Joseph Campbell, George Lucas, Star Wars

Joseph Campbell was the great American mythologist whose works inspired George Lucas's hero archetypes in the Star Wars films. You can learn about this in the following video program about Joseph Campbell in which George Lucas says that if he did not read Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces he probably would have been still writing Star Wars!

In the interview he discusses how he was fascinated with native Americans, talking about the traditions of stampeding the buffalo over the edge.

Joseph Campbell - The Hero's Journey

Note: This is depicted in some paintings by my great grandmother Carola. You can see her paintings of native Americans on her web site at http://www.CarolaGough.com and in her virtual gallery inside of Second Life that is linked from her site.

Bill Moyers Interviewing George Lucas About the Mythology of Star Wars

Here is a quote from George Lucas about how he sees his responsibility in film-making:

"I have a philosophy: that we all teach. Anybody in the media has a very large megaphone that can reach a lot of different people, and so whatever they say, whatever they do, however they conduct themselves, whatever they produce has an influence, and it’s teaching somebody something." -- George Lucas, filmmaker

More Videos

The Power of Myth Part 1 of 6: The Hero's Adventure

The Power of Myth Part 2 of 6: The Message of The Myth

The Power of Myth Part 3 of 6: The First Storytellers

The Power of Myth Part 4 of 6: Sacrifice and Bliss

The Power of Myth Part 5 of 6: Love and The Goddess

The Power of Myth Part 6 of 6: Masks of Eternity

Here is an excerpt from the Joseph Campbell Foundation web site about his background:

"Over one hundred years ago, on March 26th in 1904, Joseph John Campbell was born in White Plains, NY. Joe, as he came to be known, was the first child of a middle-class, Roman Catholic couple, Charles and Josephine Campbell.

Joe’s earliest years were largely unremarkable; but then, when he was seven years old, his father took him and his younger brother, Charlie, to see Buffalo Bill’s Wild West show. The evening was a high-point in Joe’s life; for, although the cowboys were clearly the show’s stars, as Joe would later write, he “became fascinated, seized, obsessed, by the figure of a naked American Indian with his ear to the ground, a bow and arrow in his hand, and a look of special knowledge in his eyes.”

It was Arthur Schopenhauer, the philosopher whose writings would later greatly influence Campbell, who observed that

…the experiences and illuminations of childhood and early youth become in later life the types, standards and patterns of all subsequent knowledge and experience, or as it were, the categories according to which all later things are classified—not always consciously, however. And so it is that in our childhood years the foundation is laid of our later view of the world, and there with as well of its superficiality or depth: it will be in later years unfolded and fulfilled, not essentially changed.

And so it was with young Joseph Campbell. Even as he actively practiced (until well into his twenties) the faith of his forbears, he became consumed with Native American culture; and his worldview was arguably shaped by the dynamic tension between these two mythological perspectives. On the one hand, he was immersed in the rituals, symbols, and rich traditions of his Irish Catholic heritage; on the other, he was obsessed with primitive (or, as he later preferred, “primal”) people’s direct experience of what he came to describe as “the continuously created dynamic display of an absolutely transcendent, yet universally immanent, mysterium tremendum et fascinans, which is the ground at once of the whole spectacle and of oneself.” (Historical Atlas, I.1, p. 8)

By the age of ten, Joe had read every book on American Indians in the children’s section of his local library and was admitted to the adult stacks, where he eventually read the entire multi-volume Reports of the Bureau of American Ethnology. He worked on wampum belts, started his own “tribe” (the “Lenni-Lenape”), and frequented the American Museum of Natural History, where he became fascinated with totem poles and masks, thus beginning a lifelong exploration of that museum's vast collection.

After spending much of his thirteenth year recuperating from a respiratory illness, Joe briefly attended Iona, a private school in Westchester NY, before his mother enrolled him at Canterbury, a Catholic residential school in New Milford CT. His high school years were rich and rewarding, though marked by a major tragedy: in 1919, the Campbell home was consumed by a fire that killed his grandmother and destroyed all of the family’s possessions."

A wonderful quote from Campbell:

"When you see the Earth from space, you don't see any divisions of nation-states there. This may be the symbol of the new mythology to come."
- Joseph Campbell

Who can argue with that? See Google for verification:

Another quote purportedly from him:

"God is a metaphor for that which trancends all levels of intellectual thought. Even the categories of being and non-being. Those are categories of thought. It's as simple as that."

Read more about him here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Campbell

And read much more about him here: http://www.jcf.org/index2.php

The Hero With a Thousand Faces

http://www.jcf.org/works.php?id=104

Campbell's first original work is still one of his best known and most important. It stands as a classic in the field of mythology and comparative religion.

This influential study traces the story of the hero's journey and transformation through virtually all the mythologies of the world. Originally published in 1949, it has inspired generations of students and artists and sold nearly one million copies in various editions.

The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell

http://www.amazon.com/Power-Myth-Joseph-Campbell/dp/0385418868

Amazon.com
Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth is essential viewing for anyone old enough to appreciate its vital teachings. One of the greatest interviews ever recorded, this six-part, six-hour encounter between teacher- mythologist Campbell and student-journalist Bill Moyers (recorded in the two years preceding Campbell's death in 1988) covers a galaxy of topics related to Campbell's central themes: Mythology is humanity's universal method of seeking the transcendental, and "follow your bliss" is the timeless formula for spiritual satisfaction. Campbell himself is the embodiment of these themes, an erudite scholar and quintessential storyteller, recalling a wide spectrum of myths from throughout history (Japanese, Native American, Egyptian, Mayan, and many more) to illustrate humankind's eternal quest to grasp the mysteries of creation. Historical artifacts and illustrations bring these timeless stories to life.

