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What are readers saying about The Masks of God: Creative Mythology v. 4 (Arkana)?
| Reviews of The Masks of God: Creative Mythology v. 4 (Arkana) - Page 1 of 1 | «1»
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A Reader posted a review at 2008-08-08 10:07:06.
(Language: English)
 
I've read everything by Joseph Campbell -- all are extraordinary.
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A Reader posted a review at 2011-01-08 10:31:56.
(Language: English)
This volume is the conclusion of Campbell's four-part Masks of God series. Of the four volumes, it is possibly the hardest to get into, but the challenge of reading mirrors the content. After the peak of the Middle Ages, humanism and rationalism began to dismantle the grip of Christian myth on Western thinking. This book follows how myth has transformed by secularism, science, and eastern religion since that time. Several artworks are discussed in detail: the Grail legend, Picasso's Guernica, Mann's The Magic Mountain, and Joyce's Ulysses. In each work, traditional western myths are reimagined and reinterpreted. Campbell ties together threads that were first introduced in Primitive Mythology, and even points to possible directions for mythology in the future. The only shortcoming I found-- and this is a quibbling one, seeing as this volume clocks in at well over 600 pages-- is a lack of discussion of the current state of eastern religions. After the volume on Oriental Mythology, eastern religion is only treated in its affect on the west. But despite this one omission, I wholeheartedly recommend this book-- this entire series-- to anyone who wants to learn the entire history of mythology, written in an engaging, energized style, with intellectual rigor and a captivating narrative of mankind.
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A Reader posted a review at 2007-12-04 07:55:49.
(Language: English)
Scholarly read, more comparative literature mixed with cultural anthropology. However, this is one volume in Campbell's seminal scholarly work. This one, the last one, deals with the modern mythic development and opens the door to the influences which are still in operation in present day. Deals with how the concept of love came to replace and eventually supplant the idea of the mythic God, and how individuals are now selecting and creating individual mythologies instead of cleaving to a single societal norm.
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