Saved by Stuart Evans
Neither Hero nor Journey
So, while the Hero’s Journey functions as an engine driving the survival of the fittest (both physically and ideologically), in the modern, crowded and hyper-accelerated world of pervasive communication this process is becoming antiquated, and in some cases divisive, polarizing, and enormously dangerous.
Jeff Gomez • The Hero’s Journey is No Longer Serving Us
Stuart Evans added
Anyway, the point is: the hero’s journey and carrier bag are both about narrative models rather than gendered modes of storytelling, and the rise of the novel was a fall of the hero (whether male or female) from epic demigod figure to boy-with-toy. Or girl-with-toy as the case may be.
Venkatesh Rao • Boat Stories
Sixian added
"If we are to build a future of belonging beyond the constraint of today, we need to move past the individualistic narrative of the hero’s journey, and dig into the complexity of collective imagination and world building. Whether we risk deification of a singular human or lay the culpability of systemic failures at the feet of an individual, the he... See more
Vanessa Mason • Issue #29: Heroism and Belonging
Sydney Thomas added
The Hero’s Journey model—particularly as simplified by standard Hollywood storytelling—can often serve to assert and reinforce our rightness over different points of view and different ways of being.
Jeff Gomez • The Hero’s Journey is No Longer Serving Us
Stuart Evans added
Mircea Eliade called it “the Eternal Return,” Joseph Campbell called it “the Hero’s Journey.” It can be traced to earliest tribal culture. Story back then was truly a matter of life and death. Males departed the safety of the home for sustenance. They entered the wild, risking life and limb. They returned with food, fire, people. Their actions rein... See more
Jeff Gomez • The Hero’s Journey is No Longer Serving Us
Stuart Evans added
The hero’s journey is more than male dickishness writ large. To read or write within that pattern is to experience real growth. Equally, carrier-bag storytelling are more than an antithetical feminine aesthetic of novel writing. To read and write within that form is to uncover truths about the human condition. As far as I am concerned though, both ... See more
Venkatesh Rao • Boat Stories
Sixian added
Sometimes our journey takes place in the context of a vital, mythologically grounded culture, whereby one feels open to and supported by the mysteries. Then one experiences purpose in being, a sense of harmony with the world and with one’s self—both the world and the individual journey are clothed in meaning. For so many more of us, our journey tak... See more
Daily Review | Readwise
john silkey added
What does a modern cultural grounding look like? Is modern culture even sufficient to ground a soul? (I don’t think so - the over emphasis on the individual has led to a severing of the connection to place, community, culture, lineage, religion, or any other larger narrative.)
We must use that hyper individuality to our advantage - dive deeply into the individual - who am I, what am I, what are the big questions that I’ve been taught to avoid about my place in existence, where and to what do I feel connected or disconnected in a self, other, system framework. Take what would feel selfish - a deep excavation of the self - and the way through the self will illumninate the connection to something bigger than the self.