Thinking Creator

Once upon a time, I cranked out an awesome introductory essay for my thesis.  It was cut in the first round for being too chatty.   I just found it on my hard drive.   Here it is in all it’s rambly glory:

Music is a cultural artifact.  It exists in a specific time and place, and comes from a specific person from a specific culture and perspective.  Music, as an art, has the abilty to transcend all of this and speak beyond these attributes of its creation, but on balance this is but infintesmally small portion of the music that is and has been created.  The music that “makes the jump” does so because the emotions it explores and expresses (and the language which it uses to do so) are relevant and impactful to those outside its cultural heritage.

In the spring of 2008, Jon Bon Jovi was being interviewed on NPR regarding his entrance into country music.  Bon Jovi responded with an observation that his music has always been for bluecollar, factory workers and the like, and that that is now country music’s fan base, so it made total sense.  As I listened, I reflected on all the college graduates I know who are Bon Jovi fans, and the executives I’ve met who are country fans, and realized that where you’re from and where you work no longer demark us as they once did.  We choose our own culture.  I thought about the executives who see themselves as hard-workin’ country folk, and choose to identify with the music of Jon Bon Jovi.  This is a recent development, and will have an impact on art and everything that represents a culture.

Now that we choose our own cultural heritage; we choose the language and identity that best fits us.

Music as all arts, is attempting to express within itself the full range of human expression, and as culture and society changes, this goal continues to shift.

So, I think that there is often, –the music that people like and that speaks to people  says things that people already think, already feel, but can’t otherwise express it for themselves, its’ not so much that we are thinking for them, although in its worst sense that’s what happens, its that we’ve thought about this, we thought about it before they got there, and so now we have this piece of art, that expresses that emotion or idea, that they can listen and experience, which helps them get to that place, and they identify with that as such.

Couples talk about “our song” – it’s not so much that they wrote that song, but that song is their story, or captures their emotions about each other.  The artist didn’t know them and will probably never meet them… nevertheless those are emotions that the couple feels, and the art exhibits and is why they like the piece of art.

I think… Dvorak’s new world symphony, this wonderfully triumphant theme, its still sortof American, it’s a tribute to the wonders of America, and Americana, our sort of thanks for saving the world in ww1 and again in ww2, but its sortof this thank you note but also sort of a celebration of American individualism, tenacity and the sort of brashness, you know, there’s something, when those horns sweep, there’s something triumphant there, it comes as no small surprise that that’s the piece that gets ripped off or riffed off of for action movie themes, when the calvary comes in, or when our superhero breaks through the door.  Theres a great flyover scene in Narnia or Lord of the Rings where the theme is almost note for note the new world.  We’re in this huge battle, we’re all gonna lose, and here comes our heros, with a helicopter shot of our heros, over the side of a mountain.  That’s the scope of that melody, and we feel, that, I mean, Mahler doesn’t do.

Mahler does it, but he does it from a different perspective, he’s German, those are different horns, he uses them differently. So I think this is very true and has always been a part of music, but in my mind, it stands as one of the foremost, most important aspects of music, especially in today, as our world is shrinking, and our cultures are co-existing in a way they haven’t before.

As I mentioned in the very beginning, people are choosing their own cultures, something that has never really ever exactly happened before. So it is not so much, uh, European vs. American vs. urban, vrs Southern, vs Country, I mean we’ve got plenty of cross-pollarizations. It’s sortof the last vestiges of nationalism.

You can’t write like “I’m an American “ anymore because America isn’t really America anymore, depending on where you’re from… and Europe isn’t really European anymore, there’s a lot of tension all over the place, about new displaced peoples that are joining societies, and the tensions that arise from that. What happens if England is a majority muslim country? Are they still English? Is there something inherently English about England, that’s makes a muslim immigrant still English if they are muslim and don’t drink?  What ever happened to fish and chips and a beer? And to different standards about football and its role in the society.

Popular pieces perfectly capture a certain emotion a certain way, I look at pieces like Barbes Adagio for Strings, its just a sweeping gorgeous melody, it’s poignant and its tender, and its chystalline in its beauty, then we also have something on he other end, like James Brown’s I Got You I feel Good.

That opening expression, is such that it just perfectly captures that. That’s the reason.  Right there, that yell is why we listen to that song, is why its used as wedding recessionals.

