...the Axis Mundi. What is it to be "eternal"? Consider what J. Campbell, Professor of Comparative Mythologies at Sarah Lawrence has to say on the matter.
I suggest you also research what he has to say about the word "myth" and its FOUR functions.
How now, then, might you apply Campbell's work to Kingston and Yeats'?
In Peace,
Whyte
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Kingston is able to relate to the metaphysical function, since she is being told all the talk-stories that make her imagination grow. The metaphysical talk-stories are allowing Kingston's senses to grow. Its sociological relation is seen because Myths are told all over the world and are known through all the cultures. Its pedagogical function is seen through the way that Kingston is growing up. The book shows significant stages in her life that relate to the pedagogical function.
Like the word being used much my Joseph Campbell, the "ground of being" allows for people to refer to similar stages in their life that may be unknown to them, but still able to connect to them in a way that is able to comfort them.
To be eternal is to be remembered forever. To leave something memorable behind for others to remember you by.
Campbell thinks outside the box. He does not go by what anybody else tells him to believe.
Like Kingston, in White Tigers she is trained to be like a dragon. To make her mind "as the universe is large, so that there is room for paradoxes" (Kingston, 29). She is able to think for herself.
That is what makes people unique, therefore making it possible for people to be different and being remembered for various different things. Allowing them to Be eternal.
An eternal being is one that exists outside of time, continuing without a form of interruption, it is forever. J. Campbell believes that myths have common psychological roots—that humans need to make their abstract ideas into concrete ones by making them a form of deity, to conform themselves that such eternity exist.
Campbell states that there are four functions of myths:
1.Mystical—understanding the wonders that make the world as well as yourself.
2.Cosmological—demonstrating the dimensions of science which makes up the universe creating more mystery.
3.Sociological—justifying the way of the social structure, which he believes has become old.
4.Pedagogical—teaches how to live under any issue.
Having this in mind, it relates to Kingston in that throughout her memoir she continuously questions her identity she compares herself to significant women in her life who themselves have realized who they are. In the talk-story of Fa Mu Lan, she interacts with mother nature which then teaches her that she must allow life take her as it wishes and that it is out of her control therefore she must accept this. She continuously tries to comply with the old traditions of her ethnicity; although difficult she intends to go against the set standards by going into war and witting this autobiography. When Kinston faces difficult circumstances she confronts these as she believes is the most appropriate form.
As a talk story, Kingston understands that the story of Fa Mu Lan is eternal by the fact that she was able to overcome through the process of denial. she learns that with this comes a person who is eternal. In Cambell's point of view, he sees eternity in four functions, those functions to shorten it is a beginning, middle and end. So in the case of Fa Mu Lan, her story of survival has a beginning, when she accepts the challenge. Middle when she is within the 15 years of training. End, when she finally completes her training. she in Cambells eyes makes herself eternal.
As a talk story, Kingston understands that the story of Fa Mu Lan is eternal by the fact that she was able to overcome through the process of denial. she learns that with this comes a person who is eternal. In Cambell's point of view, he sees eternity in four functions, those functions to shorten it is a beginning, middle and end. So in the case of Fa Mu Lan, her story of survival has a beginning, when she accepts the challenge. Middle when she is within the 15 years of training. End, when she finally completes her training. she in Cambells eyes makes herself eternal.
As a talk story, Kingston understands that the story of Fa Mu Lan is eternal by the fact that she was able to overcome through the process of denial. she learns that with this comes a person who is eternal. In Cambell's point of view, he sees eternity in four functions, those functions to shorten it is a beginning, middle and end. So in the case of Fa Mu Lan, her story of survival has a beginning, when she accepts the challenge. Middle when she is within the 15 years of training. End, when she finally completes her training. she in Cambells eyes makes herself eternal.
The four myths that Campbell describes are The way of the animal powers, the way of the seeded earth, the way of the celestrial lights, and the way of man. Through these myths, Campbell shows the variation of culutral beliefs. This relates to Fa Mu Lan because it is a talk story that people in the chinese culutre pass on from generation to generation. It shows the strength of women. Campbell's four myths also relates to the story written by yeats because it contains ideas on how to accept the inevitable.
