Malcolm R. Campbell's Blog, page 29

Joseph Campbell Study Guides

“We are excited to announce the launch of a new series of study guides for books by Joseph Campbell. Written by a team of today’s experts in myth, these guides help readers experience and apply Campbell’s visionary ideas. The first book in the series, Goddesses: A Skeleton Key Study Guide is available now.” – Joseph Campbell Foundation

Some years ago, Campbell had a series of televised conversations with Bill Moyers about comparative mythology that brought his ideas to a large audience. I’m happy to see this study guide project and hope it will facilitate a deeper understanding of Campbell’s work.

Amazon Listing Description

“In this Skeleton Key Study Guide to Joseph Campbell’s Goddesses: Mysteries of the Feminine Divine, you’ll find summaries of Campbell’s views about many different goddesses, as well as quotes, reading suggestions, discussion topics, and prompts for essays and creative projects.”

If you’re a fan of Campbell’s work, you can find a lot to explore on the Joseph Campbell Foundation website. Otherwise, these guides will help you with the basics.

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell followed Joseph Campbell’s “Hero’s Journey” motif in writing the contemporary fantasy novels, “The Sun Singer” and its sequel “Sarabande.” The basis for the hero’s journey comes from Campbell’s “The Hero With a Thousand Faces.”

Remembering ‘I’m OK – You’re OK’

Eric Berne (Games People Play) and Thomas A. Harris (I’m OK – You’re OK) were both popular for their books that were widely considered “self-help” books that focused on the theories of transactional analysis (TA) and script theory. While the value of TA was debated by experts who, like Berne, were trained psychoanalysts, I found the concept to be very workable in industry courses in supervision and management in the 1970s.

The concepts were easy to understand and helped explain why “messed up” (to use that technical term again) interactions between supervisors and subordinates led to trouble. Script theory and games were outside the parameters of the courses we wrote, so Harris’ book suited our needs best because it worked so well showing how a  “crossed transaction” could occur and tangle up relationships in the workplace.

I have no idea whether or not clinical psychologists used any of these theories in private practice or not. In my work for the Illinois Department of Mental Health, we used–and were successful with– behavioral conditioning. Many of our patients were developmentally disabled and often nonverbal, so the concepts of TA would have been impossible to apply in most cases.

There’s a lot of nostalgia looking back on TA, Games, and Scripts because they were part of my work at two organizations where those in the courses provided positive feedback about the concepts. Personally, I think Harris’ book would still provide help to many individuals today who find they’re constantly getting into arguments with family and friends over issues arising out of their communication with each other.

–Malcolm

Weird stuff in the in-basket

If you have an e-mail account, chances are weird stuff shows up in your in-basket unless you paid somebody $10000000 to install blockers from multiple companies to make sure weird stuff doesn’t get delivered.

One scam is an e-mail from somebody you’ve never heard that has the word “confirmation” in the header. I never open these because I know it’s somebody trolling for customers by making me think I already ordered something from them.Then there’s the header that says “Did we do something wrong?” These come from companies I may or may not have ordered from, but haven’t bought anything recently. Half of them come from people I’ve never heard of. These also go in the trash.Then there are the astrologers and Tarot readers who send me messages like, “I’ve been thinking about you lately because the universe has a message for you. See my free reading to see what it is.” I click on some of these things out of curiosity. The readings generally tell me I’m all-powerful, have high energy levels, and am destined to do great things. All I have to do is pay $29 a month to learn how to unlock my potential. Occasionally, I respond by asking, “If I’m all-powerful, wouldn’t my power show me what to do?” They say that most people just need a little help like jump-starting a car. Ah, so that’s how it works. It’s time to select the “unsubscribe” option.Malcolm, we heard from girls on the street that the little blue pill is no longer doing its job to fix your ED problem. I don’t respond to these because I don’t consort with “girls on the street” and I I did, I’d have to get my wife’s permission. That’s not happening. If I did respond, I’d say, “Sister Fortune already sold me I’m all-powerful, so that means that I don’t have an ED problem.”Malcolm, according to our records you’re trying to make a go of it by being a writer. If what doesn’t work, we’d like to enroll you in our fast-track grave digger’s course. Lots of people are kicking the bucket these days, and you can earn good money getting rid of the bodies. Free shovels to the first 100 people who ask about our program. I respond, “The object in the picture is not a shovel. If you think it is, you can’t help me.” I don’t hear back from them after that.Dear Mr. Campbell, did you write the article entitled “Telling the Difference Between a Spade and a Shovel”?  Seriously, I get a lot of inquiries like this because I’m a writer. Most of these are legit,  but not as much fun as those e-mails that are scams.

