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In graduate school, when I asked my beloved mentor, Freudian/Lacanian David Wagenknecht about Carl Jung, his response was, "I dunno: a little too Joseph Campbell for me." There is no better or smarter human on earth than David and so I didn't read either Jung (who I worship) or Campbell (who I now really, really love) for many years. I think the wait was just fine for me (sorry Dave) but I know I will be reading at least Campbell's Masks of God for the rest of my life (and perhaps also his Skele...
Bill Moyers summarizes this passage from Oriental Mythology in his introduction of Campbell in The Power of Myth (an audio collection of interviews which I finished around the same time). Well- and so our friend the sociologist met his friend the Shinto priest at a lawn party in the precincts of an extensive Japanese garden, where paths, leading down among the rocks, turned to reveal unforseen landscapes, gravel lawns, craggy lakes, stone lanterns, trees curiously formed, and pagodas. And our fr...
Excellent information, not crazy about the delivery. Really not crazy about it.I remember liking the Masks of God series a lot more when I was a teenager, but on a recent 2nd run-through I found it somewhat less satisfying. It made me feel unclean for liking Campbell in the first place, actually.Why?For one thing, Oriental Mythology is replete with massive amounts of information and anecdotes concerning various Eastern religions, but Campbell makes it quite clear where his personal judgments res...
As with the first volume, Primitive Mythology, this is probably at least my second time reading this book. Over the years of reading Campbell's works, I am gradually absorbing and comprehending more and more of his train of thought. This is truly a remarkable set of books. On to Occidental Mythology! --From A Reader's Journal, by d r melbie.
I loved that it started with the idea of the "eternal return".He had me right away with that.
A difficult book to read...as an Occidental, trying to appreciate and understand the Oriental mind is a real challenge. It is also difficult for them to understand us. The last 5-6 pages , where the Communists try to mock and destroy the Tibetan Buddhists, gives one pause for thought.
Pre-Read: After a week of scattered reading of Jung’s MDR, Aion and Red Book, I decided to plunge into this one on the back of a year and a half of obsessive book-reading that has left me feeling counterproductively empty about the enterprise of knowledge as being somehow pedestrian, self-congratulatory and derivative. Better late than never though to come to the realization that of the 200 odd books of this period, I can count on one hand the works of truly and profoundly visionary genius, and
4/5 Stars (%78/100)This is the second book in the series called The Masks of God by Joseph Campbell, aka the God of Mythology himself. Whenever you hear the word mythology, Campbell's name is always mentioned. Campbell is extremely important in the field of myths. I've used him as a source for hundreds of times. It is no wonder that this series is also very good.As it can be understood from the title, this book mainly deals with Asian myths and legends. I am especially interested in Japanese myt...
Second in a set of 4 works. All of which are an indispensible resource if you have any ambition to understand Mythology and comparative religion.
The Masks of God: Volume II, Oriental Mythology (1962) by Joseph Campbell is again one of those marathons of the mind. The knowledge that Campbell pours out is relentless for the entire 516 pages, but at the same time it is captivating to explore the development of ancient mythology and religion and civilization beginning with Central Asia (what is currently known as the Middle East), then to ancient India, then progressing to China and finally to Japan, ending briefly with Tibet.In Chapter One,...
From the beginning I liked Oriental Mythology quite a bit more than the first volume Primitive Mythology, even if like that first book, it could be rather dry and scholarly and somewhat rambling in its arguments. I think part of that is I felt I could trust his arguments more. So much of Primitive Mythology is based on archeological finds it made me continually wonder how many of his "facts" had been overtaken by new discoveries in the over 50 years that passed since the 1959 publication of that...
Literature professor Joseph Campbell was not on the cutting edge of scholarship. Popular in the '80's for a PBS special with Bill Moyers 'The Power of Myth' he was criticized for a generalist appeal and his lack of a specialized approach. Ditching a PhD pursuit at Columbia U. in 1929, he spent five years during the Great Depression in a shack in Woodstock reading sixteen hours a day. Campbell was friends with John Steinbeck and Heinrich Zimmer, completing the latter's posthumous works on Indian
The second book in Campbell's seminal quartet, this one is much more engrossing and interesting than the first, as it covers Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism, Tao and Shinto. The East, IMO, is more myth-heavy than the West. I enjoyed it immensely, even though it's a painstaking read.
Easily my favorite so far of Campbell's books. While at times it was hard to read due to references to other studies I over all found the book a great read and very informative. I decided to read it with the hopes of learning more about oriental proto-myth and belief systems and this book more then met that goal. I would suggest the Masks of God series to anyone interested in various cultures and how their respective faiths influence that culture.
I love everything ever penned by Campbell-highly recommend! Like Bettelheim with European fairy tales, Campbell delves into the ways folktales used to act as cautionary illustrations to channel human behavior. This would be morality based on the way society actually functions, not on church teachings about how the world should be. Younger readers may not grasp how fabulous Campbell’s worldview first appeared because now it is so thoroughly believed, used, and imitated. But writers take note: His...
Make no mistake, the Masks of God series by Joseph Campbell is something fierce.The level of scholarship and devotion to the whole subject of mythology blows me away. Where the first book devoted itself to ancient mythos, the kind we can only infer from lacking sources, this Oriental Mythology tackles time-periods closer to home if not always particularly close.The exceptions to this are Taoism and Buddhism. Both of these are treated in the perfect storytelling-way that the rest are treated. (An...
Everyone interested in cultural differences and cultural history should read Joseph Campbell. His insights into the foundational differences in world cultures are essential knowledge.
"Nirvana is the goal, and the mind is beginning to crack - as it must, if that goal is to be achieved." p.313"Stars, darkness, a lamp, a phantom, dew, a bubble;A dream, a flash of lightening, and a cloud:Thus should we look upon the world." p.319"Fear not, fear not, O nobly born! The Furies of the Lord of Death will place around your neck a rope and drag you along; cut off your head, extract your heart, pull out your intestines, lick up your brains, drink your blood, eat your flesh, and gnaw you...
Campbell's Masks of God series is, I think, the finest version of world history ever written. He exposes the choices, stages, tragedies and breakthroughs in an unfolding chorus of consciousness, expressed through art, story, and vision, that represents the real power and glory of the human adventure.
I'm an admirer of Campbell's work. I've enjoyed many of his books including The Power of Myth, Myths to Live By, The Hero With a Thousand Faces, and The Inner Reaches of Outer Space. I wasn't impressed by Oriental Mythology.I was hoping this book would provide a clear overview of the ideas in Oriental Mythology, while placing the myths of the orient in an overall context of world mythology. It seems this is what Campbell sets out to do in the introductory chapter The Four Great Domains. Yet, as