The inner reaches of outer space: Metaphor as myth and as religion [Hardcover]

Joseph Campbell (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover: 155 pages
• Publisher: A. van der Marck Editions; First edition. edition (1985)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0912383097
• ISBN-13: 978-0912383095
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.3 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,408,594 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Joseph Campbell was an American author and teacher best known for his work in the field of comparative mythology. He was born in New York City in 1904, and from early childhood he became interested in mythology. He loved to read books about American Indian cultures, and frequently visited the American Museum of Natural History in New York, where he was fascinated by the museum's collection of totem poles. Campbell was educated at Columbia University, where he specialized in medieval literature, and continued his studies at universities in Paris and Munich. While abroad he was influenced by the art of Pablo Picasso and Henri Matisse, the novels of James Joyce and Thomas Mann, and the psychological studies of Sigmund Freud and Carl Jung. These encounters led to Campbell's theory that all myths and epics are linked in the human psyche, and that they are cultural manifestations of the universal need to explain social, cosmological, and spiritual realities.
After a period in California, where he encountered John Steinbeck and the biologist Ed Ricketts, he taught at the Canterbury School, and then, in 1934, joined the literature department at Sarah Lawrence College, a post he retained for many years. During the 40s and '50s, he helped Swami Nikhilananda to translate the Upanishads and The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna. He also edited works by the German scholar Heinrich Zimmer on Indian art, myths, and philosophy. In 1944, with Henry Morton Robinson, Campbell published A Skeleton Key to Finnegans Wake. His first original work, The Hero with a Thousand Faces, came out in 1949 and was immediately well received; in time, it became acclaimed as a classic. In this study of the "myth of the hero," Campbell asserted that there is a single pattern of heroic journey and that all cultures share this essential pattern in their various heroic myths. In his book he also outlined the basic conditions, stages, and results of the archetypal hero's journey.
Throughout his life, he traveled extensively and wrote prolifically, authoring many books, including the four-volume series The Masks of God, Myths to Live By, The Inner Reaches of Outer Space and The Historical Atlas of World Mythology. Joseph Campbell died in 1987. In 1988, a series of television interviews with Bill Moyers, The Power of Myth, introduced Campbell's views to millions of people.

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2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars PROFOUND!, April 13, 2006

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Ace (East Coast) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: Metaphor as Myth and as Religion (Paperback)

As above, so below, as within, so without, as in ancient times, so now.

Although Campbell's writing is sometimes convoluted, and/or grammatically wanting in some cases, the message, with sparse but extremely informative illustrations is a fascinating spiral of affinities between mysteries, between nations, between eons, ad infinitum. The message is not only read, but it is absorbed by osmosis.

For anyone who desires to know more about Joseph Campbell's philosophy, read this book -- whatever is not totally understood will still not detract from the final outcome -- your "aha!" moments far outweigh the concentration necessary to complete this short but concentrated tome.

2 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Spiritual Adventure, December 16, 2004

By 

John Hancock (Denver, Colorado) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Inner Reaches of Outer Space: Metaphor as Myth and as Religion (Paperback)

Chapters: Myth and the Body, Cosmology and Mythic Imagination [The Problem, Metaphor as Fact and Fact as Metaphor, Metaphors of Psychological Transformation, Threshold Figures, The Metaphorical Journey, Metaphorical Identification, The Net of Gems], The Way of Art.

Nice illustrations from Navajo sand painting, the Aztecs, the Egyptians, India, early Chinese, and others.

Highly recommended.