Recessional, because that’s one of the most joyous occasions,  theres’ a little bit of a sense of overcoming, I’m sure, as all the planning has paid off. We’re finally married, ya know, it’s been forever that we’ve been planning this. You’re finally mine, I’m finally yours, we’re finally married (theres a RELEASE of tension).

There’s a lot in that yell, really. Most of us are not going to yell like that on our way out of our wedding. We might feel that way, but we’re not going to yell, so we have James Brown yell for us.

I look at things like Moonlight Sonata, or …. Popular tunes have a more clear indication of what their mood is, but even… there isn’a need for another moonlight sonata, it captures that so well.  I mean , I could write another version of moonlight sonata, but its just gonna make everyone wish we had played moonlight sonata.  I’ve been in those rehearsals where its like “this is nice, but theres that other piece that this reminds everybody of, and this piece doesn’t really do anything that that piece doesn’t do”…

So we write with the Specificity of our time and place as well.  There are some universal themes that just resonate for ages.  I look at James’ Brown’s “I Got You I Feel Good,”  I mean really, its on the same list as Moonlight Sonata,  There’s no need– until human society changes enough so that’s no longer an emotion we feel– that joyous, triumphant, celebration, (and I wouldn’t would to live in a society where there wasn’t a regular occurrence of those emotions)–  I’m not sure we need another one.

And that’s something that only the human voice is capable of.  That yelp- it’s not really a word, really, is not anything an orchestra can do, it’s not even something electronical stuff can do.  SO the specificity of our time and place is important; that plus culture is nationalism on the lowest possible level.  Nationalistic to me. Rather than, “I’m going to write American music,” its’ “I’m going to write Kyle Baker music”

I’m going to write the music of a person who’s father is a musician, and whose mother is a theatre person, who grew up in the suburbs of St. Louis while Nelly was the #1 Hip-Hop artist, St Louis, a very racially integrated community (compared to the rest of the US), where the popular radio stations were the Alt. Rock station that set the genre, KSHE95, which was ‘classic rock’, we also had a real oldies station (which I’ve missed as I’ve moved about), the St. Louis Symphony, and the St. Louis Rep and school dances where Nelly was played.  It was very much a musical city, it was also sortof the melting pot that you would expect.  I came up through public school music; wind ensemble, the marching band, jazz band,  I went to a large evangelical church and played electric bass in the high school rock n roll worship band.. I came up with some interesting experiences that really, I’m not sure that John Adams has ever played electric bass to a Matt Redman song before, and I don’t know that he needs to  to be John Adams, but certainly it’s a part of who I am, and it just adds one more thing to what’s going on.

So that’s what melds the music I’m writing. There’s also som things that havent’ been said. I’m trying to say the things that haven’t been said.  I don’t understand why, I don’t understand the qualitive division between pop and classical music.  We used to play a pops concert every spring, after contest, because it was going to be fun and “easier” than the contest music we played earlier in the spring.  In many ways that was always the more difficult music, we’d play grade 4 or 5 music for contest, and the pops music was only a 3, because we couldn’t get ready in time.  Every year, there was a least one piece where the syncopations were too difficult and the challenges were too great, and we weren’t able to play it in time for the concert.

There are some techniques in Vernacular music, especially American vernacular music, I think its just embarrassing that our classical music tradition in this country doesn’t teach them.  It’s certainly standard, and its certainly teachable- it’s being taught in plenty of vernacular music schools throughout the world, the fact we don’t teach our students our own freakin– it just doesn’t make any sense.  Part of it is that there really isn’t any music out there that does that, and that’s part of the gap I’m hoping to fill.  I don’t intend to write popular music for the concert hall, I intend to write concert music (or art music) from the vernacular tradition.

…

so I found out yesterday that a former coworker of mine committed suicide.  He was a fairly classic, “live hard, die young” personality that had a run-in with the police, and wound up ending his own life.

What do we do with an aimless generation..?  So committed the future, and with more resources than any previous people group, we are driven to out-run and out-play our forbears, amusing ourselves to death as the realization slowly dawns that NONE of what we have or can purchase, or hope to procure fills the void in ourselves OR mends the rifts in society.  The poor still starve, the rich still ignore, and our souls are still lonely.

I feel bad for his family.

Hi again!

I’ve recently begun to have a regular schedule again, and I’m hoping to write here for 30mins a day.  We’ll see how it goes.

