We've been somewhat shocked to see so many people defending Joseph Campbell in the comments on our hero's journey post. Hey, we got stoned and read The Hero With A Thousand Faces in college, just like everybody else, and we thought it was super deep. All those primal archetypes and spiritual patterns were totally hardwired into the joint checking account of our collective unconscious. But that didn't mean we wanted to watch a thousand movies and read ten thousand books based on Campbell's dime-store anthropology. Here are some reasons why Campbell should go back on the shelf.It does seem, at least for genre films, that the Hero's Journey is overused. It has become less guidance and more checklist. Much like the standard three act structure of scriptwriting. It has it's detractors as well.
Use the tools, follow the rules and know when to ignore both.
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