Skin Horse

By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
By Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells
Color by Pancha Diaz
  • About Us
  • Cast
  • Store
  • Extras
  • Original Art for Sale
  • Our Patreon
RSS
2016-05-31
‹‹ First ‹ Prev Buy! Comments(31) Next › Last ››

2016-05-31

by Jeffrey C. Wells on May 31, 2016 at 12:01 am
Chapter: Can't Catch Me
Comments RSS

Discussion (31) ¬

  1. Alphaghoul
    May 31, 2016, 12:09 am | # | Reply

    Who’s Joseph Campbell?

    • John Campbell
      May 31, 2016, 12:21 am | # | Reply

      My cousin.

    • Kingfisher
      May 31, 2016, 12:38 am | # | Reply

      Joseph Campbell is an author most remembered for the concept of “The Hero’s Journey”, a series of storytelling tropes that is widely used in popular culture.

      • jdreyfuss
        January 28, 2020, 9:57 am | # | Reply

        It’s not just popular culture. It’s basically a template for one of the mythological plots that exists in most civilizations.

    • Towering Barbarian
      May 31, 2016, 1:30 am | # | Reply

      Further details about the sort of tropes Mr. Campbell thought he detected may be found here.

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth

      My own feeling is that Mr. Campbell had the weakness shared by too many folklorists (such as James “Golden Bough” Frazier, Robert Graves, Jane “Themis” Harrison and Margaret “Witch Cult” Murray) of taking too much a “one size fits all” approach to both folklore and mythology. @_@

      • Urlance Woolsbane
        May 31, 2016, 1:55 am | # | Reply

        I’m not overly familiar with Campbellian Monomyth, but I get the impression that it amounts to glorified cliche.

        This may, of course, be deeply unfair.

        • woozy
          May 31, 2016, 2:46 am | # | Reply

          Not really. I do actually kind of like him, but there’s no denying he’s way overdone and over simplified (which I guess isn’t really his fault).

          • casimir
            May 31, 2016, 9:59 am | #

            I liked him too. His enthusiasm for mythology was contagious. His downfall was that he let himself be co-opted by George Lucas.

          • Bryce
            May 31, 2016, 5:53 pm | #

            Yeah, it’s the oft-repeated error where “you can kinda think of it like this” becomes “things have to work this way.”

        • jdreyfuss
          January 28, 2020, 9:58 am | # | Reply

          There’s nothing wrong with a formulaic plot. It allows the creator to focus more on story and character. It’s when the formulaic plot becomes the story, rather than the backbone of the story, that it’s a problem.

      • Robert Nowall
        May 31, 2016, 8:24 am | # | Reply

        Well, when I read a couple of his works, I thought them dull—but that was some time ago, and I was looking less for information and more for entertainment. Perhaps they’d read better if I read them now.

        Of course I got the information…important, it was, too, for cultural history and for writers trying to craft stroies. Start with “The Hero With a Thousand Faces.”

      • commodorejohn
        May 31, 2016, 12:06 pm | # | Reply

        I’ve always been a bit curious whether there’s more to Campbell’s “monomyth” than nigh-tautological assertion that all stories are basically the same when you strip away everything that makes them different.

        But not curious enough to bother reading his book.

        • Fal Leithani
          September 26, 2016, 5:28 am | # | Reply

          Knowing what all cars have in common is extremely important if you want to build one that works. Or take one apart without breaking it. Or even invent a new design that breaks the mold and improves upon the standard.

          The monomyth is essentially a patent. It’s not a proper story in and of itself, but it illustrates enough of the details of how stories function to form a complete and functional model.

          • Chris
            December 9, 2016, 6:36 pm | #

            On the other hand, knowing what all cars have in common, and thinking that it’s what all vehicles have in common, will leave you very confused when you see a boat.

          • Fal Leithani
            April 23, 2017, 10:32 pm | #

            @Chris: Even after making that critical (and avoidable) error, I think that an experienced car mechanic could still be much better equipped to understand the first boat they see than someone who is more open-minded but has only a passing familiarity with other vehicle types.

