The Writers Journey: Mythic Structure for Writers, 2nd Edition
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Product Description
In 1993, The Writer’s Journey became one of the most well loved books on writing of the last 50 years. Now, the 2nd Edition provides new insights and observations from Vogler’s pioneering work in mythic structure for writers.Amazon.com Review
At the beginning of The Writer’s Journey, Christopher Vogler asserts that “all tales consist of a few common structural fundamentals establish universally in myths, fairy tales, dreams, and movies.” Some may be hard-pushed to accept this thought (and will marvel how storytellers from Homer to Shakespeare to Robert Altman might respond to the proposition). Others may imagine that since Vogler uses movies like the Star Wars trilogy and The Lion King to defend his mythological philosophy, he is, unwittingly, listing the reasons why Hollywood films of the last 20 years have been so unimaginative. But there’s no doubt that Vogler’s notion, based on psychological writings by Carl Jung and the mythmaking philosophy of Joseph Campbell, has been very much influential. Many screenwriters have used Vogler’s volume to know why certain scenarios sell, and to learn a blueprint for making mythic tales of their own.
Now in its second edition, The Writer’s Journey sets into the world archetypes common in what Vogler calls “the hero’s journey,” the mythic structure that he claims all tales follow. In the book’s first section, he lists the different kinds of typological characters who appear in tales. In the second, he discusses the stages of the journey through which the hero generally passes. The final, supplementary part of the book clarifies in detail how films like Titanic and The Full Monty follow the patterns he has outlined. –Raphael Shargel
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This was an appealing read. Are you a budding writer? A budding leader of anything? Need to know how to place in the twists? Pull in things that have historically agreed an edge to mythology … this book will help you!
Reader’s Rating: 4 / 5
A Review
A Writer’s Journey
by
Christopher Vogler
I liked this book, let’s get that understood at the outset. I liked it and I would recommend it to anyone with an interest in writing, the written word, movies, television, musical theatre, opera or any art form.
Mr. Vogler place into words and clarified concepts and thoughts that I had perhaps instinctively known but never really consciously applied to my tales. A number of times during my reading I could nearly hear my mothers voice adage, “wow, I knew that!” a term she was known to exclaim when a name articulated an thought that was instinctively hers.
Now I am not a published leader, unless you count the letters to the editor I have had printed in our local newspaper. Writing is not my sole means of support although I do produce detailed written instructions and drawings in my “ordinary world” as Mr. Vogler calls it. So where do I get the thought that I am qualified to criticize a critically acclaimed professional scribe? Is this a fantastic country or what?
That said there are several things that bother me about The Writers Journey. Tiny things that taken together probably “don’t amount to a hill of beans” in my ordinary world but taken together made this learning experience to some extent less jolly then it might have been.
Some here may find these complaints nitpicking or unimportant and I have to admit they may be right. Others may question why I felt the need to foist my opinion on the class. I’ll only say that since this is part of my daily writing assignment why should I have to suffer my writing alone. Finally some will find one of my complaints sexist even though I add the caveat that while I endeavor to be a gentleman I am not a sexist. As a matter of fact two of my largest heroes are my wife and my mother. My wife for having had the courage to bear two sons and place up with me for the past twenty-seven years and my mother who has “place up” with me more then twice as long. I simply offer my observations for you consideration. Accept or reject them as you will but please don’t try to mark me. In our quick food overnight manner of language instant mail (e-mail) I want it now culture we are way to quick to stick marks on everything and everyone. Extend me the courtesy of not trying to mark me, until you get to know me better, and I’ll reciprocate. Otherwise I’ll just figure you’re a commie pinko ultra leftist liberal neo-con rightwing neo-nazi sexist homophobic fundamentalist pig. (Have I offended everyone now?)
If you intend to read The Writers Journey, and I fervently urge you to do so, and prefer not to take the chance to be influenced by my observations do not read any further in this review.
There are any number of ways to read a book. Some people delight in reading the end first and then start at the beginning. Others start in the middle while some may jump around willy-nilly reading in no particular order. My first reading of any book starts with the front take in and finishes at the back take in, reading everything in between in the order it was manufactured.