Here’s the review I wrote for Naxos of Proclamations.

Proclamations, the new disc from the USAF Heritage of America Band, out on Klavier (via Naxos) is a great repetoire cd for wind ensemble enthusiasts.  The Highlight of the disk is “To Tame the Perilous Skies” by a fairly wide margin.  This gem by David Holsinger benefits greatly from the clean tones and precise articulations military bands are known for.

The rest of the disk is an informed romp through the triumphal band repetoire, devoid of the swagger and aggression I prefer in Wind Ensemble music.  In some ways the crispness f the ensemble detracts from the emotional impact.

Overall, this disc is a valuable resource recording for ensemble directors.

Beyond work, then, lies the territory of other generic human activities that deserve Christain affirmation,. We need a theological understanding of art, for example, as a worthy pursuit…We need a theological understand of sport as a worthy pursuit in its formation of character, in its symbolism (fair play, honest effort, clear rules, penalties for infractions, unequivocal outcomes) in its contribution to physical & mental health…

What is your theological understanding of Art, Sport, or Play?

What do you think God’s relationship is to these?

What should the relationship between our soul and our pastimes be?

To be sure, art, sport & play can be loved inordinately, as can anything else, as Augustine warns us throughout his Confessions. My point is that it is also possible to value them too lightly… God is interested in more than productivity and spirituality.  He made the whole world, he is redeeming the whole world, and he expects us to garden and reclaim the whole world with him.  Part of cultivating the whole world is cultivating ourselves within it to become the best possible version of ourselves.  And that means all that humanity can be, including art, sport, and play of all legitimate kinds.

Do you agree with Stackhouse?

Should we cultivate ourselves along with the earth?

“It is not enough to say…that institutions have been given to us by God in order to restrain evil.  … One of the blessed ironies of God’s providence is that sometimes even manifestly evil institutions benefit others, whether it is splendid art and architecture left behind as the empire withdraws, or infrastructure that enables others to build better lives once the hegemony has receded, and so on.”

“The fundamental ethical questions for groups, then, is precisely how they are contributing to shalom.”

“What it means to improve the world will depend on the theological framework in which the Christian makes her judgment, so we need to provide her with a theology adequate to that task. What exactly then, does an insurance company do, and what should it do? …What does a rock band do, and what should it do–with due regard not only for its audiences but also for its songwriters, other bands that it can help or hurt, its backers, so on?…Is the world better because of this group? Is this group contributing as much as it can to shalom?”

So what should be the role of an insurance company, rock band, magazine, be?

Economists view companies solely on their ability to produce profit.

Should we as Christians hold the same view?

Each sector of society, and the groups and individuals with those sectors…maintains a central concern to improve the earth, to garden the world, to increase shalom, and will therefore welcome and cooperate with others who have the same concern.”

“Each individual is called by God to play a particular role in the gardening of the world. No one is useless, no one is free of responsibility and each is called to contribute to the generic human task of contributing to Shalom. …

This calling is also, therefore, a blessing.  It sanctifies our work, makes it holy, as something God accepts from us with pleasure….To persist in a truly awful job is an act of faith. It shows not only that we trust God for our future, but also that we believe he is not wasting us now.

…

We each therefore should seek to understand ourselves as thoroughly as possible in order to become the best version of ourselves that we can and make the best contribution that we can.”

p. 242:

It makes no sense to make bad missionaries out of good artists.  The world suffers the loss of the good artistic work that would have been done by such people.  More particularly, the salt and light they would have brought to the artistic community never penetrate.  … Thus, again our evangelicalism ironically is restricted precisely by an excessive focus on evangelism.  The redemption commandments must be properly related to the creation commandments or they will all be compromised.

Making the Best of It: Following Christ in the Real World by John Stackhouse.

So, some great news!  Countermotion.org has one-upped themselves, and are now committing to 8 shows (up from the original 5) and will be paying some generous advances!  I may well be on my way to becoming a composer.  (If one considers professional marching band writers composers)  Hindemith would be proud.  I’m not sure if Copland or Adams would be.

This plus a recently cemented part-time creative arts gig at a church here in town means I may be able to leave my other unmentioned non-music gig more or less immediately.  I really need to crank out awesome shows, and that’s going to require some time & effort.

On the Theology & Arts front, I just finished John Stackhouse’s “Making the Best of It: Following Christ in the Real World”  Man I love well thought-out theology.  It’s nuanced, flexible, intelligent, and challenging.  Yay scholarship.