            That said, this could be argued to simply be an example of the critical difference between information and understanding. Anyone who *really* understands how cars work would be able to see lots of non-car possibilities and potential applications for the various parts and systems a car contains. They wouldn’t make the mistake of believing themselves to be fully-informed.

  2. Towering Barbarian
    May 31, 2016, 1:22 am | # | Reply

    Questing heroes are often more practical in that regard then people seem to realize. ^_^

  3. williamrwinters
    May 31, 2016, 2:44 am | # | Reply

    wait wait wait, I thought bringing back more snacks was one of the last stages of the myth cycle, after confronting the father figure.

    • BMunro
      May 31, 2016, 2:49 am | # | Reply

      Wasn’t that bringing home the bacon?

      • waynezombie
        May 31, 2016, 7:25 am | # | Reply

        Bacon. Snacks. The difference does not concern a Jedi.

  4. Alabat Macord
    May 31, 2016, 4:00 am | # | Reply

    Oh, the inhaler. So that is why I never became mythical heron. I always wondered.

    • Nix
      May 31, 2016, 6:14 am | # | Reply

      It’s hard to notice, but mythical heroes never have crippling hay fever or asthma. Missing limbs, sure. Sneezing ten times a minute? That tends to put a crimp on *any* heroic mission — at least any that doesn’t take place entirely in wintertime.

      • Mental Mouse
        May 31, 2016, 9:20 am | # | Reply

        There’s one series about a wizard who’s allergic to magic…

      • Robert Nowall
        May 31, 2016, 7:34 pm | # | Reply

        One of the famous Seven Dwarfs was known for his sneezing fits…

    • Urlance Woolsbane
      May 31, 2016, 6:48 pm | # | Reply

      Yes, allergies are rather an obstacle when it comes to changing into a legendary bird.

  5. OneUniverse
    May 31, 2016, 6:49 am | # | Reply

    For a mad scientist, Virginia sure needs someone to show her how to board up a place: What particular hole is she worrying about, anyway?

    • Pygar
      May 31, 2016, 8:16 am | # | Reply

      The snake’s exit hole?

  6. Robert Nowall
    May 31, 2016, 7:37 am | # | Reply

    Alfie: guy. The middle cobras: girls. Meg: girl? No wonder Alfie’s such a messed-up teenager…

    • s854
      June 2, 2016, 7:48 pm | # | Reply

      Timmy is probably still around there somewhere.

  7. bergerjacques
    May 31, 2016, 3:09 pm | # | Reply

    Did they say “So Long, Norman?”

  8. Guesticus
    May 31, 2016, 4:44 pm | # | Reply

    Poor Meg 🙁
    Not only did they leave her behind, the snakes took all the snacks! 🙁

  9. Smithnik
    June 1, 2016, 12:34 pm | # | Reply

    Actually, sneezing is at the core of a number of traditional folktales, just not the ones that Campbell was talking about. For example:
    http://www.uexpress.com/tell-me-a-story/2012/8/12/three-sneezes-an-estonian-folktale

    Campbell was talking more about the “epic” stories, which is why Star Wars fit in so nicely. There are certain elements that are very common in such stories. If you have trouble reading Campbell’s prose, try to find the PBS series that he did. That is much easier to digest. His actual ideas about story structure and folklore really are very interesting. They may not be universal, but they really do apply to a lot of stories from a lot of cultures.

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

More by Jeff

  • The Scrivnarium

More by Shaenon

  • Horror Every Day
  • Li'l Mell
  • Monster of the Week
  • Narbonic
  • Shaenon.com
Creative Commons License
Skin Horse by Shaenon K. Garrity & Jeffrey C. Wells is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported License.
Based on a work at http://www.skin-horse.com.

©2007-2022 Skin Horse | Powered by WordPress with ComicPress | Subscribe: RSS | Back to Top ↑