–Malcolm

Malcolm R. Campbell is the author of satire, magical realism, paranormal, and contemporary fantasy novels and short stories.

Remembering ‘Elizabeth R’ today

Of all her work, I most liked Glenda Jackson’s  (9 May 1936 – 15 June 2023) portrayal of Queen Elizabeth I in the 1971 BBC TV docudrama more than any of the others in that role.  Helen Mirren is a favorite of mine, and she did a good job, but I like Jackson’s work better. Jackson is probably best remembered for “Women in Love” and “A Touch of Class.” We can only guess what else she might have done as an actress had she not been gone almost three decades during her political career.

Since I’m of Scots ancestry, I take a dim view of the English Monarchy, and so “Elizabeth R” impacts me because I not only liked the acting but have always disliked Elizabeth I. My feelings about her are fueled in large measure due to her illegal imprisonment and execution of Mary Queen of Scots. Like a modern soldier or political figure, Mary’s first duty was to escape (as I see it), so punishing her for plots (the Ridolfi and Babington plots), against Elizabeth as crimes instead of acts of war was unconscionable.

As you can tell, my bias in favor of Mary over Elizabeth is very strong. That’s why I remember the TV series. Watching it, I could have spat nails. Much later in history, don’t even get me started about the “troubles” in Northern Ireland.

“Elizabeth R” was the catalyst for multiple debates between my wife and me. She took English history in college and was very knowledgeable about the monarchs and issues. She could never quite understand my dislike of Elizabeth I for being as strong as it is, almost as though Elizabeth I were still on the throne causing more problems in Scotland, Ireland, and elsewhere. Few historically controversial people stir up stronger emotions in me than English monarchs, especially those constantly fighting Scotland.

I’ll miss Glenda Jackson, of course, as a politically astute MP and a very talented actress even though her figurative journey to the years between 1558 and 1603 will always be first in my memory of her.

—Malcolm

Click on my name to find my contemporary fantasy, magical realism, and paranormal books and stories. None of them are set in Scotland, though perhaps they should be.

We lost a literary giant

Since reading is personal and visceral and very subjective, I cannot say what drew me to Cormac McCarthy’s novels year after year.  I liked his plots, his mix of minimalism and lyrical passages, the closeness of the land in his work, his ear for authentic dialogue, and a writing approach that dragged readers kicking and screaming into some of the most beautiful and the most violent tales they ever experienced.

As quoted in Wikipedia, In 2003, literary critic Harold Bloom named McCarthy as one of the four major living American novelists, alongside Don DeLillo, Thomas Pynchon, and Philip Roth. His 1994 book The Western Canon had listed Child of God, Suttree, and Blood Meridian among the works of contemporary literature he predicted would endure and become ‘‘canonical’“. Bloom reserved his highest praise for Blood Meridian, which he called ‘the greatest single book since Faulkner’s As I Lay Dying’“, and though he held less esteem for McCarthy’s other novels he said that ‘to have written even one book so authentically strong and allusive, and capable of the perpetual reverberation that Blood Meridian possesses more than justifies him. … He has attained genius with that book.'”

Oddly enough, his Pulitzer Prize Winning novel The Road is probably my least favorite, though I like journey stories in general. In many ways, I think it got the Pulitzer for the same reason actors sometimes win Academy Awards: the powers that be realize the recipient should have gotten the award for an early book/movie and hand out the honor as a last-ditch chance to even things up. I would have picked Blood Meridian over The Road, but I wasn’t consulted.

There are quite a few McCarthy retrospectives and homages online today. It’s nice to see them because there are times when I think he’s “underread” by people who prefer lesser stuff and don’t think of him when new titles are announced.

