« 087: Apocalyptic Thrillers | Main | 088: The Apocalyptic Hero » June 08, 2004

Interstitial Quotation

Following Travis and my comments in the previous entry, I was forced back to the primary texts to get my story straight.

"The hero adventures out of the land we know into darkness; there he accomplishes his adventure, or again is simply lost to us, imprisoned, or in danger; and his return is described as a coming back out of that yonder zone. Nevertheless -- and here is a great key to the understanding of myth and symbol -- the two kingdoms are actually one. The realm of the gods is a forgotten dimension of the world we know. And the exploration of that dimension, either willingly or unwillingly, is the whole sense of the deed of the hero. The values and distinctions that in normal life seem important disappear with the terrifying assimilation of the self into what formerly was only otherness...The first problem of the returning hero is to accept as real, after an experience of the soul-satisfying vision of fulfillment, the passing joys and sorrows, banalities and noisy obsenities of life. Why re-enter such a world?...The returning hero, to complete his adventure, must survive his impact with the world." (Joseph Campbell, Hero with a Thousand Faces, pp. 217-226)

This leads to some observations about the Apocalpytic Hero, which will be forthcoming.

Posted by Teppo at June 8, 2004 12:17 AM

Comments