With any luck, this will be the last time I ever write anything about Joseph Campbell. To be honest, I take him a lot less seriously than a lot of other people on this list (hence the mythobabble comment); I'll leave the Campbell comments to those who think he's worth bothering with. However, I share Malcolm Dean's view that accusations of antisemitism should be taken _very_ seriously. I feel I may have been a little too flippant about not providing references before so here they are: "The Faces of Joseph Campbell" by Brendan Gill in _The New York Review of Books _, September 28, 1989, 16+ "Joseph Campbell: An Exchange" in _The New York Review of Books_, November 9, 1989, 57+ Some key excerpts: "Campbell's bigotry had another distressing aspect, which was a seemingly ineradicable anti-Semitism. By the time I came to know him, he had learned to conceal its grosser manifestations, but there can be no doubt that it existed and that it tainted not only the man himself but the quality of his scholarship . For example, he despised Freud, and it appeared from our talks that he did so in large part because of the fact that Freud was Jewish. He approved highly of Jung and not least because Jung _wasn't_ Jewish." -- Brendan Gill, "The Faces of Joseph Campbell" Gill goes on to relate the story of Campbell's urging political neutrality shortly after Pearl Harbor in a speech entitled "Permanent Human Values." Addressing undergraduates at Sarah Lawrence, Campbell argued that artists should remain "devoted to the disciplines of pure art" and not become political simply because "a Mr. Hitler collided with a Mr. Churchill." This speech led to an argument with Thomas Mann, the great German novelist and longtime advocate of a democratic Germany in his art which Campbell apparently never forgave man for. It is interesting in the exchange that followed two months later, some of Campbell's _defenders_ added grist to the mill. Joan Konner, in what is otherwise an all-out defense of Campbell admits "I have heard about his intolerance on several fronts. That he was opinionated I certainly came to see in daily drives to the location for taping [Ms. Konner had produced the Moyers interviews]. But that is just more of life's mysteries, how one so learned can be, in some ways, so limited; and one so seeing can be so blind." Huston Smith, in another letter which defends Campbell against Gill, admits that his defense "does no excuse the side of Campbell that I (with Gill) consider shadow." Smith concludes by drawing an analogy between Campbell and Wagner, Picasso, and Heidegger and ends by wondering how, in general, one should treat brilliant people with intolerable views. Roy Finch, in yet another defense of Campbell, admits that Campbell views were a result of "political naivite." Finch describes these views as "romantic fascism" and "crypto-fascism" but excuses them by arguing that at least Campbell was an anticommunist!! Carol Wallace Orr, who in no way pretends to defend Campbell, recalls working with him on _Mythic Image_ while at the Princeton University press. "In addition to his anti-Semitism," Orr writes, "I remember in particular his vexation over blacks being admitted to Sarah Lawrence." The exchange concludes with a response from Gill which includes more stories of Campbell's prejudices, including the one about giving the moon to the Jews which was mentioned by someone in a previous posting. By the way, are other people getting multiple copies (around 40 by my count) of these annoying failed delivery messages? It appears that node loop problems (or whatever they are) continue. -- Ben Alpers Dept. of History Princeton University