I liked the subhead in the story in The Atlantic: “The worlds depicted in his novels are not built for mortal humans like you and me.”  CNN said, “Despite accolades, McCarthy remained relatively obscure for much of his career; as recently as 1992, 27 years after his first book was published, the New York Times Book Review said he “may be the best unknown novelist in America.”

Typical of his work are these quotes:

“You never know what worse luck your bad luck has saved you from.”

“War was always here. Before man was, war waited for him. The ultimate trade awaiting its ultimate practitioner.”

“Your heart’s desire is to be told some mystery. The mystery is that there is no mystery.”

“A man’s at odds to know his mind cause his mind is aught he has to know it with. He can know his heart, but he dont want to. Rightly so. Best not to look in there. It aint the heart of a creature that is bound in the way that God has set for it. You can find meanness in the least of creatures, but when God made man the devil was at his elbow. A creature that can do anything. Make a machine. And a machine to make the machine. And evil that can run itself a thousand years, no need to tend it.”

“That night he dreamt of horses in a field on a high plain where the spring rains had brought up the grass and the wildflowers out of the ground and the flowers ran all blue and yellow far as the eye could see and in the dream he was among the horses running and in the dream he himself could run with the horses and they coursed the young mares and fillies over the plain where their rich bay and their rich chestnut colors shone in the sun and the young colts ran with their dams and trampled down the flowers in a haze of pollen that hung in the sun like powdered gold and they ran he and the horses out along the high mesas where the ground resounded under their running hooves and they flowed and changed and ran and their manes and tails blew off of them like spume and there was nothing else at all in that high world and they moved all of them in a resonance that was like a music among them and they were none of them afraid neither horse nor colt nor mare and they ran in that resonance which is the world itself and which cannot be spoken but only praised.”

McCarthy always gave us a story and left us with divine PTSD.

–Malcolm

PEN AMERICA AND 3 OTHER FREE SPEECH GROUPS FILE AMICUS BRIEF IN 1ST AMENDMENT HERNDON V. NETFLIX CASE

Legal Filing Argues that Netflix Can’t be Held Liable for Depicting Suicide in Fictional Series Under 1st Amendment

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

June 13, 2023(NEW YORK) – PEN America, the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC), and the Student Press Law Center (SPLC) on Monday jointly filed an amicus brief to support the First Amendment rights of Netflix in a lawsuit over the series 13 Reasons Why, which depicted suicide.

Netflix is being sued for damages following a 15-year-old girl’s tragic suicide after watching the series. The  lawsuit filed in 2022 by the girl’s father, John Herndon of Livermore, CA, alleged that viewers were not adequately warned or shielded from the show’s content. A federal judge dismissed Herndon v. Netflix in 2022; Herndon has appealed.

In its amicus brief, the four free speech organizations argued that the program is fully protected under the First Amendment and therefore Netflix cannot be held liable for the death.

The brief states: “Suicide is an enduring, though tragic, facet of human existence. Many great works of literature, history, and religion depict it, and those works are routinely taught to teenagers.  For just some of the most famous literary examples, consider Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, Othello, and Julius Caesar, as well as the novels Anna Karenina, Madame Bovary, Les Miserables, The Catcher in the Rye, and The Great Gatsby. … Yet all the books, plays, and films that include such suicides are of course fully protected by the First Amendment, whether or not they include minors among their audience, and however they may be sold or marketed.”

Kate Ruane, Sy Syms director of the U.S. Free Expression programs at PEN America, said: “Understandably it is difficult to adhere to principles when faced with a tragedy like this one. But to hold Netflix liable in this case would violate constitutional protections, court precedent and, in addition to chilling Netflix’s speech, would undoubtedly risk chilling the speech of other writers, filmmakers, artists and creators on sensitive topics like suicide, drug addiction, or mental health.”

“The plaintiff’s demands fail to take into account the far-reaching ramifications of excluding groups of ‘impressionable audiences’ from essential conversations, blocking student journalists from engaging and informing their peers in an era already fraught with misinformation,” said Jonathan Gaston-Falk, staff attorney for the Student Press Law Center.

