Next week sees the release of the whole “Joseph Campbell: The Power of Myth” series from PBS. Bill Moyers interviewed the dean of modern mythology, Joseph Campbell, back in the late 1980’s before his death, and those interviews form the core of this series dealing with mythology and how it impacts modern society.
Campbell wrote the books that influenced George Lucas as he was writing the Star Wars saga (and Moyers’ interviews with Lucas appear in this series as well). Anyone involved in the telling of stories– and that is at the heart of what every role-playing gamer does, system be damned– owes it to themselves to watch these interviews and realize just how universal some of these stories really are, and how they impact our lives today.
Amazon has the collection for only $36. For nearly 6 hours of material, that’s a steal.
Truly, his works on comparative mythology are outstanding, and the Moyers interviews were quite good as I recall. On top of that, he seems to have been just a really neat cat. Most especially his book, 'The Hero with a Thousand Faces', is well worth reading for anyone interested in seeing just how deeply myth ( and the need for myth )is ingrained in the human soul. 🙂