I’m not an expert on literature and storytelling, but I think we need to separate interpretation of a fact from a fact itself. The stories you mentioned exist before modern age, but The Hero’s Journey is a modern interpretation. This interpretation is not without its fair share of criticisms.
Mahabharata is not a hero’s tale , The 2 clans ended each other mostly , Kauravas died out and the Pandava princes went to the Himalayas because of the guilt where they died due to cold and hunger .
I have also watched journey to the West movie from China don’t know how much it relates to the original classic. But it was also sad 🤣 , the boy hates the girl who loved him and gave upon her life to kill monkey King (Sun Wokong) , later the boy became a buddhist monk and came to India. Quite a fascinating movie 😁
There is absolute crapton of more or less loose intepretations of that story in east Asian popculture, even seemingly unrelated works can suddenly pop one or a lot of it.
I was absolutely amazed that the original monk existed and he secretly came to Nalanda to study buddhism and then he was grandly welcomed by the Chinese emperor. Well, I hope the monkey King story was taken up by Chinese scholars to spice things up 🤣, I mean who wouldn’t love magic and wonders.
As long as the monomyth remains “A” story structure, and not “THE” story structure applicable to all stories and life itself, then it’s not problematic. But the fact is, this is the way that it’s being used. And so caution and analysis must be applied in applications of this story structure.
TIL epos of Gilgamesh, Mahabharata or Journey to the West are reactionary stories about white men.
I’m not an expert on literature and storytelling, but I think we need to separate interpretation of a fact from a fact itself. The stories you mentioned exist before modern age, but The Hero’s Journey is a modern interpretation. This interpretation is not without its fair share of criticisms.
Which is why blanket condemnation of entire genre or media is pointless.
Mahabharata is not a hero’s tale , The 2 clans ended each other mostly , Kauravas died out and the Pandava princes went to the Himalayas because of the guilt where they died due to cold and hunger .
Well death is a relevant ending to the journey too, but i probably confused it with something else.
I have also watched journey to the West movie from China don’t know how much it relates to the original classic. But it was also sad 🤣 , the boy hates the girl who loved him and gave upon her life to kill monkey King (Sun Wokong) , later the boy became a buddhist monk and came to India. Quite a fascinating movie 😁
There is absolute crapton of more or less loose intepretations of that story in east Asian popculture, even seemingly unrelated works can suddenly pop one or a lot of it.
I was absolutely amazed that the original monk existed and he secretly came to Nalanda to study buddhism and then he was grandly welcomed by the Chinese emperor. Well, I hope the monkey King story was taken up by Chinese scholars to spice things up 🤣, I mean who wouldn’t love magic and wonders.
Journey to the West is considered one of the 4 classic Chinese novels and is probably most popular of them for centuries already.
https://www.masculinedevelopment.com/joseph-campbell-heros-journey-examples-modern-men-part-1/
As long as the monomyth remains “A” story structure, and not “THE” story structure applicable to all stories and life itself, then it’s not problematic. But the fact is, this is the way that it’s being used. And so caution and analysis must be applied in applications of this story structure.