FIRE Attorney Jeff Zeman said: “Freedom of speech isn’t the freedom to speak in a vacuum; it necessarily includes the right to promote your speech to an audience. Whether it’s Romeo and Juliet, Dead Poets Society or 13 Reasons Why, fictional works that portray difficult topics like suicide don’t lose their First Amendment protection just because their creators seek to find an audience.”

-30-

Old cats can learn new tricks even if you don’t want them to

We’ve always had cats. When a new cat comes into the house, it’s a matter of time before every cat has a resume of new tricks. Mostly bad.

Katy (a typical calico) was adopted 20+ years ago with two smaller cats, so she’s used to being the boss cat. Unfortunately, the other two passed across the rainbow bridge, the last about the time Robbie arrived complements (probably) of some low-life who dumped him out the car door in front of our rural house.

Robbie lived on the front porch for a while, then after a trip to the vet to get him checked out, became our indoor/outdoor cat. Now Katy assumes she gets to go outside, too. Not happening. She’s not streetwise. Robbie obviously is. Though it’s also apparent that he knows how to live in a house (found the kitty potty, sleeps on the bed during the night, and is used to eating off the table).

Waiting to go outside.

Robbie is a young male cat with plenty of energy. He can leap furniture in a single bound and is faster than a speeding bullet. Katy can’t compete with that, but once she saw Robbie trying to help himself to the food on our plates and drink out of our water/Coke glasses, she’s become a menace at meal time.

We’re surprised at what they’ll eat. Robbie licked the remains of a hot and spicy Jambalaya soup out of my bowl. I thought, “You’ll regret that.” Next, he tried to steal Lesa’s baked potato, hanging off the edge of her TV tray with one foot while pulling in the remains of the potato with the other front foot. He didn’t get the potato, but things were touch and go there for a few minutes.

Because she was determined to do it, I finally allowed Katy to lick the remains of the salad dressing out of my bowl. It was ranch dressing, something I thought she’d shy away from. She didn’t. I could understand that if it was been a bowl of tuna salad, but greens with ranch dressing is just plain wrong.

If you have cats or have had cats, you probably know the drill on who’s doing to pick up the most new habits. It’s a learning experience for all of us.

Btw, Robbie has a habit of licking people. Now Katy has it. We don’t care for it, but what can we do?

–Malcolm

And now you know why a cat is the narrator of the books in my Florida Folk Magic Series. They muscled themselves into the storyline.

Goulash for Sunday 06/11/23

If you are making actual goulash rather than expecting my usual potpouri post and inadvertently chop off part of a finger, please fetch it out. Connoseurs will know the difference between a chunk of beef and your ring finger no matter how much Hungarian paprika you add.

If you have a dog, and especially if you chopped off part of your finger into the goulash, you may find this article from McSweeney’s helpful: REASONS YOUR DOG IS A BETTER HEALTH CARE PROVIDER THAN YOUR DOCTOR  “Your dog takes a highly individualized approach to your care. Instead of saying your Vitamin D is low and suggesting you get more sun, your dog takes you on three walks a day. If you have insomnia, they’ll lay on your stomach and stare into your soul until you fall asleep every night for the next fifteen years. If you’re anemic, they’ll murder a squirrel and leave it under your pillow. Would Dr. Moskowitz do that? Didn’t think so.”My doctor told me a few days ago that I may have a bleeding ulcer and requested a stool sample.  I’m planning to send him this IKEA Marius Stool-Black even though there will probably be some assembly required.  If I had a dog, he would probably would have told me to drink two glasses of Tallisker Storm and call him in the morning: “Released in early 2013, Talisker Storm has all the warm, smoky, peppery characteristics we all love in the standard Talisker 10yo – but they’ve been turned up a notch, with more smoke, more spices, and a bigger-than-ever flavour explosion.” A smart dog would know that.I think the authors of the novel The Observer would have ended up with a compelling novel if they hadn’t limited themselves to their science, or at least to the scientific theories. As it is, just how a patient with a brain-implanted device impacts and/or directly creates his/her reality in a new branching universe isn’t directly shown. We are told s/he does this, but aren’t really shown how it happens. This novel doesn’t work for me even though I believe the theories behind the science and the story. I disagree with Kirkus that said, “Mind-bending … A novel full of life-affirming ideas.”I have a question. Some years ago, men were bashed for seeking pictures of naked women, a “hobby” that was considered wrong for a dozen reasons. Now, women are creating those pictures (and walking around hardly wearing a stitch of clothing) and posting them online. Is this the new freedom or have they made objects of themselves just like those nasty men always wanted? E.g.: “At 54, Ricki Lake Bares It all in Nude Outdoor Bathtub Pic: ‘Self-Acceptance’”