Joseph Campbell asserts that myths are the “masks of God” that man from everywhere seek to relate themselves to the wonders of existence. Myths are important because it allow you to go past your mind and into your very being. Myths have four functions: The Way of the Animal Power, The Way of the Seeded Earth, The Way of the Celestial Light, and The Way of Man. One is mystical. One is cosmological, which is the whole universe as we understand it today. One is sociological, which is taking care of the society that exists today. The last is pedagogical, which guides and individual through the inevitable of a life time. The story of Fa Mu Lan relates to The Way of the Seeded Earth because Kingston is using the talk story to depict her Chinese culture. Through the myth of Fa Mu Lan, she is able to show her desires of becoming a power woman warrior and to redefine the role of women in a society where men are considered superior. The Way of the Celestial Light could be compare to Yeats’s work because it shows how he is able to accept the inevitability of death through the timeless of art.
BEING ETERNAL IS LIVING FOREVER IN YOUR TIME AND IN OTHERS. Joseph Campbell states that myths are essential and helps you grow as a person to understand life at hand. Which falls into Campbell's four functions about myth.
Campbell's work apply's to both Kingston and Yeats. With Kingston her whole book is about myth's and it all starts with the talk-stories her mother tells her. Each talk story is a step in her life to finding who she is and she follows Campbell's four functions of myth. Whether it's the story of Fa Mu Lan where she fantasizes that she is a strong warrior when all along it's just a myth.
In Yeats case, Yeats struggle and desires to live for eternity to be immortal. In reality we cant. We again see Campbell's four functions of myth's. Yeats starts to question and lets his mind wonder about the after life but then he finally realizes that death is inevitable and is able to accept that and live in peace.
Joseph Campbell believes that eternity is not a period of time; in fact, it has nothing to do with time. According to Campbell, “the experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life.” To be eternal is to simply to live for the moment. That is the way that God has intended it to be.
Campbell states that "myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths." The four functions of myth are mystical, cosmological, sociological, and pedagogical.
Mystical function can be applied to the story of Fa Mu Lan. She acknowledges her powerful surroundings, nature, and through nature, she masters herself. Furthermore, the pedagogical function can be applied to Yeats's "Sailing to Byzantium". The speaker of the poem goes through and sees life experiences being done around him, such as the salmon swimming upstream and the young ones singing. The speaker is dying, thus, he finds Byzantium to be a comfort for it is a place where he can be reborn into a timeless being.
To be eternal is to timeless, to be unlimited by time, death, or life.
The four function of myth include:
1.) a metaphysical function- such as an epiphany
2.) a cosmological dimension- provides an image of our relationship to the cosmos
3.) sociological function- verifies the social moral order through the origin of that society
4.) psychological function- it is the guide through the stages of life or rather the mysteries and realizations of life, death, maturation.
For Campbell, a myth was the search of “the possibilities of consciousness.”
"Eternity has nothing to do with the hereafter… This is it… If you don't get it here, you won't get it anywhere. The experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life. Heaven is not the place to have the experience here’s the place to have the experience.”(Campbell)
This connects to both Kingston and Yeats’ work because the speaker of the Yeats’ poem and Kingston (in “White Tigers”) search for eternity, whether in the form of art or “perfect filiality” (Kingston, 45). These explorers need to have their epiphany and realize that “eternity has nothing to do with the hereafter” (Campbell), eternity is not how they will become eternal through art or legacy. Eternity is a bliss that will be found in an individual’s present life.
Joseph Campbell describes eternity in the carpe diem sense. The actions one does at the present are the ones that makes people eternal. He even goes beyond, and estates that heaven is a place that has to be found within oneself, not an afterlife pursuit. This relates to teh speaker in Yeat's poem because he searches to be eternal through the art that is found on Earth. He does not want to be immortal in a paradise-like place after death. Similarly, Fa Mu Lan trains, fights, and represents female strength that makes her eternal in talk-stories.
Then, Campbell describes myth as public dreams, and dreams as private myths. This play with words emans that myths are well known and help shape our dreams. However the dreams that they create are private to the individual. He describe myths as having four functions: metaphysical,cosmological,sociological, and pedagogical. Fa Mu Lan undergoes all these functions. She needs to overcome the dragon test that challenges her mind and make her aware and wise. Then she is also driven by the start and sky that accompany her at nights, and allow her to hope and dream. When she challenges the Chinese culture by not being a submissive female,she is exemplifying the sociological function. Then the pedagogical function is teh overall lesson in where she matures and conquers both worlds: the fantasy world adn real world.