Theology and Arts 2:  Begbie finally has a program at Duke:  a Th.D in Theology & the Arts.

I met composer Michael Daughetry at a NSO event a few weeks ago.  I asked him questions about my music, and he offered to let me send him some.  I sent it. He said he “loved it” but I can’t decide if that’s just what he says to encourage folks, or if he actually means it.  The email literally said “I love it. Keep writing.”  Thanks Dr. Daugherty, I will.

TTFN.

Hi!  I do still exist!

The soundcrawl became increasingly more time consuming as we approached the event.  We’re still recovering.  Wonder of wonders, we got coverage by the 4 most influential (to me) media outlets in Nashville, which was a complete trip!

I learned quite a bit.  Some of which I’ll continue to share here.

but this post is also to test a new idea for one of my other sites….

I sent this To A Musician Engraved   sounds to a lady in NYC..

hm. that didn’t seem to work.

Oh.  he’s some material I wrote about Stanley Grenz’ “A Primer on Postmodernism” it’s relevant, I promise.

Stanley Grenz, “A Primer on Post Modernism”

Grenz opens this book with a phenomenal illustration of the differences between modernism and postmodernism:  Star Trek vs. Star Trek TNG.

In the original series, the enterprise’

s goal was to seek out and to a certain extent subdue the world around the ship.  Decisions were made by a forceful and daring captain, and his literary foil, Dr. Spock. 

“Spock was the ideal Enlightenment man, completely rational and without emotion…”

(p. 5)

Compare that with The Next Generation, whose Captain is a poet/philosopher, and a cast arrangement that is a subtle critique of the modernist views of its predecessor. 

The TNG Enterprise more frequently sought to understand its surroundings.

Captain Riker, is a model of the old world captain :brash, romantic, sometimes thoughtless…

.

Data is the updated Spock, but rather than “super” human in his perfection, he’s often seen as “sub”

human, limited because he can only be rational.. a frequent plot device.

The character Counselor Troi is added, solely concerned with the feelings and well being of the crew, a formal acknowledgement of post-modernity’

s acceptance and exploration of perception, feeling and mysticism.

Theology is openly considered, by the addition of the character “Q”

, an omniscient, omnipresent entity, who is both morally ambiguous and somewhat self-centered.

“Postmodernism represents a rejection of the Enlightenment project and the foundational assumptions on which it was built.”

P. 5.

The enlightenment assumes that the goal of a “utopian society”

can be attained through the scientific method and careful and thorough system building.  That all things can be eventually known and manipulated for the good of mankind.

“The postmodern mind refuses to limit truth to is rational dimension and thus dethrones the human intellect as the arbiter of truth. There are other valid paths to knowledge besides reason, say the postmoderns, including the emotions and intuition (Counselor Troi, anyone?-kjb)”

  grenz, p.7

“Knowledge cannot be merely objective, say the postmoderns, because the universe is not mechanistic and dualistic, but rather historical, relational, and personal.”

P. 7

“Technology transforms the intimacy of a ‘live performance’ into a mass gathering of fans who watch “live” videos together while being bombarded by special effects.”

P 37.

Grenz on how technology mediates, exacerbates and manipulates postmodern relationships.

Postmoderns..”live in a world in which the distinction between truth and fiction has evaporated.  Consequently they become collectors of experiences, repositories of transitory, fleeting images produced and fostered by the diversity of media forms endemic in postmodern society.”

P.38

The concept of postmoderns as “collectors of experiences” has a direct impact on church, especially as one considers churches who “produce”

their services.

“The postmodern era spells the end of the ‘universe’– the end of the all encompassing worldview… By replacing the modern worldview with a multiplicity of views and worlds, the post modern era has in effect replaced knowledge with interpretation.”

  P. 40.

“[The Enlightenment realists]…assert at least in theory that the human mind can grasp reality as a whole and hence that we can devise a true and complete description of the world the way it actually is. They maintain that we can attain sure knowledge…p. 41”

“Moderns simply assumed that all of humankind would eventually come to appreciate and strive to attain the benefits of the western ideal.”

P. 42

“The postmodern understanding of knowledge, therefore, is built on two foundational assumptions: (1) postmoderns view all explanations of reality as constructions that are useful but not objectively true, and (2) postmoderns deny that we have the ability to step outside our constructions of reality.”