Hence my first complaint happened before I even got to the Table of Contents. On the back of the Title Page where the copyright and publishing information are located was one tiny bit of information that probably should not have bothered me but that did. Why, I questioned myself did the publisher or whomever find it necessary to let me know that they plant two trees for every tree used in the manufacture of this book? What useful purpose did that serve? Was it supposed to make me “feel excellent” about the publisher or the leader and their concern for the environment? What it did accomplish was to make me marvel if this book or leader didn’t have some particular axe to grind that he would assail me with in the body of the work. As it turns out he didn’t and on the page facing that sentence the dedication appeared. Hey, it can’t be that terrible, I thought, when the leader honors his parents. I struggle but sometimes even the simplest things raise these questions.
Told you that you might reflect I nit-pick. You were warned.
My second complaint has to do with the authors seemingly over-concern regarding gender bias. This concern, primarily regarding his descriptions of the “hero” and the hero’s actions and feelings, was reasonably apparent to me throughout his work. In attempting to be, in my opinion, politically right. I thought he went overboard in describing the hero and the hero’s actions as “she” and “her,” especially when the majority of his examples were of the male gender. It was disconcerting to me to be reading about “she” and “her” and then read an example of “he”. There were also times when the leader would switch genders from one section to another that tended to make the sections to some extent disjointed.
In the preface Mr. Vogler takes fantastic care in describing what he feels to be the differences between the female and the male journeys but then uses the examples he offers as seemingly interchangeable. This to some extent muddied the unique differences he earlier referred to. I was hoping for a clearer delineation of the different journeys.
Finally (about time eh?) I did a double-take while reading Mr. Vogler’s “Refusal of the Call” section where he suddenly, while discussing the artist as hero, changes from writing in the third person to the first. There was something else about that section but and I had to read it and the ones preceding and following several times before deciding what it was, additional then the change in voice, that bothered me. In the end I chose that that section was rather self-serving and out of tone with the rest of the book. In that section while using the “we” in discussing artists he seems to imply that to be a right artist one must suffer (my word) for his art. He also asserts that the right artist-hero must refuse the call of the “blandishments of the world”. This whole section seemed, well, proud and out of place.
Additional then these three complaints I liked the book. Better yet I learned from it. I don’t judge I’ll ever watch a movie or play or read a novel in reasonably the same way as I used to.
Buy this book. Read it. Make some or all of the information in it yours. Your writing will be the better for it.
Al
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5
This book is a simple, straigforward, undisguised, and apparantly unashamed plagarism of Campbell’s “Hero with 1000 faces.” The difference is that Campbell, though now to some extent dated, was an intellegent, educated, and entertaining writer; Vogler has nothing unique or original to offer to a work written over fifty years ago.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
TWJ took a while for me to get into. Although I’m not a fan of mythic novels, I reflect any supposed guide should be written so that a name unfamiliar with it’s theme can know it. I didn’t get that with The Writers Journey. What I received was a book with a decent take in that bored me.
Reader’s Rating: 1 / 5
Gracious readers’ of my various reviews must start to feel like confessors. I say this with tongue just half in cheek because it seems like some of my recent reviews have ongoing with confessions haha. I confess this tome took me a while to end. That was due to subjective reasons but and in no way is a reflection of Volger’s work. In this resource/book Volger draws heavily on Joseph Campbell’s THE POWER of MYTH so further his analogy that writing no matter what the medium is deeply indebted to Myths and archetypes. He then proceeds to define some common archetypal characters establish in stage, screen, and in fiction. After presenting in layperson’s terms the various archetypes establish in these mediums Volgel then places them in context as how useful they are as tools to the aspiring writer and provides examples from classic and contemporary sources.
As I confessed this wasn’t a breeze to read as far as I am concerned, in fact it uncharacteristically took me months to end. This is not because Volger’s book or journey was dry or pedantic, rather each unit or chapter was written to invite reflection, and for the really motivated exercises. I nibbled pieces of this rich offering happily allowing each chapter to be digested until I read more.
I am an aspiring writer(unpublished but hopefully not eternally unpublished teehee), yet am too subjective to state unequivicably rather this title helps me my writing, although I suspect it is inevitable that it will. I can say lacking doubt that reading Vogel’s Writer’s Journey I am a more enriched and discerning reader of additional’s fiction/plays/screenplays.
One last tidbit, although I have said Vogel refers to Campbell’s THE POWER of MYTH frequently,in fact so much so that is in my TBR pile in VERY near future, that book is not a prerequisite for a fulfilling understanding of this one.
THE WRITERS JOURNEY is a trip that is infinite in page numbers but infinite in scope as far as its resourcefulness and prose goes. Don’t want to end review with terrible sentence structures hahar but oh well.
Reader’s Rating: 5 / 5