The cycle of life must be excepted, and in Yeats story, he searches for something that he may never find such as his eternal life. The true eternal life is in his heart in his memories and what he has done and in his paintings. Campbell’s best work was his proof that a journey of a thousand miles will not give you something that you already half. Yeats discovery was his acceptance of death, and the life cycle and how paradise is not with in the humanities planet, but in the after life, when we die we will leave hour prisons here on earth and become free to the real Byzantium. We are but human and what we do now will not count or what we can do in the after life, but we must make the best of our time here and to be remembered.
Joseph Campbell says that myth "puts you in touch with a plane of reference that goes past your mind and into your very being, into your very gut. The ultimate mystery of being and nonbeing transcends all categories of knowledge and thought. Yet that which transcends all talk is the very essence of your own being, so you're resting on it and you know it. The function of mythological symbols is to give you a sense of "Aha! Yes. I know what it is, it's myself." This is what it's all about, and then you feel a kind of centering, centering, centering all the time. And whatever you do can be discussed in relationship to this ground of truth. Though to talk about it as truth is a little bit deceptive because when we think of truth we think of something that can be conceptualized. It goes past that". Joseph states that the four myths are The way of the animal powers, the way of the seeded earth, and the way of the celestrial lights.
Joseph Campbell states that the one way to earn eternity is through the actions of today. Campbell says, “Eternity has nothing to do with the hereafter…This is it…If you don’t get it here, you won’t get it anywhere” (Campbell), which means that a person has to have experiences today in order to be eternal.
Campbell says that the word “myth” has four functions, which are
1. Metaphysical- to awaken people to the secrecy and wonder of creation, and to open our minds.
2. Cosmological- is to describe the shape of the universe, our whole world, so that the universe and all contained within it become vibrant and alive for us.
3. Sociological- is to pass down the moral and ethical system for people of that culture to follow, and which help define that culture and its existing social structure.
4. Pedagogical- is to lead humans through particular procedures of passage that define the many important phases of our lives, from reliance to adulthood to old age to our deaths, which is the final path.
This relates to Fa Mu Lan of Maxine Hong Kingston’s The Woman Warrior, who is awakened by nature to achieve her goals in becoming an eternal heroine for his village. Fa Mu Lan goes through stages, some which are relying on the Old Man and Woman, to maturing and being able to be whom she wants to be.
This also relates to the speaker of William Butler Yeats’s “Sailing to Byzantium,” who opens his mind to art. He wants to be eternal and wants to show people what a wonderful creation art is. Through art is how the speaker wants to show his eternity.
Eternity is timeless; it has no beginning and no end. To be eternal a person doesn’t have to live forever; humans die and there is nothing that can stop that. But what a person can do is accept the fact that they will die and this way they will live a better life and will understand that to be eternal is to be remembered. A myth as Campbell sees it is as a spiritual story that can change from culture to culture. There are four types of myths that J. Campbell discusses; there is the mystical, the cosmological, the sociological, and the pedagogical. The cosmological is a revelation of the mystery dimension; the sociological is taking care of the society that exists; the pedagogical is the guiding of people through the risks of a lifetime. These fit in with Kingston and Yeats work because both of them have a revelation of the other side of life, meaning they have a new understanding in the way life is supposed to be. In Kingston work is the talk stories that get her through and that make her a more powerful woman. In Yeats work is going to another “world” and discovering what is truly the meaning of life. They discover that eternity is possible only after truly understanding the meaning of life.
For Joseph Campbell, the study of myth was the exploration of the possibilities of consciousness. Myth is humanity's attempt to grasp the reason and the purpose for existence. Joseph Campbell expalains the word "myth" in 4 functions:
1.metaphysical-to open our minds to the wonder of creation
2.cosmological- describing the universe and how it is alive for us
3.sociological- To "pass down" the law
4.pedagogical-to lead one through life and through death
To be eternal is to live without time, to be free, and to live life as it comes. To be eternal lies on the latin phrase, carpe diem, pluck the day. People should live life and enjoy every minute of it. People must seize it, treasure it, and learn from it.