P.43.

“The moderns believed that they were able to see the world as it really is.  The postmoderns say this was an illusion.”

P. 44.

This has a profound impact on teaching and persuasion across the board. In churches, in politics, in sales: everything.  When we argue for something’

s necessity based on data, or surveys, or other quantified descriptions of knowledge, we are standing on a basis rooted in modernism. 

“The question is no longer “is it true?” but “what use is it?”

p.48

I found Grenz’ work to be immediately helpful in explaining the bases for the postmodern view.  Awareness of these differences is slowly making its way around the world, just as postmodernism makes its way.  It’

s true that America in the future will be postmodern and postchristian, but this is not a shift to be fought politically.

Hello, I thought I’d jot a quick note about the SoundCrawl.  It’s becoming a bit of a circus, something is always going on, and it seems like  a million decisions have yet to be made.

1 – I now understand why festivals/contests charge for submission.  Our most devoted individuals are the hopeful participants.  Our budget is tiny, yet had we charged $5 per submission, we’d have quadrupled our budget this year.  That will very definitely change for next year.

2- Dear Artists:  please make art that is compelling and creates a continuous line.  Counterpoint is still the name of the game.

3- My own art needs better beginnings.  A few of my pieces start with a “come with me… on a journey… ” kind of statement, a pensive, sometimes self-conscious way of ASKing the audience to care.  Pieces that started that way 9/10 times did not receive a yes from the soundcrawl.   Like a string quartet, it needs to open with something awesome that generates its own interest.  ”Dang.  She’s good. I want to hear what’s next!”  Those guys got in.  Almost every time.

4- I learned an expensive lesson about sponsorship materials.  Once again, I over-communicated, showing too many of my cards, and wound up leaving some money on the table.  Lesson learned.   The up side is that I feel like I’m crossing the threshold into the world of arts admin “development.”

5- This art form is incredibly varied. I love that diversity.  We worked pretty hard to find a space for pieces that each major stream of the genre.  Everything from Hip-hop to sound collage.

6- Dear artists, stop being so self-indulgent.  Love, Soundcrawl.  Please don’t take 20 seconds to take us somewhere cool, and then spend 2 minutes telling us about what just happened.  Or repeating your awesome device 6 times.

7- We finally have narrowed our definition of what we’re looking for:  art that showcases the artists ability to manipulate audio, creating  a piece that relies on the artists vision, not the components of the piece.  Additionally, the works we seek are not those that seek to duplicate (however painstakingly) an acoustic artistic event.  A kazoo solo is a fine place to start a piece, but the electronic manipulation needs to be the main source of development, not the melody of the solo.  Film score in a techno, Jason Bourne kind of way?  awesome.  Film Score in a synthesized LOTR kind of way? Not awesome.  A ridiculous amount of tedious work goes into such a piece.  We have all kinds of respect for the field, but the focus of the festival is elsewhere.

Thats all for now… we’re still 6 weeks (ish) away from the event on October 3rd.  The final selections will be posted on the website soon

www.soundcrawlnashville.com

is a book that offers a theory of a “universal mono-myth” it was first published in the late 60s, and is the framework Lucas built the Star-wars saga, precipitating 40 years of continuous publication as storytellers in any format seek its guidance.  Interestingly, it is written by a psychologist, not a anthropologist, and sits in strange literature category.  Sometimes its a history book -this story, that story, how it ties into Freud, Jung, zeus, buddah, Jesus, Moses, king arthur, and God.  I read it in preparation for the 5 marching band shows I’m supposed to be writing, so I can get a feel for a proper story arc.

Oh, and I went ahead and annotated the quotes, hopefully it’ll explain why I included them.

104- There can be no question: the psychological dangers through which earlier generations were guided by the symbols and spiritual exercises of their mythological and religious inheritance, we today (insofar as we are unbelievers, or , if believers, in so fare as our inherited beliefs fail to represent the real problems of contemporary life) must face alone, or , at best with only tentative, impromptu, and not oftern very effective guidance. This is our problem as modern, “enlightened” individuals, for whom all gods and devils have been rationalized out of exitence.”

