Joseph Campbell and the Movies
Originally posted 5/21/06 on ursuspacificus.blogspot.com –ed.
OK… Let me start by saying that I have not read any Campbell. I may some day. Haven’t yet.
I was just watching a documentary about the making of The Poseidon Adventure (the Irwin Allen 1972 version) and all these Hollywood-types keep bringing up Joseph Campbell… Joseph Campbell this, Joseph Campbell that… on and on and on.
Now, the general impression I get about ol’ Joe comes in part from this Wikipedia article, and in part from “Empire of Dreams” where he is mentioned almost ceaselessly. My understanding is that Campbells’s big accomplishment was to take all these stories… myths from around the world and other “morality tales”.. stories with a point.. and distill them down to essential elements, giving people a means of analyzing these stories against a template… It was basic abstraction. He basically took the combined work of all the greatest Blues musicians and said, “Ah-HA! I see what makes all these songs similar! I see how they work! I really doesn’t matter what key you start in or what the song is about… you can construct a blues song using this formula I just jotted down! It’s not so hard!” The bummer about this is that it really doesn’t inform the experienced craftspeople in the field, and I think it tends to kill the joy of discovery for new people in the field.
This, to me, is teaching to the test. It’s like when you want to put up a house and they have building codes… for plumbing and wiring and all that. If all you know are the building codes and have a few sample designs to work from, and are not particularly creative or whatever, you’re probably going to build a house which minimally satisfies the building codes and closely follows a pre-existing design. Now, this is fine for houses, because everybody needs a place to live, but when you do that with a story, you likely end up with a plagiarism suit on your hands.
I think there is definately something to be said for trial and error. It seems important that Campbell’s work was done…. but… when you start pointing to Campbell as your greatest influence…. the one who most informs the stories you tell… that’s like saying the building codes were the greatest influence on the design of your house.
Really? Congratulations! It’s nominally safe and blandly adequate!
Maybe I’ll have a different opinion after I’ve read him.