Interview with Robert Walters

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWzdBSoniK8

Campbell brought a contemporary consciousness of mythology into popular culture.

Went to France on a fellowship, Met Sylvia Beach who showed him the work of James Joyce which he found incomprehensible. She pointed him to Germany. Emerged with a passion for mythology.

Walked away from his PhD program when, after two years of studying/discovering myth in France/Germany, the program wouldn't let him adjust his thesis. So he went to Woodstock, NY, and read for 5 years. The depression was on.

First joint publication: Skeleton's Key to Finnegan's Wake* (see below)

Hero comes to that point where "the home fires are not warming me anymore." Goes out on an adventure.

The steps on the journey are just sign posts ... there can be as many or few as necessary. It's the cycle that's important.

The Hero's Journey moves away from social norms.

(EWR ... this story seems to resonate with your question of what would happen if you quit doing those things you think you should do.)

"Thou Shalts" - Nietzsche's cycles of life ... born a beast of burden and you carry weight of the world and do what you're told. Then you confront the great dragon where every scale in his armour is telling you what you should do, how you should be. When the beast of burden discovers that that's what he's working for, he becomes a lion and slays the dragon, kills those "thou shalts." The slaying animal can't create new so it becomes a baby.

Journey's that get fed into The Hero's Journey ... the shaman's journey, the mystic's journey, the artist's journey.

Jean Erdman (Campbell's Wife) ... "There is no difference between the artist and the mystic, it's just that the mystic doesn't have a form." The experience is the same ... stepping outside of reality, crossing the threshold into a different mode of perception. Artists render that perception through their mode.

JC "The myths of tomorrow are in the psyches of the artists of today."

The breakthrough is when you throw away everything you've learned and make a unique statement from your new perspective.

The deeper and more personal the artistic expression, the more likely it's going to be universal.

Book: Abstract expressionism in the American Experience ... most of those artists in the 40s had a copy of Campbell's Hero with a thousand faces. It was a conversation ripping through the creative culture. Time magazine included it in the 100 most influential books of the 21st century.

In the beginning Campbell couldn't get published. Robert Walters and others started a publishing company to publish his work.

Follow your own path ... we don't need mini-Joes

Four functions of myth -- metaphysical, cosmological, social and psychological.

The function of myth is to infuse all aspects of an individual's life with meaning and magic.

Cosmological - afford an image of the cosmos and by implication, one's place in that cosmos. Whole purpose is to fell merged with the everything.

Sociological - to explain where one is in relationship to their society, what they do in their society, what their social expectations are

Psychological - where one is in their own individual journey.

Why do we read these myths from all these other cultures? Because the human species hasn't changed in 30,000 years. Stories looked at on a psychological level still resonate.

"They're all metaphoric states of the inner life. Which ultimately bring you back to you."

"One of the secrets of the holy grail is the opportunity to drink in your own reflection."

MIn 42: The Wasteland, an imprisoning myth created by our own need to mythologize. The waste land is where people live inauthentic lives. We're creating stories that distract us from exploring our own authentic stories. Inside each individual is an authentic, unique story.

Jung ... evil comes into the world because people don't have a place to tell their stories.

What did you do as a child that made time stand still?

Book: Holy Grail book

Mythological Round Tables ... where people go to talk about mythology. JCF No longer involved in chartering or supporting these after Covid.

Min 55: reiterates the need for everyone to find their own path ... that there is no curriculum.

RW: I've come to believe we've moved past the individual hero to the gestalt or ensemble hero.

To isolate a figure in space, you need 3 sources of light. Triangulation of perspectives.

Pacifica Graduate Institute in Santa Barbara (Montecito/Carpinteria) Might have programs of interest.

RW: Answering question about what he hopes to do says I'm not goal directed like that. Metaphorically, I hope to build a stable canoe and put it out into this river and it's going to take me somewhere, and I can't presume to know where that is. The only thing I can commit to do is using my paddle as little as possible. I'll use my paddle if I go into still waters; I'll use my paddle if I go into the rapids. But, I'm trusting that the river is going to take me somewhere that I can't imagine. It's a wonderful adventure we're on, and, if you can trust the river, and if you can put your focus on making sure the canoe you're in is as sturdy, stable and provisioned as possible, then you're going to have a grand adventure.

Wikipedia add-on

Finnegans Wake is a novel by Irish writer James Joyce. It is well known for its experimental style and reputation as one of the most difficult works of fiction in the Western canon.^[1] It has been called "a work of fiction which combines a body of fables ... with the work of analysis and deconstruction".^[2] Written in Paris over a period of seventeen years and published in 1939, Finnegans Wake was Joyce's final work. The entire book is written in a largely idiosyncratic language, which blends standard English words with neologistic portmanteau words, Irish mannerisms and puns in multiple languages to unique effect. Many critics believe the technique was Joyce's attempt to recreate the experience of sleep and dreams,^[3] reproducing the way concepts, people and places become amalgamated in dreaming. It is an attempt by Joyce to combine many of his aesthetic ideas, with references to other works and outside ideas woven into the text; Joyce declared that "Every syllable can be justified". Due to its linguistic experiments, stream of consciousness writing style, literary allusions, free dream associations, and abandonment of narrative conventions, Finnegans Wake remains largely unread by the general public.^[4][5]