I was really surprised at how often Campbell comments on the post-modern/modern dilemma: secular humanism doesn’t allow myths, which leaves the world cold, and people without a framework in which to place themselves…so we go crazy, and have to hire psychologists and counselors, who replace the Shaman/priest of old with “science.” (oh good, it has numbers, the moderns will be happy)  Ironically, Freud names his disorders after greek and roman mythology….
157-

Luke 6:27-36…

“But I tell you who hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, ²⁸bless those who curse you, pray for those who mistreat you. ²⁹If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn to him the other also. If someone takes your cloak, do not stop him from taking your tunic. ³⁰Give to everyone who asks you, and if anyone takes what belongs to you, do not demand it back. ³¹Do to others as you would have them do to you.

³²“If you love those who love you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ love those who love them. ³³And if you do good to those who are good to you, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ do that. ³⁴And if you lend to those from whom you expect repayment, what credit is that to you? Even ‘sinners’ lend to ‘sinners,’ expecting to be repaid in full. ³⁵But love your enemies, do good to them, and lend to them without expecting to get anything back. Then your reward will be great, and you will be sons of the Most High, because he is kind to the ungrateful and wicked. ³⁶Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful.

Okay. Not a big deal, some nice verses from Jesus telling us to be nice to each other.  Campbell contrasts the above verses with this gem of a letter, overripe with ‘christian’ concepts and phrases…  (For those of you who are interested in “honoring the christian heritage of America,” this may come as quite a shock.)

In the year of our lord 1682

To ye aged and beloved, Mr. John Higginson:
There be now at sea a ship called Welcome, which has on board 100 or more of the heretics and malignants called Quakers, with W. Penn, who is the chief scamp, at the head of them. The Gerneral Court ahs accordingly given sacred orders to Master Malachi Huscott, of the brig Porpoise, to waylay the said Welcome slyly as near the Cape of Coad as may be, and make captive the said Penn and his ungodly crew, so the at the Lord may be glorified and not mocked on the soil of this new country with the heathen worship of these people. Much spoil can be made of selling the whole lot to Barbadoes, where slaves fetch good prices in rum and sugar and we shall not only do the Lord great good by punishing he wicked, but we shall make great good for His minister and people.

Yours in the bowels of Christ
Cotton Mather

Proessor Robert Phillips, American Government and its Problems. Houghton Mifflin co, 1941

Wow.  Awesome guys!  So England really WAS a Christian Nation!  Right?  Look at all those great phrases!  Yikes.  Obviously, Penn either wasn’t abducted, or got out or we wouldn’t have PENNSylvania.

168

The tea ceremonies of Japan are conceive in the spirit of the Taoist earthly paradise.  The tear room, called “the abode of fancy” is a n ephemeral structure built to enclose a moment of poetic intuition.  Called too “the abode of vacancy,” it is devoid of ornamentation.  Temporarily it contains a single picture or flower-arrangement. The teahouse is called the “abode of the unsymmetrical” the unsymmetrical suggests movement; the purposely unfinished leaves a vacuum into which the imagination of the beholder can pour.
The guest approaches by the garden path, and must stoop through the low entrance. He makes obeisance to the picture or flower arrangement, to the singing kettle , and takes his place on the floor. The simplest object, framed by the controlled simplicity of the tea house, stands out in mysterious beauty, its silence holding the secret of temporal existence. Each guest is permitted to complete the experience in relation to himself. The members of the company thus contemplate the universe in miniature, and become aware of their hidden fellowship with the immortals”

This I thought was fascinating, in light of Siedell’s observations about Postmodern art being concerned with creating spaces, transendant moments, and objects for contemplation.  The stillness and mild absurdity reminds me of both the Rothko chapel and the Gober 2001 Chicago installation.  The creation of experience, rather than object…(or objects created to serve an experience).
190
The agony of breaking through personal limitations is the agony of spiritual growth. Art, literature, myth and cult, philosophy, and ascetic disciplines are instruments to help the individual past his limiting horizons into spheres of ever-expanding realizaaion. As he crosses threshold after threshold, conquering dragon after dragon, the stature of the divinity that he summons to his highest wish increases, until it subsumers the cosmos. Finally, the mind breaks the bounding sphere of the scosmos to a realization transcending all experiences of form-all symbolizations, all divinities: a realization of the ineluctable void.

Pretty much his psychology-unified-myth theory in a nutshell.  I’m pretty sure this guy was drinking the eastern-religion kool-aid.

