OotS: At what stage of the monomyth?

[roguerouge]

What stage is Order of the Stick at when it comes to Campbell's monomyth theory of universal myths? (Sometimes referred to as The Hero with a Thousand Faces: Monomyth - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia)

I vote that we're at the Rescue from Without, as Roy's gone through the Road of Trials in heaven, seen his mother in the afterlife, faced the temptation of Lawful Good Intolerance in that paladin, and come to peace with his father's selfishness.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

Campbell is a hack.

 

[roguerouge]

Perhaps, although he's certainly influenced a generation of fiction narrative screenwriters.

 

[Umbran]

Campbell is a hack.

Everyone is a hack. Campbell, at least, is a clever hack who gives you food for thought. Would you prefer we do our analysis of stories by comparing it to V.C. Andrews' "romance" formulae?

 

[el-remmen]

Campbell is a hack.

Please refrain from thread-crapping. You don't have to agree to participate, but you do need to try to contribute something meaningful to the OP's discussion.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

Everyone is a hack. Campbell, at least, is a clever hack who gives you food for thought. Would you prefer we do our analysis of stories by comparing it to V.C. Andrews' "romance" formulae?

Perhaps. I mean once you consider that Elrond Half-Elven was Aragorn's uncle, the whole Arwen thing becomes very inline with her "omnincest" theory.

 

[Celebrim]

I think that the monomyth works in the same sense that astrology does. The overall structure is vague enough, and allows for sufficient ambiguity, that you can always get anything to fit in a rough manner if you want to.

For my part, I believe that - following the tropes of role-playing - Roy has been altered very little from death. I've seen no real sign that his basic character has changed because of the experience or that he's altered his view of life at all. As such, I'm not sure that we can say at this point whether dying even equated to Roy's mythic time in the Underworld (or Overworld in this case) as Campbell imagines it. Without knowing where Rich is going from here, I don't know if we can say the OotS has seen their darkest hour. Indeed, we may still be in the 'Road of Trials' stage.

Nor am I at all convinced that the monomyth has much application to Rich's ensemble story. Roy may be the central character, but the other party members aren't mere satellites of Roy on Roy's journey, but are having Journey's of their own which don't necessarily parallel Roys.

I also feel that Campbell is a hack. Then again, I also think Aristotle, Marx, Freud, Keynes, Derrida and Diamond are hacks, so maybe I'm the hack.

 

[Umbran]

Perhaps. I mean once you consider that Elrond Half-Elven was Aragorn's uncle, the whole Arwen thing becomes very inline with her "omnincest" theory.

Three years for a comeback? Three years? You, sir, are a patient man

Be that as it may, that's using the term "uncle" a bit loosely, isn't it? I mean, Elrond was brother to Elros, yes. But there's some sixty-odd generations between Aragorn and Elros. That makes Elrond a greatgreatgreatsixtyplusgreat granduncle to Aragorn.

 

[RangerWickett]

Yeah, the monomyth doesn't work as well for ensemble casts. I prefer a 'Fellowship Cycle,' which includes a period of the fellowship being broken, then reuniting right before or during the climax.

 

[Charwoman Gene]

Three years for a comeback? Three years? You, sir, are a patient man

Be that as it may, that's using the term "uncle" a bit loosely, isn't it? I mean, Elrond was brother to Elros, yes. But there's some sixty-odd generations between Aragorn and Elros. That makes Elrond a greatgreatgreatsixtyplusgreat granduncle to Aragorn.

Wow, there really was something (remote) to that! I thought was just making it up.

I was just reviewing my mod warnings looking for old patterns of behavior and felt the need to make the VC Andrews = incest joke.