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    Once and Future Myths: The Power of Ancient Stories in Our Lives
    Unavailable
    Once and Future Myths: The Power of Ancient Stories in Our Lives
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    Once and Future Myths: The Power of Ancient Stories in Our Lives
    Ebook456 pages7 hours

    Once and Future Myths: The Power of Ancient Stories in Our Lives

    By Phil Cousineau

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    About this ebook

    Drawing from history, movies, pop culture, and his own life experience, filmmaker and writer Phil Cousineau shows how ancient myths continue to affect and shape our contemporary lives. Each chapter moves from the ancient to the modern, from the once, to the now, to the future. Chapters include both retellings of classical myths--Sisyphus, Odysseus, Kronos--along with new accounts of contemporary myths of time, cities, vampires, even baseball. Sisyphus is shown to be the inspiration for the French Resistance (and Cousineau's own struggles as a writer), Dionysus is made current by rock legend Jim Morrison, and new science and technology are laid at the feet of Hermes.

    Cousineau, long-time student of Joseph Campbell, makes a compelling case that myths--the enduring fantastical tales of gods and goddesses, heroines and heroes--provide a map by which to chart the stories of our own lives. In Once and Future Myths, he presents a unique path to personal growth with a deep examination of our lives in the context of the world's great myths.
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherRed Wheel Weiser
    Release dateJun 1, 2003
    ISBN9781609254100
    Author

    Phil Cousineau

    Phil Cousineau is a freelance writer, editor, photographer, filmmaker, creativity consultant, and literary tour leader. He has published over twenty-five books, including the worldwide bestseller The Art of Pilgrimage, for which Huston Smith wrote the foreword. Cousineau has written or cowritten eighteen documentary films and contributed to forty-two other books. Currently, he is the host and cowriter of the nationally broadcast television series Global Spirit on PBS. His forthcoming books are The Painted Word and Who Stole the Arms of the Venus de Milo?

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    Reviews for Once and Future Myths

    4/5

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    • 3/5
      In general, this is a good book. The first part is actually quite powerful, and I used some of the lines as a quote in one of my blog posts. The power of story telling is something we often fail to recognise, and this is something he brings out very clearly. The myths and old stories are generally Western ones that he has quoted, and this is a small quibble from my side. The essential message is clear and loud. He writes well. However, from the second half of the book - the sections on sports, cities etc - which are indeed quite powerful themes, I think, the book tends to waver. While he does indeed draw the connection between his own experiences and that of ancient/modern myths, the link is weak. However, he does do us yeoman service, especially in this modern age when mobile phone and electronic technology is threatening to take us away from our roots.