In a funny post on Always Watching about how Kung Fu Panda is really just a remake of Star Wars somebody pointed in the comments to a book by Joseph Campbell called The Hero With A Thousand Faces. In this book he lays out the theory that in essence all myths are really different versions of the same story. George Lucas has said that he used this book in writing the Star Wars films, and after reading the book it becomes clear very quickly that he wasn’t the only one.
The basic theory is this: There is a monomyth, a base for all myths. Campbell spends a lot of time explaining the reasons behind this from a philosophical and psychological approach. For modern man, who seems to be ‘too civilized’ for myth, he pulls examples from dreams. He is a student of Jung, and this is evident in the book, much is based on theories by Freud and Jung.
Even though the book is sometimes a bit hard to read (it is from 1948, and they had a different view of popular science back then ;)) it is a good read. It shows that myths are much the same across the world, even in regions that have developed wholy separate from everybody else, like the aboriginals from Australia. The reasons Campbell describes are a bit far out to me. Campbell almost describes a world view that can be described on religions. He himself says that buddhism comes the closest to teaching the theory of the monomyth.
Religion and theory aside, it is a good read and the more you read, the more you see that current day hit movies and books are based, conciously or subconsiously on the same base story. I even had to look up if The Lord of Rings was written before or after publication of this book, the story follows the monomyth pretty closely. Apparently we subconsiously relate to and like stories that follow that pattern.
Anyway, the book is a good read and it opens your eyes to the how and why of storytelling, even though the philosophy, psychology and religion might not be your cup of tea.