—Malcolm

‘Songs of Innocence and Experience,’ by William Blake

William Blake (28 November 1757 – 12 August 1827) was scarcely known during his lifetime, was considered mad by those who were aware of him, sold very few copies of his work, and was buried in a mass grave with borrowed money. Now that he can no longer profit from his works, he’s considered favorably as a poet and engraver.

His introduction to this volume of poems, written and engraved in 1894, shows the style of the work. Readers definitely need the illustrations in order to enjoy the intended scope and meaning of the work.

This edition promises the engravings that belong with the work.

From the Publisher

“This stylish reissue of Blake’s timeless work is sumptuously packaged in burnt-orange casing with gold sprayed edges, which allude to the treasures within.

“Songs of Innocence and of Experience is a rare and wonderful book, its seeming simplicity belying its visionary wisdom. Internationally recognised as a masterpiece of English literature, it also occupies a key position in the history of western art. This unique edition of the work allows Blake to communicate with his readers as he intended, reproducing Blake’s own illumination and lettering from the finest existing example of the original work. In this way, readers can experience the mystery and beauty of Blake’s poems as he first created them, discovering for themselves the intricate web of symbol and meaning that connects word and image. Each poem is accompanied by a literal transcription, and the volume is introduced by the renowned historian and critic, Richard Holmes. This beautiful edition of The Songs of Innocence and Experience will be essential for those familiar with Blake’s work, but also offers an ideal way into his visionary world for those encountering Blake for the first time.”

Wikipedia notes that, “Geoffrey Keynes says that Blake, as the prophet ‘calls the Fallen Man to regain control of the world, lost when he adopted Reason (the ‘starry pole’) in place of Imagination.’ Earth symbolizes the Fallen Man within the poem. Blake (‘the voice of the Bard’) calls him to awake from the evil darkness and return to the realm of Imagination, reassuming the light of its previous ‘prelapsarian’ state. Reason (the ‘starry pole’) and the Sea of Time and Spece (the ‘watr’ry shore’) “are there only till the break of day if Earth would consent to leave ‘the slumberous mass'”

As a reader biased in favor of Blake’s work, I feel that time spent with this volume is time well spent.

—Malcolm

Did you read ‘Flowers in the Attic’ or pretend that you read it?

Of course, I read it. After all, there was a war on, I was addicted to Southern Gothic by running with a bad crowd and was working for an employer who tapped my phone (not because I read the book, though I’m not sure about that).

I like the Wikipedia comments about the book: “A review in The Washington Post when the book was originally released described the book as ‘deranged swill’ that “may well be the worst book I have ever read”. The retrospective in The Guardian agreed that it is deranged but called it “utterly compelling.”

Sure, there were claims that it might have been based on a true story. I didn’t care. There were also claims that its author V. C. Andrews was as messed up as her novel. I saw that as a plus. People are still arguing about such things thirty-seven years after Andrews died. Where there’s smoke, there’s fire? I think people want there to be fire even though the evidence about real fire is rather slim.

Last year the New York Post said, “Real life of ‘Flowers’ author VC Andrews was as creepy as her gothic novels.” The post based that view on a book about Andrews: “While the new book “The Woman Beyond the Attic: The V.C. Andrews Story” (Gallery Books) by Andrew Neiderman may not be as salacious as “Flowers in the Attic,” it’s surely worth its own Lifetime Original Movie.”

I don’t think so, but the reporter never called me for a comment.

While one can hardly say the book is “just good clean fun,” everyone wants to find some reason anyone would write such a novel, and then follow it up with more or the same.

How or why it all happened seems irrelevant to me as an author.  The story stands for itself. What it means and/or what the author meant are the kind of swill we get from English departments that think novels must be explained–and possibly the authors as well.

Flowers in the Attic was, for me, a compelling story.

–Malcolm