The Hero's Journey

Joseph Campbell popularized the subject of mythology with the PBS series The Power of Myth. The video you watched was the first in the series of films which explored mythology and it's meaning on our lives today. The Hero's Journey or the Monomyth is the form that Campbell came up with to explain hero stories from cultures worldwide.

If you take my course in Mythology we spend at least a month on hero stories because, whether we realize it or not they occupy an enormous part of our imagination and our literary culture. From the ancient Greeks to modern Hollywood films, the monomyth gives us a way of connecting the mundane to the spiritual.

Essentially the hero cycle is about passing into a new realm of experience in order to discover more about yourself an your world and then returning to your normal life with this new found experience/knowledge/gift to put it to use.

Modern video games really make use of this model to a great extent, complete with spiritual advisers and all. In fact the premise of many online games follows exactly the cycle given us by Campbell.

Usually thee is a bad guy who changes the balance of the world from creativity and productivity to desolation and sterility. Inmost games the player figures as the hero with humble origins who must leave his/her home full of comfort to travel into the unknown in order to restore he balance of powers to the world/town/universe.

My hope is that in contemplating Campbell's ideas regarding the monomyth that you may connect the mundane world of gaming to that of the spiritual adventure. While i won't assert that gaming is good for your soul, it can be a cathartic experience helping us to relieve tension, relax and channel our daily frustration in a positive way through engaging in quest.

All of us need to put ourselves in uncomfortable situations in order to discover things about our selves. For some of you the past few days may have amounted to as much as you introduced your selves to the world of online gaming. Part of this course, since it is humanities, is learning about yourself to some degree. While most of our reading and assignments deal with things outside of ourselves it is important to track our own reactions to our experiences as well. I hope this course helps you learn something about your self even if it is that you don't like online games. At least you can make a decision based on experience and sound reasoning instead of prejudice and ignorance. (not implying that you are either of those)

With that i give you Fridays reading assignment: Anthropologist Digs into WOW
and

Fear and Humiliation as Teaching Methods