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Joseph
Campbell, who was born 100 years ago this Friday, is best
known for his gentle admonition to "Follow your bliss."
But
since that three-word phrase has been widely misinterpreted,
it is perhaps better to celebrate the birthday of the master
mythologist with a different quote.
"The
latest incarnation of Oedipus, the continued romance of Beauty
and the Beast," he wrote, "stands this afternoon
on the corner of 42nd Street and Fifth Avenue, waiting for
the light to change." That
sidewalk scene embodies the essence of Joseph Campbell. As
he gazed out of the window of his modest Manhattan apartment,
he saw myths everywhere, playing themselves out through the
lives of everyday people. Thanks to his engaging personality
and graceful writing, millions of others began to see them,
too.
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| Librarian
Richard Buchen takes care of the Joseph Campbell Library
at the Pacifica Graduate Institute in Carpinteria. |
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Mr. Campbell,
whose personal library is housed at Pacifica Graduate Institute
in Carpinteria, was a true rarity: an academic who connected
with the public, and a rigorous scholar who was comfortable
exploring the realm of mysticism. Through his books, television
appearances and the movies that were inspired by his scholarship
-- does anyone remember a 1977 art-house hit called "Star
Wars"? -- he transformed mythology from a musty academic
pursuit into a popular path leading to a richer understanding
of ourselves and our world.
Myths,
he informed us, are not old and dead, but alive and vital.
Through them, we learn the norms of our culture, obtain valuable
clues as to how to navigate our way through life, and -- if
we are open to seeing it -- even get a glimpse of the divine.
"He
brought mythology into the public arena," said Richard
Hecht, a professor of religious studies at UCSB who was thrilled
to have Mr. Campbell as a guest lecturer in the early 1980s.
"He believed it was very important as a form of orientation
to the world, a way to explore the big questions of meaning
like "Who am I?' and 'Where am I going?' "
"He
showed us that the old stories apply to contemporary living,"
added psychologist Jonathan Young, who served as Mr. Campbell's
assistant on a number of visits to Santa Barbara. "He
would tell a tale from thousands of years ago and make it
clear that it is about our own lives, our own times."
Born
outside New York City on March 26, 1904, Joseph Campbell's
introduction to rituals and symbolism occurred in the Catholic
Church, where he served as an altar boy. Fascinated by the
Buffalo Bill Wild West Show at Madison Square Garden, he spent
much of his boyhood reading books about American Indians.
In a sense, his cross-cultural studies of mythology had already
begun. After earning degrees in English and medieval literature
from Columbia University, Mr. Campbell spent a year in Paris,
where he became intensely interested in the novels of James
Joyce. He approached and ultimately befriended Joyce's publisher,
Sylvia Beach, who explained to him the novelist's idea of
the "monomyth."
That
concept -- that there is a single, overarching story that
every human being lives out, regardless of race, status or
culture -- would prove critical in Mr. Campbell's thinking.
After a year in Munich, where he read Freud and Jung, and
a visit to California, where he met John Steinbeck, Mr. Campbell
returned to New York and began a 38-year stint as a professor
of literature at Sarah Lawrence College.
"His
students were all women, and he discovered early on that to
appeal only to the intellect, he was losing half his class,"
said Steven Aizenstat, president of Pacifica Graduate Institute
and a longtime friend. "Not that the women weren't intellectual;
it's just that they were interested in the relationship between
what these mythologies of ancient cultures and the actuality
of their lives. That's when he really started to shape his
material into what he later called the 'myths we live by.'
"
That
material found its definite form in his 1949 best seller,
"The Hero With A Thousand Faces."
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Joseph
Campbell, found underlining passages a form of meditation,
and he also took careful notes in the margins, as seen
in the book, part of the Pacifica Graduate Institute's
Joseph Campbell Library.
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Using
James Joyce's idea of the monomyth and anthropologist Arnold
van Gennep's outline of rites of passage, he recounted what
he called the "hero's journey" myth -- a tale of
triumph and transformation that can be found in literally
every culture on earth.
Mr. Campbell
did not restrict the term "hero" to warrior or lifesaver;
he used it to describe anyone who had the courage to follow
his or her calling, obtain the necessary knowledge and skills,
and then use that wisdom and experience for the benefit of
his or her people. For him, slaying the dragon or other monster
-- a regular feature of these stories -- was symbolic of overcoming
the self-centered demands of the ego.
Mr. Campbell's
concept of the hero's journey intrigued film director George
Lucas, who used it as the foundation of his original "Star
Wars" trilogy. As Mr. Young points out, Luke Skywalker
is on what Mr. Campbell called "an initiatory quest"
-- a dangerous journey on which he is forced to face his own
dark side and learn how to align himself with the wisdom of
the universe, which Mr. Lucas called "the force."
"I
remember him telling me that there was a young filmmaker up
the coast who was a fan of his books and wanted to talk to
him," Mr. Aizenstat recalled. "He wanted to know
what I thought. I had seen (the early Lucas film) 'THX 1138'
in college, and I said, 'He's done some really great work.'
