(Report comment)

(Report comment)

(Report comment)

The have very good discussions about the man and his work, and the impact of myth in general. They also organize roundtables around the world for people to get together and talk about ideas that mean a lot to them.

@Ekat – The snooze bar is our friend, but also our enemy. =)

@Gregory – I would have loved the chance to meet Mr. Campbell, and I’m envious. I am in complete agreement with your statement about imaginative and literal travel as parallel – it’s the topic of my research! As you say, JC’s work is the best of speculative thought: while our approach and examination of meaning can be performed using rational tools, the subjectivity of meaning itself is not wholly rational.

@Christine – I’m not afraid of nothin’. =)

Thanks for all the feedback, folks!

(Report comment)

(Report comment)

Funnily enough, I saw today that Robbie Williams’ new album is called Reality Killed the Video Star with an album cover that I think has him playing the Steve McQueen character from the Great Escape film.

Read before how that described in this article is the accepted structure of fantasy tales. For example: http://herbertholeman.com/writer/myth.php

(Report comment)

(Report comment)

I went on to analyze literature, particularly the personal mythologies of Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Blake as well using both his works as a guide as well as that of the comparative religion guru Mircea Eliade. Jung’s seminal works (he was a religious himself) always remained at the core of my analysis, but existential philosophers describe the ethical dimensions of living and traveling through the “profane” world in a far more profound manner, in my view.

I only mention this because I have always viewed travel as following many of the archetypal modes which Campbell outlines–and anyone who has read extensively world mythologies and fairy tales as a child can intuitively the see parallels amongst them. The critique of Jungian theory is that it is often somewhat based on random notions of the archetypes, but I would counter that at best it is based on the empirical evidence gathered by those who are widely read. It is speculative thought at its best and most closely mirrors the way great artists think and express themselves as opposed to rationalistic approaches which fall short when it comes to explaining great art and the epiphanies experienced via art or travel.

That is why I consider reading Homer’s Odyssey as much an act of imaginative travel as the actual visits to the sites he references–though the actual visits to Greece and Turkey certainly brought them to life in other dimensions.

Individuation and movement in stages from the profane to the sacred worlds and back seem to be one of the essential values of travel, and certainly incorporate current descriptors for types of travel such as “Independent Travel, ” “Responsible Travel,” “Spiritual Travel, “Educational Travel,” etc.

I, for one, do not see an absolute distinction in imaginative and physical travel, as many of these very stages are part of one’s daily experience and psychological makeup. Just ask a teenager trying to cope with growing up in New York City…

(Report comment)

(Report comment)

(Report comment)