/lit/ - Literature

Justify your love or hate of this book.

i've noticed quite a bit of Joseph Campbell hate on /lit/. i would like to know your criticisms of Campbell's work and why you don't like them. please keep your answers mature, i really want to know what anon thinks.

this book, THE HERO WITH A THOUSAND FACES, is the storyteller's bible! i would not suggest that anyone write any story of considerable length and/or significance without having read this book. it offers to any kind of storyteller the blueprints to any and all kind of stories, but getting down to the roots of it all, tracking down the most basic and primitive theme that runs through all stories.
It traces these themes through all of the world's mythologies. by analyzing all of the similarities in humanity's oldest stories, Joseph Campbell uncovered the theme of all religion, and by extension mankind and our inherent need to tell stories. he discovered the hero's journey, a basic pattern of plot that all stories conform to in one way or another that is comprised of three acts, the departure, initiation, and return.
Seriously this book has changed my life, and the ideas in here can and does affect stories of all genres. since having read this, i can now point out the hero's journey in EVERY single film i have ever seen, from fantasy, comedy, romance or action.
For the sake of knowing what exactly you're doing, every writer should study this book. It has elevated my own awareness of the importance of what i'm writing about and it opens up a whole realm of the knowledge of what stories are in the first place and will give people a reason to read yours.