Review of The Hero With a Thousand Faces

That's right boys and girls, this is the book that got everyone and their uncle started on that "monomyth" thing. It's been around for a bloody long time--almost two generations now--and it's still the book to start with when you seek to understand just who, what, where, why, and how all of this stuff got started.

This isn't light summer reading. It's a thick book, and it's quite hefty on the references. If you're like most folks, and you're not up on your world mythology, it'll take a fair bit of re-reading. That won't make it too difficult to follow along, but it will prompt you to double-check now and again. It helps if you have prior experience with Joe's theory, or with mythology in general, or if you're familiar with how to write fiction.

The theory, if you haven't heard it, is that all myths are really one myth. This is the source of the book's title, and Joe does a damned good job of explaning his position. He contends that, because all are one, it's easy to to put together the formula for heroic mythology- just like you can put down the formula for slasher flicks, romantic comedies, and other such tales.

Joe spends the prologue defining the myth, and then explaning the terms that he uses. He goes on about myth and dream, tragedy and comedy, what he calls "The World Navel", and the Hero and the God. This is necessary because it sets the stage for the body of the text, which is all about the Hero's Journey.

The journey has three parts. The first is the departure, the second is the initiation, and the third is the return. White Wolf Game Studio made a lot of noise in past years about how they intended their games to follow this model. This was one of those times when I wish that their intentions were better respected; even with the superficial overview published in "Changeling" and elsewhere, it's a significant improvement over the the whiny-angst fests and KoDT-like hack-a-thons of too many World of Darkness campaigns.

The departure is all about the hero getting out of his day-to-day life and answering the call to adventure. He resists at first, like most would, but events conspire against this inertia and catapult him upon the road to his destiny. This phase ends when he cross the threshold into the Special World (whatever it's called).

The initiation is where the hero meets his challenge. He faces the monsters, defeats the villains, and achieves whatever goals he had to accomplish. They need not be the same as what he set out to do--just re-watch the existing Star Wars trilogy--but it doesn't hurt. This phase ends when the hero crosses back to the Ordinary World.

The return is when the hero takes what he learned on his quest and either succeeds or fails when he uses it to surmount the final tasks- the ones that probably sent him out to begin with. This is also where, if the hero fails somehow, the hero gets killed or becomes a villain.

The next part of the book goes into all of the permuations of the basic formula. The hero-becomes-villain (Anakin Skywalker), the hero as world redeemer (Luke Skywalker), the hero's departure and so much more. It also covers the metaphysical aspect of the formula, and the role of gender in all of this.

The epilogue covers myth and society. It addressed the presence of shapeshifters, heroes and society, and the modern (as in contemporary) hero of today. For those seeking to use this book with present-day or near-future settings, this is what you need to pay attention to most.

Read this book. You'll get a lot more out of it than just better gaming skills.

Style: 4 (Classy and well done)
Substance: 5 (Excellent!)