeic Society at SWOSU Digital Commons. It has been accepted for inclusion in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature by an authorized editor of SWOSU Digital Commons. An ADA compliant document is available upon request. For more information, please contact [email protected]. To join the Mythopoeic Society go to: http://www.mythsoc.org/join.htm Mythcon 51: A VIRTUAL “HALFLING” MYTHCON July 31 - August 1, 2021 (Saturday and Sunday) http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-51.htm Mythcon 52: The Mythic, the Fantastic, and the Alien Albuquerque, New Mexico; July 29 - August 1, 2022 http://www.mythsoc.org/mythcon/mythcon-52.htm Abstract Defends Joseph Campbell against recent attacks on his scholarship and personal beliefs. Additional Keywords Campbell, Joseph; Campbell, Joseph—Theory of the monomyth; Campbell, Joseph. The Hero with a Thousand Faces This article is available in Mythlore: A Journal of J.R.R. Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Charles Williams, and Mythopoeic Literature: https://dc.swosu.edu/mythlore/vol18/iss1/9 Page 50 Issue 67 - Autumn 1991 CPyTHLORC ]® THlc Narn rhe THIcro oF a Thousand Spaces? CoRalee (qRe&e ince Brendan Gill's critique of Joseph Campbell ap­ disciplines, he was difficult to categorize as a standard Speared in the September 28, 1989 New York Review o f mythologist, anthropologist, psychologist or literary Books,1 it seems that students, critics and even passersby analyst. As a result, some scholars in those fields felt that have an opinion on Campbell's character, work and Campbell did not live up to their respective canons. Not scholarship. Gill's accusations that Campbell was a racist, much time was spent pursuing these points, however, an anti-semite, a sexist and that his scholarship is pablum, because of the small audience affected by Campbell's have found both friends and foes. Some have shot writings. Campbell's reputation so full of holes that he could be Many of these academic issues are raised by Robert referred to as the "Hero of a Thousand Spaces." Segal in the April 4,1990 issue of the Christian Century2 and Unlike Gill, I never met Campbell, and can offer no in his book Joseph Campbell: An Introduction? Segal voices opinion on his personal life. I know him only through his both his appreciation of Campbell's romance with myth, writings and public appearances, and dare say that the and his criticism of Campbell's methods. He calls same is true for most people who recognize Joseph Campbell an "evangelist for m yth" in both the most posi­ Campbell's name. Though it may be a disadvantage to tive and negative connotations of that term. Among other have never had the veil of Campbell's personality through faults, Segal notes that Campbell rarely analyzes an entire which to interpret his work, it is also an advantage in myth, and is dogmatic about his own interpretations of evaluating his ideas without bias. myth, especially as to its functions. Segal also observes that Campbell doesn't acknowledge other theorists in his field, Perhaps a personal anecdote would best illustrate this and discusses only the similarities of myths rather than point. In college, I had known a professor only through his their differences. lectures and publications. Later, when I met him, he who had seemed a sage had much more of the taste of mace Segal is correct in these observations. It was rarely about him. I had invented a personality for him based on Campbell's goal to catalog myths the way Sir James Frazer my perception of his work. did. Campbell does define for himself the functions of myth as well as many other concepts he uses in discussing As a culture, we project our own personal images onto his work. It is true that he does not try to explain or justify celebrities. We even elect public officials based on screen these concepts, leaving it to the scrutiny of each reader to persona. Some of this has necessarily transferred to the accept or reject them. This methodology grew out of the intellectual forum which, like most other aspects of our independent scholarship. Campbell developed when he culture, is increasingly televised. abandoned his Ph.D. dissertation to study in the woods of Whenever we have a largely positive outpouring for a New York state. public person, the tabloids and their mud-slinging are Similarly, while others were noting the very obvious never far behind. Today there seems to be a greater accep­ differences between myths, Campbell chose to emphasize tance of this yellow journalism as evidenced by the low­ the more subtle similarities. Segal's article may have ap­ brow TV magazine shows, the deterioration of talk shows p ea red as a result of Gill's diatribe, but Segal's observa­ to shock shows, and biographies like those penned by tions are much closer to the long-standing academic Kitty Kelly. Perhaps even the latest bout of Kennedy bash­ criticisms than to the personal attacks on Campbell made ing and the tarnishing of the Camelot years smack of this by Brendan Gill. same flavor. Brendan Gill's column makes broad reference to It is not surprising therefore that, when Joseph Campbell's racism, sexism and anti-semitism, yet for such Campbell became the superstar of mythology with the PBS serious charges, the article is surprisingly devoid of con­ broadcast of The Power of Myth/ Bill Moyers interviews, his crete examples. Perhaps this was governed by space detractors were not far behind. Previously, Campbell had restrictions, but sentient readers can not help wondering been relatively unknown, except within the academic why such persuasive arguments would be the items left community. Consequently, any previous criticism had unprinted. Gill's assessment of Campbell's character is been directed toward his scholarship. based on meetings at the Century Club in New York Since Campbell's eclectic work bridges many academic which, by Gill's own admission, were essentially debates. C P g T H L O R C Issue 67 - Autumn 1991 Page 51 Gill relates that Campbell delivered a lecture at Sarah in men. So much so in fact that "Follow your bliss" is, in Lawrence on December 13, 1941 entitled "Permanent effect, a warning against pursuing what everyone else Human Values," that argued artists should remain faithful believes you should want, and instead pursuing your own to their art rather than diving into the politics of the deeply felt satisfaction. moment. Campbell apparently sent a copy of this lecture Gill also picks up on the fuzziness of the phrase "Fol­ to Thomas Mann, who at the time, had stepped away from low your bliss." He asks: his writing to fight the rising power of the Nazis. Gill sees this communication with Mann as an indication of For what is this condition of bliss as Campbell has defined Campbell's right-wing politics, and as a sign of support for it? If it is only to do whatever makes one happy, then it sanctions selfishness on a colossal scale— a scale that has Nazism. become deplorably familiar to us in the Reagan and post- A further supposed incidence of anti-semitism is Reagan years. It is a selfishness that is the unspoken . Campbell's preference of Jung over Freud. To quote Gill, rationale of that contemporary army of Wall Street yup­ "[Campbell] despised Freud, and it appeared from our pies, of junk-bond dealers, of takeover lawyers who have come to be among the most conspicuous members of our talks that he did so in large part because of the fact that society. Have they not all been following their bliss?8 Freud was Jewish. He approved highly of Jung and not least because Jung wasn't Jew ish." No. Such specious reasoning in these two arguments dis­ Apparently in his extensive conversations with credit themselves and has earned no further comment. Campbell, and his in-depth research into Campbell's Indeed, one could argue a better case of discrimination ideas, Gill never came across the definition of bliss as against Gill, who from his own line of reasoning, seems to outlined in Campbell's December, 1975 Psychology Today believe that Jewishness or its lack is the only way in which article. Here Campbell discusses the seven levels of one can evaluate a theorist. Kundalini yoga and the purifications of each successive one. It is at this seventh level that the searcher encounters No incident of racism is given in the article, rather only "unconditioned rapture" or "pure bliss." The purpose of the loose remark that Campbell disapproved of the this yoga is to rid oneself of the bonds of materialism, policies of Sarah Lawrence, a politically liberal school including those inherent in the body. It is clear therefore during Campbell's tenure. Presumably there were race-re­ that bliss in not indicative of physical or material fulfill­ lated issues during this time, which we are to assume from ment, but rather a spiritual, transcendental one.
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