Yeats' and Kingston's work apply to the concept of Campbell and his idea on eternity. In the story of Fa Mu Lan, she becomes eternal when she grasps her strength together, her teachings, and her hard work together and fights for her people of the village and for their freedom. She completelt grasps her strength and becomes whole within herself and the warrior she is trained to be. This can be seen as a metaphysical state, she opens her mind to new teachings and is created into a warrior. Yeats' sees eternity as a work of art, an idea which is timeless and will always be. It cannot be destroyed and will remain for it is an idea, a sociological function. It is a type of law in which will be passed down and taught for it will always be an eternal teaching.
“Myths are public dreams, dreams are private myths” – Joseph Campbell. Joseph Campbell, a writer and lecturer in comparative mythology and religion, concludes that the studies myths are the possibilities from the conscience mind. To be eternal, it does not necessarily mean for one to live sempiternally. According to Joseph Campbell, to be eternal is to pluck the day, meaning to life live to the fullest. He believes that one can discover heaven in this world; it is a conscience of mind; one has to master the indecencies of life. One must seize, cherish, and learn life.
Joseph Campbell states the four functions of myth:
1.metaphysical-to be tolerant and open to the world of creation
2.cosmological- describing the universe, so that it can become animated
3.sociological- To pass down the moral and ethical system of a culture for humans to follow
4.pedagogical- going through life and death
Kingston’s story of Fa Mu Lan pertains to this because Fa Mu Lan learns to see the world in a different way; she becomes tolerant and open towards the world that she notices things others would not. She becomes a legendary woman warrior that will be remembered forever even when her body has disintegrated; she will be remembered eternally for his deeds and actions. Fa Mu Lan goes through stages to maturing and becoming who she wants to be, plucking the days in her time. That is what it takes to be eternal.
Yeats also relates to Campbell’s outtake on myth. The speaker in “Sailing to Byzantium” opens his mind to art. He is attached in becoming eternal, and he wants to illustrate the wonders of art. Through art is the way the speaker expresses his “eternalship.” He cannot live forever physically, but at least in art he will be remembered because ideas and images never die.
"Eternity isn't some later time. Eternity isn't a long time. Eternity has nothing to do with time. Eternity is the dimensions of here and now which thinking and time cuts out. This is it. And if you don't get it here, you won't get it anywhere. And the experience of eternity right here and now is the function of life"-Joseph Campbell
The four funcitons of Myth are
Mystical-being able to understnad the world and yourself
Cosmological-the dimensions of science that make up the universe creating more mystery
Sociological-the social structure
Pedagogical-live under any circumstances
Kingston grows up listening to talk-stories, this helps her grow up having little sense of the world and understanding other individuals, as well as herself.She also tries to justify the way in which Chinese women are treated back in China and all the problems they face.Through the talk-stories she learns to live under circumtances and in fact these stories help her become stronger as a woman and as a Chinese-American.
Joseph Campbell stated that “Eternity isn't some later time. Eternity isn't a long time. Eternity has nothing to do with time.” Campbell is stating here that eternity is timeless which also means it is different than immortality which does have to do with time. He also described myths to have four basic functions and they are: metaphysical/mystical, cosmological, sociological, and pedagogical. The metaphysical function is to awaken humanity to the wonder of creation. Its cosmological function is to explain the "shape" of the universe. The sociological function is to give people moral and ethical codes to live by. The final function of a myth is to lead people through their rights of passage which are maturity, old age, and death.
"Eternity has nothing to do with time," according to Joseph Campbell. Eternity is an everlasting idea, which does not include time. Humans are unable to live eternally but myths are. It is the idea that people change, but the stories are the same regardless of the cultures and societies. Myths are eternal, according to Campbell, and they have nothing to do with time.
Kingston grows through the myths of Fa Mu Lan, which is a "talk-story" told to her by her mother. Fa Mu Lan is everlasting, the story of a great "swords-woman" is passed on and eternal. It helps Kingston grow and become who she wants to be. Fa Mu Lan inspires Kingston to be a great woman warrior with the pen instead of the sword. Fa Mu Lan's legend is an example of the eternity of myths.
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