Okay- here’s the story arc he finally gives us towards the end of the book:

1) The mythological hero, setting forth from his commonday hut or castle, is lured, carried away, or else voluntarily proceeds, to the threshold of adventure.
2) There he encounters a shadow presence that guards the passage.
3) The hero may defeat or conciliate this power and go alive into the kingdom of the dark(brother-battle, dragon-battle, offering, harm), or be slain by theopponent and descend in death (dismemberment, crucifixion).
4) Beyond the threshold, then, the hero journeys through a world of unfamiliar yet strangely intimate forces, some of which severely threaten him (tests), some of which give magical aid (helpers).
5)  When he arrives at the nadir of the mythological round, he undergoes a sureme ordeal and gains his reward.
6)  The triumph may be represented as the hero’s sexual union with the goddess-mother of the world (sacred marriage), his recognition by the father-creator (father atonement), his own divinization (apotheosis), or again-if the powers have remained unfriendly to him-his theft of the boon he came to gain (bride-theft, fire-theft); intrinsically it is an expansion of consciousness and therewith of being (illumination, transfiguration, freedom).
7) The final work is that of the return. If the powers have blessed the hero, he now sets forth under thir protection (emissary; if no, he flees and is pursued (transformation flight, obstacle flight). At the return hreshold the transcendental pwers must remain behind; the hero re-emerges from the kingdom of the dread (return, resurrection)
The boon that he brings resores the world (elixir)

256- symbolic expression is given to the unconscious desires, fears, and tensions that underlie the conscious patterns of human behavior. Mythology, in other words, is psychology misread as biography; history and cosmology.

Back to the psycholgy again.. myths serve the psych. needs of the community that keeps them.  This reminds me of the new mega-church book that talks about how these church grow primarily by meeting the psychological needs of their attenders.

257-
We must understand that they (mythological figures) are not only symptoms of the unconscious, but also controlled and intended statements of certain spiritual principles, which have remained as constant throughout the course of human history as the form and nervous structure of the human physique itself.

All myths are universal, the need for all myths is darn-near eternal.  I included these quotes because I think it sets up the author perspective pretty well.

388-
The problem of mankind today, therefore, is precisely the opposite to that of men in comparatively stable periods of those great coordinating mythologies which now are known as lies.  Then all meaning was in the group, in the great anonymous forms, none in the self-expressive individual; today no meaning is in the group- none in the world: all is in the individual. But there the meaning is absolutely unconscious. One does not know toward what one moves. One does not know by what one is propelled. The lines of communication between the conscious and the unconscious zones of the human psyche have been cut, and we have been split in two.
The hero-deed to be wrought is not today what it was in the century of Galileo. Where there was darkness, now there is light; but also, where light was, there now is darkness.  The modern here-deed must be that of questing to bring to light again the lost Atlantis of the coordinated soul.

Boom.  His conclusion.  I point again to the observation that successful organizations are growing by meeting the psychological needs of their adherents. Look at the nerve Obama touched in his supporters, or Biggest Loser, or the Starbucks-third-place phenomena.

Kay. I’m done with the italics, there’s no more quotes so I haven’t confused you.  I’m not sure Campbells call to unifying our souls has been successful.  I’m not sure individualist individuals seeking their own self-actualization has necessarily benefited society. I have plenty of artsy friends (myself included) who spend an inordinate amount of time trying to figure themselves out, but like any small g god, it never seems to be placated, nor does the search itself seem to fruitful in other regards.  I would tend to see the “the dissatisfaction in my life is because I have not unified the two halves of my soul” as a lie and distraction.  File it under the heading “dying to self.”  Campbell makes a good point these heros have to die to themselves (sometimes literally), or sacrifce to proceed to their goal/journey/save the world.  I think our post-modern envy of pre-modern cultures is just grass is greener, and ultimately misplaced.  We’re excited they lived in community, ate organic food, married young and kept family bonds; they’d be excited we have indoor plumbing, washing machines, dishwashers and the like.  In short, we’re jealous that they had peace in parts of their lives in which we have tension and frustration, and vice versa. Which is really the eternal problem of comparison, I don’t really ever value what it is I already have.  I’m amazed by what You have, I covet it for my life, and I’m completely oblivious to the things in my life which You and Others are secretly coveting in mine.

We do this as individuals, families, communities, regions and even nations.

If we could take campbells work and see ourselves as the heros who need to die to self in order to succeed, I think it will be much more fruitful for everyone.