An astute interviewer, Moyers is an acolyte in perfect harmony with Campbell-as- mentor, wording questions with penetrating perfection as their intellectual dance reaches exhilarating heights of meaning and fascination. Moyers also finds the perfect hook for a global audience, examining Campbell's admiration of George Lucas's Star Wars saga as a popular tapestry of ancient myths, and Lucas himself is interviewed in a DVD bonus segment ("I'm not creating a new myth," he says, "but telling old myths in a new way"). Campbell's seemingly endless well of knowledge reaches a simple conclusion: we need myths to survive like we need oxygen to breathe, as a life force with which to understand our existence--past, present, and future. --Jeff Shannon

The Power of Myth, starring George Lucas and Joseph Campbell

http://www.amazon.com/Joseph-Campbell-Power-George-Lucas/dp/B00005MEVQ/ref=pd_sim_b_1_img/103-7711416-0024648

The Struggle Between Light and Dark, Good and Evil

The world's great religions all speak in some way of a struggle between light and dark, between good and evil. Perhaps this is one of the most pervasive similarities that can unite religions amidst a plethora of differences that can divide religions. I believe that this is due to the reflections of our ancestors on the nature of the process of attaining maturity coupled with their attempts at explaining the nature of reality.

First, as humans we go through many stages of life in our youth, teens, and early twenties before painfully realizing that we are not the center of the universe! This is, as Joseph Campbell points out in The Power of Myth, is the "death to self" and the rebirth and resurrection from which we must come back as self-responsible individuals. In explaining this transformation, religions warn us of evil spirits, demons, or devils. These, of course, we now know are not literal beings, but affects of psychology or biological malfunction. But, they symbolize the obstacles we face in attempts at "losing of oneself" and the "giving of oneself" to others and to things that are larger than one's own individual self persona.

Modern writers deal with these questions as well in their own ways that resonate with our own experiences and culture. I've written in my audio book about Harry Potter and The Prisoner of Azkaban, and how the "dementers" are symbolic of the obstacles and barriers we face in life that we think we can never overcome. Even Eminem says that you have to "lose yourself".

What is ironic about the so-called loss of oneself, just as Jesus says, is that this process ultimately causes you to find your true and authentic identity. It is when you realize that you even though you are an individual being, you are continuous with and interdependent upon the people and the environment around you.

In Campbell's interview with Moyers during the first episode he speaks extensively about Star Wars, often showing Darth Vader and Luke Skywalker. Campbell says that Darth Vader and the Death Star are symbolic of "the machine" of modern life that take their tolls upon us. He says that modern times and business have tried to box us in and force us into a particular kind of rigid system. He says that Luke Skywalker refuses to give in to the Dark Side and in doing so he transforms and sublimates its lure and power. He does not know that Darth Vader is his father until later, but he knows that good is stronger than evil and he will not give in.

The Power of Myth Part 1 of 6: The Hero's Journey

By the time this summer is through it will have seen several blockbuster films bring fans into theatres all around the world. Spiderman 3 featured dialog that speaks to the struggle between good and evil quite often. Peter's aunt warns him against vengeance and strives to teach him that forgiveness is the only true power. Peter, as Venom, dabbles in his dark side before finally coming to his senses, and later tries to warn others. The film ends with the admonition that personal choice and personal responsibility at any given moment is what will determine one's fate.

The next one that will hit the theatres is The Transformers. Watch the trailiers and explore this film's own depiction of good versus evil portrayed immediately on its home page in the two options for entering the site, Protect, or Destroy, synonyms for Good, and Evil.

http://www.transformersmovie.com/

When I was a child, I watched The Transformers television program all the time and played with the toy figures. I even drew my own Transformers comic books.

This series is, of course, based upon the fight between the Autobots and the Decipticons. I don't know the author's intent behind these names, but it's pretty easy to surmise that the "Autobot" is the one who "automatically" performs good deeds out of his own nature, while the "Decepticon" deceives and connives by his own nature.

Twenty years ago there was an animated Transformers film! I went to see this with my grandfather and he fell asleep. I was intrigued, of course, and remembered the most memorable part of the film as the moment when Optimus Prime sacrifices himself to avoid harming Hot Rod, later to become Rodimus Prime.

Megatron and Optimus Prime fight until death:

So, what then should we do after struggling to overcome evil and triumph with good. I am reminded of one of the opening quotes from that same first episode of The Power of Myth:

Joseph Campbell was in Japan for a conference on religion when he heard another delegate from the states in a conversation with a Shinto priest.

"We have been to many of your ceremonies, and seen a good number of your shrines . . . but still I don't get your ideology, I don’t get your theology."
The priest paused as though in deep thought and then slowly shook his head. "I think we don't have ideology, I don't think we have theology . . . we dance."

Just Like Optimus Prime and Megatron Should Have Done Instead Killing Each Other!

"A cute girl stopped me on the way, so I danced." -- Hatake Kakashi