Hacker News Books

I would recommend the book The Power of Myth by J Campbell. It is a good book in the sense it talks about not forgetting the mystery of how we are here.

Joseph Campbell: The Power of Myth

OK. So It's not quite a documentary... but a wonderful introduction to Campbell and his ideas taken from interviews with Bill Moyers at the end of his life.

It's pretty well documented how terrified western culture is of death relative to others. The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell is an excellent book which goes into insightful detail on this subject.

If the idea of common motifs through different cultures and mythologies interests you I highly recommend this 6 part interview with Joseph Campbell, who was the author of “The Hero with 1000 Faces” and an expert in the field.

Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers.

Looks like a random sampling. My personal favourites:

The Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell

The Ascent of Man by Jacob Bronowski

The Pleasure of Finding Things Out by Richard Feynman

Little Dieter Needs to Fly by Werner Herzog

>listening to these lectures made me understand better the psychological and moral value of these stories

You might enjoy the Power of Myth by Joseph Campbell.

"A promising counterbalance to these trends is to develop alternative ways of being that increase and diversify the “crowd within” - and drive an ongoing inner discourse ....
It’s to look more often within, and behind, to develop depth and soul.... And we could do worse than to turn to Jung for a starting point in that journey."

There's so much to Jung's work that finding a way in to the core can be difficult. I once studied several of his collected works. To learn whether his ideas might have value for one's journey, his own journey and motivations are revealed in memoir Memories, Dreams, Reflections. His 'evidence' is the universality of human experiences ... his own and those of his patients.

To get to some of the core ideas (without dilution), try the two books of Vol 9. Archetypes... (which arrives at key idea 'Individuation') and Aion (gets into self, ego, shadow, anima/animus). These aren't easy reads, but many have found the effort rewarding.

Edit: Joseph Campbell's ideas (specially TV series The Power of Myth) might be a more widely accessible way to learn about this path.

Netflix is hosting Joseph Campbell and 'The Power of Myth' with Bill Moyers which wonderfully details how this idea of shared fiction works. [0] It's amazing how deep it permeates our culture including how Disney adopted Campbell's ideas as not only a vehicle for story telling but also as a matter of social responsibility creating a unified view among all the billions of Earth's human inhabitants.[1] You and I have a shared fiction that is also the same as a person buying a bootleg copy of Star Wars or Frozen on the street corner in Moscow, Beijing, Mexico City, or New Delhi.

[0] https://www.netflix.com/title/70281117

[1] https://livingspirit.typepad.com/files/chris-vogler-memo-1.p...

> Joseph Campbell and The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers

https://archive.org/details/josephcampbellandthepowerofmyth0...

Disney films are based on Joseph Campbell's comparative mythology. After the success of Lucas using one of Campbell's plots in A New Hope and Raiders of the Lost Arc, Disney decided to use this plot for all of their movies. [1] It isn't science, but it enormously compelling and effective.

Why wouldn't you want your daughter to be like Elsa? Of all the role models throughout history for little girls, Elsa is without doubt one of the best. It is only recently that women weren't portrayed a submissive needing to marry the right man to be successful. Or, Belle? Beauty and the Beast is story about the inventor's daughter, a bibliophile, who is isolated because she can't relate to her bland vanilla society that rejects intellectuals like Belle and her father. I wouldn't write off Disney so quickly. It's worth reading the Power of Myth, the transcript of the interview between Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell, because you might appreciate the thinking behind Disney movies. You will find that there are people in control at Disney who share your values.

I can't pass judgement on parenting. However, there is a big difference allowing children to watch a Disney movie once a month or even once a week and letting children watch television 4 hours a day after school.

[1] http://www.thewritersjourney.com/hero's_journey.htm

Makes me think of Joseph Campbell's work on the Power of Myth[0].

[0] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aGx4IlppSgU&list=PLePFb3rlFb...

Joseph Campbell The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers

"People say that what we're all seeking is a meaning for life. I don't think that's what we're really seeking. I think that what we're seeking is an experience of being alive, so that our life experiences on the purely physical plane will have resonances with our own innermost being and reality, so that we actually feel the rapture of being alive."
- Joseph Campbell, The Power of Myth