He said, 'Well, I'm going to go up and talk with him.' "
Mr. Campbell's
own hero's journey consisted of a two-part quest: to compare,
contrast and examine the similarities in the myths of many
cultures; and to explain to the public how myths function
and why they are important. This dual role of scholar and
popularizer led, not surprisingly, to some professional jealousy.
Some colleagues complained that he was distorting and oversimplifying
material in order to prove his thesis. Others disliked his
interpretations of these stories as symbolic of inward, psychological
journeys.
"Scholars
who are more historically oriented, who prefer to look at
folklore and mythologies as mirrors of their own times, say
it isn't fair to the stories to apply them to contemporary
living," said Mr. Young. "In terms of fully understanding
the stories with perfect accuracy, they're probably right.
But the mythic imagination is certainly alive and well today.
It's in 'The Lord of the Rings.' It's in 'Big Fish.' Campbell's
claim of its universality, which is a point of controversy,
sure seems to hold up."
Mr. Campbell
also made enemies among religious leaders. In spite of his
Catholic upbringing, he saw the church -- and indeed all Western
religions -- as hopelessly literal in their thinking. He considered
the Old testament problematic, in that it portrays a deity
who favors one group of people and sanctions violence against
their enemies. (That destructive mythology -- the conviction
that God is on our side -- is, needless to say, alive and
well today across much of the globe.)
He saw
the New testament not as literal truth, but as one version
of mythic stories that can be found in many cultures, such
as the virgin birth. This led to some spirited debates, including
one Dennis Slattery, who is currently teaching a course on
Campbell at Pacifica, witnessed at the University of Dallas
in 1974.
"I
was a graduate student in literature and psychology,"
he recalled. "He spoke in Lynch Auditorium, and the name
was quite appropriate. Two members of the philosophy department
and the president of the school attacked him as a heathen.
"Campbell
was not denigrating anyone," Mr. Slattery noted. "He
was pointing out the pattern of the mythic hero ethos. Christ
fit into this pattern, as opposed to being the one and only
(savior of mankind).
"I
remember Campbell taking two steps back on the stage and saying,
'I have been talking about the hero's journey for 25 years.
Never have I been so viciously attacked.' I was ashamed of
the school. There is a brutality to fundamentalism."
Mr. Campbell
no doubt felt those hostile Dallas academics were stuck in
a familiar human dilemma: the inability to understand that
these ancient stories are metaphors. "He wasn't opposed
to people being in a religious tradition," said Mr. Aizenstat.
"But he wanted them to appreciate that the religious
traditions are the map, not the territory."
As Mr.
Slattery's story suggests, Mr. Campbell was no mild-mannered
professor. "He was very strong-willed," recalled
Mr. Aizenstat. "He was a track star (as a youth). He
was fierce. There was fire in his belly, particularly in relation
to his discipline. He had tremendous passion for the material
he was working with."
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| Pacifica
president Steven Aizenstat, was a longtime friend of Mr.
Campbell's. |
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Mr. Aizenstat
was a UCSB undergraduate when he first encountered Mr. Campbell,
at the Esalen Institute in Big Sur. "I was deeply touched
(by his teaching)," he recalled -- enough so that he
returned to Santa Barbara determined to find a way to bring
him to the city.
Mr. Aizenstat
was a founder of the Isla Vista Counseling Center -- which
ultimately morphed into Pacifica Graduate Institute -- and
it was under the auspices of that organization that he invited
Mr. Campbell to town, beginning in the late 1970s. "The
first seminar was at the Unitarian Church," he recalled.
"There were 20 of us."
In spite
of this weak turnout, Mr. Campbell agreed to come back the
following year, and ended up returning once or twice annually
through 1985. Attendance gradually grew, and after several
years the seminars were moved to the La Casa De Maria retreat
center in Montecito.
"They
were usually in the big chapel," Mr. Young recalled.
"There is a big cross. He would usually start by saying,
'Let's honor the tradition here that's visibly present,' and
talk about the symbolism of the cross. He saw it as the intersection
of two kinds of time: the linear time through which we live
our lives, and eternal time. The place where they meet is
a the experience of enlightenment, a mystical moment."
Mr. Campbell
would often donate his honorarium back to the sponsoring organization,
Mr. Aizenstat recalled. Similarly, according to Mr. Hecht,
he accepted no payment for stopping at UCSB when he was in
town.
"He
was one of the most powerful teachers I've ever seen work
in a classroom," Mr. Hecht said. "I remember him
lecturing one day nonstop from 9 to 1, then from 2 to 6:30.
He never used a note, never repeated himself, never got lost.
An extraordinary mind, a gifted teacher."
Mr. Young
agreed, calling him "the most charming man I ever met.
I noticed how generous and humble he was in person. I remember
I'd pick him up at the airport, and he'd have two suitcases.
