J.R. Johnson

I ran across this short piece by Brian Lewis (self-described Cosmic Poet, which is awesome), and wanted to share. 

In the fall of 1929, with America days away from financial ruin, Joseph Campbell committed what everyone called “professional suicide.” He walked into his advisor’s office at Columbia—degree in hand, future within reach—and announced, calmly, boldly, disastrously: “I don’t want one field. I want all of them.”

Yes, that Joseph Campbell, Mister Hero with a Thousand Faces.

By now, most of us have heard about Campbell’s Hero’s Journey, and how it distills thousands of years of mythology into a useful, easily transferrable model to help reach an audience.

(It also generated follow-on models, including Gail Carriger’s Heroine’s Journey.)

But how did Campbell build that original model? The essay shares some of the backstory of that process, and was full of new-to-me details. How did Campbell go from obscurity to one of the best known framers of storytelling?

Read the full essay for more. And yes, George Lucas plays a significant role:)

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