What I meant was that the hero’s journey template is percolating inside all of our psyches 24/7 (whether we’re aware of it or not) and that unconsciously we set every other story—every book we read, every movie we see—alongside it and ask ourselves, also unconsciously, “Does this tale ring true?” The hero’s journey is our touchstone. When the book or movie we’re reading or watching jibes with this Ur-Story, we say it “works.” We know it works not with our heads but with our guts. The tale moves us. It satisfies us emotionally. We come to its end feeling like we’ve just had a meal of steak and
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