One would have three or four items of clothing; the other
would be filled with books. His scholarship was his meditation."
If Mr.
Campbell was relaxed on his visits here, it may be because
his ideas were more readily accepted in California than they
were in New York. He saw much wisdom in Jungian psychology,
and his studies were cited as evidence of the psychologist's
concept of the "collective unconscious."
While
Mr. Campbell was an agnostic on that point, the association
nonetheless bothered much of the East Coast intellectual elite,
which worshipped Freud (think of the classic Woody Allen movies)
but found Jung too mystical.
"The
more popular Joseph Campbell became in California, the less
esteem he was held in New York," Mr. Young noted.
If Mr.
Campbell was considered suspect by his fellow academics, his
work was embraced by many artists, according to John Blondell,
professor of theater at Westmont College and artistic director
of the Lit Moon Theatre Company. "He certainly was a
generative influence on my work," he said. "His
notion that dreams are private myths and myths are public
dreams had a big impact on me."
Mr. Blondell
noted that the most important avant-garde theater artists
of the past 40 years, including Joseph Chaikin, Julian Beck,
Richard Foreman and Robert LePage, "use dream, myth and
ritual" in their work. He strongly suspects this reflects
the way Mr. Campbell's ideas have seeped into the culture.
Like
those playwrights and directors, television journalist Bill
Moyers found himself entranced by Mr. Campbell's ideas. In
1986 and '87, he sat down with the mythologist for 24 hours
of interviews, most of which were recorded at George Lucas'
Skywalker Ranch in Northern California. Their final talk took
place at the American Museum of Natural History in New York,
where Mr. Campbell saw his first American Indian artifacts
as a boy.
Mr. Campbell
died on Oct. 30, 1987, at age 83. Mr. Moyers' interviews,
edited down to six one-hour broadcasts, premiered on PBS a
little over a month later. They quickly became one of the
most-watched shows in the network's history, and Mr. Campbell's
books began to sell at a rate they had never reached while
he was alive.
While
Mr. Campbell would no doubt be pleased with that, he never
ached for greater recognition during his lifetime. "He
never sought money or fame, and he never made much money,"
Mr. Young said. "He and his wife (dancer and choreographer
Jean Erdman, a former student of his at Sarah Lawrence) lived
in a tiny one-bedroom apartment -- and the bedroom was his
study. They slept on the couch. He didn't have much, but he
had everything."
Which
brings us back to the Campbell phrase that has been most widely
circulated in the years since his death: "Follow your
bliss."
"Both
his critics and some of his fans have misunderstood the phrase,"
said Mr. Young. "It isn't, 'Go have a good time.' It's,
'Pay attention to the still, small voice -- to that unique
calling that seems to know your name.'
"It
is the seeker's life. It can be a life of incredible hardship
and sacrifice. But there is a kind of joy in being in sync
with your nature, with a sense of purpose."
"Sometimes
that phrase gets sentimentalized into a Hallmark card version
of a life path," agreed Mr. Slattery. "Campbell
was a realist. When you answer the call which is your bliss,
it is not a cakewalk. To be called authentically is to enter
the woods where there is no path."
CARPINTERIA'S
JOSEPH CAMPBELL LIBRARY
Asked
to describe his personal method of meditation, Joseph Campbell
replied that he underlined passages in books. It's hard to
know whether his response was entirely serious. But the great
mythologist, who reportedly read for seven hours a day, certainly
did so with a pencil in one hand.
For evidence,
one can head to the Pacifica Graduate Institute in Carpinteria,
a school that offers master's degrees in mythology and depth
psychology. On the grounds is the Joseph Campbell Library,
which contains the 3,000 or so books he owned at the end of
his life.
In many,
extended sections are underlined carefully in pencil (the
ruler he used is in a nearby display case). In the margins
are his handwritten notes, usually succinct summaries of the
essential point made in the underlined passage.
The library,
which opened in 1991, is used mainly by Pacifica students
and visiting scholars, but it is open to the public by appointment.
(For more information, call 969-3636, ext. 133.) It consists
primarily of volumes on mythology, psychology, anthropology
and religion, as well as literature -- mostly from the medieval
period.
"Only
in this collection is Shakespeare considered modern,"
said special collections librarian Richard Buchen. "(Aside
from James Joyce and Thomas Mann) Campbell didn't have a lot
of interest in modern literature."
The fact
Mr. Campbell donated his personal library -- as well as his
manuscripts -- to Pacifica is evidence of the close link he
felt to the school, which sponsored many of his visits to
Santa Barbara. That link continues to this day.
Pacifica
is sponsoring a conference, "The Legacy of Joseph Campbell,"
from April 16 through 18 at the Radisson Hotel in Santa Barbara.
It will include a talk by philosopher and author Jean Houston,
as well as an opportunity to visit the library. For more information,
call 969-3626, ext. 103, or go to www.pacifica.edu on the
Web.
—TOM
JACOBS
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