I spent far too much time in the city library of the little mormon town I grew up in. There was something about the major religion in my home town that sort of spooked me and I found sanctuary among the tall wooden stacks filled with books. It took years to pin that spookiness down, because on the surface all of the people in my community were very very nice. Nothing was ever wrong. Eisenhower was President and mom had a new Buick every couple of years. Family, food, and fun were the three F's or the era. Anyone who disagreed and spoke up was a trouble maker. If you spoke up and too often you were branded a Communist. Very easy peasy.
One day I found copy of Joseph Campbell's The Hero With a Thousand Faces stuck down on a bottom shelf without a Dewey Decimal mark on it. It was crammed in among a bunch of Rosicrucian books that one uncle of mine we were never supposed to talk about had donated to the library along with material from the Jehovah Witnesses, The Daily Torah, and the works of Bertrand Russel. These were all uncataloged, but put out of the way on a shelf that no one would notice. My aunt who was one of the city librarians told me the books were all gifts from local crack pots and were about odd things that offended people, but had to be kept on an open shelf because it was the law. And they had been conveniently made less accessible because they had not been officially cataloged therefore no one could check them out.
It took me two weeks of going to the library for a couple of hours from 6:00 to 8:00 PM to finish The Hero With a Thousand Faces. I was 13 years old. I worried for a while that I must be a crack pot, because Campbell's seminal work on comparative mythologies made a lot of sense to me. I was a big fan of Aesop's Fables, Greek Mythology, The Brothers Grimm, and Hans Christian Anderson. And I had been "exposed" to the way mormons interpret the King James Version of the Bible so I wasn't completely out of the loop. I especially liked the stories in the Old Testament. Lots of wars, raping and pillaging, and begetting people who begat endless strings of other people, and on and on. And Bethsheba, hey . . . what a babe!
Well, I guess that's when the ill winds of my adolescents began to blow. My aunt had called mother to let her know what I was reading. Fortunately, my mother was basically clueless about most things. After all, she got a new Buick every two years and was pretty damn pleased with what people believed and how they behaved in a place that even devout mormons still, in 2009, snidely refer to as "Happy Valley." Factoid: More prescriptions are filled for Prozac in Ewetaw County than any other county in the State. It's true. It's a government statistic.
By the time I was 14 I pretty much had it figured out and realized that if I wanted to survive mentally, emotionally, and physically I'd better pull the best grades I could and maybe in 3 years I could get a scholarship to Northwestern, Stanford, or some other non Ivy League school where I might have a chance. Being able to develop personal opinions and begin to self actualize one's identity was not acceptable in Happy Valley. In Happy Valley identity is bestowed upon you. It was and still is sort of like living in the old Body Snatchers movie from the 50's. If you didn't comply you were socially culled and forced out of town by 17 or 18 -- or earlier.
I finally got into college, despite a detour of a few years living on the streets turning tricks until I was old enough to work in bars and make a legitimate living (about the only thing a gay teen could do with fake ID). Imagine my surprise and relief to discover when I took my first comparative literature class that the first book on the reading list was The Hero With a Thousand Faces. Not only was it the first thing on my reading list, but it's considered pretty much the book that touches all the bases when in comes to understanding the stories in all cultures that we tell and retell to difine ourselves as human beings in our various cultures. Great book. I recommend everyone pick up a copy if you haven't already read it.
About the only people I know who really detest Jospeph Campbell are those who cannot or refuse to open their blinders to broaden their scope of understanding human culture. These are folks afraid that it will "test" their faith in a way that will harm them. It won't. Nor will any of Campbell's books "destroy" one's faith in whatever one might or might not believe. But it will certainly help reduce the silly posturing by people of all religions to think twice before asking stuff like "What do atheists think happened 2009 years ago?"
And if you've read The Hero With a Thousand Faces, go read it again just to make sure. :wink: