3w ago

Former White House director BILL MOYERS: "What about James Joyce’s epiphanies?" (James Joyce Alternate Reality Game)

Ep. 6: Joseph Campbell and the Power of Myth -- 'Masks of Eternity' | BillMoyers.com

BILL MOYERS: Do you think you, Joseph Campbell, have to…it has to be physical?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: No, but it can be a peak experience there are other kinds of peak experiences, which I know were superior to those, but those are the ones that when I read Maslow and read of peak experience, I just know that those were peak experiences.

BILL MOYERS: What about James Joyce’s epiphanies?

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Now, that’s another thing. This has to do with the esthetic experience. Joyce’s formula for the esthetic experience is that it does not move you to want to possess the object, that he calls pornography; nor does it move you to criticize and reject the object, that he calls didactics, social criticism in art and all that kind of thing. It is the holding the object, and he says you put a frame around it and see it as one thing, and then seeing it as one thing, you become aware of the relationship of part to part, the part to the whole and the whole to each of the parts. This is the essential esthetic factor rhythm, the rhythm, the rhythmic relationships. And when a fortunate rhythm has been struck by the artist, there is a radiance. That’s the epiphany. And that is what would be the Christ coming through, do you understand what I’m saying?

BILL MOYERS: The face of the saint beholding God.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: And it doesn’t matter who it is. I mean, you could take someone who you would think of as being a monster, that is an ethical judgment on the life, and this is transcendent of ethics, no didactics.

BILL MOYERS: But see, that’s where I would disagree with you, because it seems to me in order to experience the epiphany, that which you behold but do not want to possess must be beautiful in some way. A moment ago, when you talked about your peak experience, running, you said it was beautiful. Beautiful is an esthetic word.

JOSEPH CAMPBELL: Yeah, that’s right.

8 comments

In an Alternate Reality, the fanatics of Star Wars, the audience, would have listened to Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell from 1986 and 1987 that George Lucas made such an effort to hand down.... instead of squandering a great understanding and comprehension of James Joyce.
 
James Joyce ARG / Alternate Reality Game
An alternate reality game (ARG) is an interactive networked narrative that uses the real world as a platform and employs transmedia storytelling to deliver a story that may be altered by players' ideas or actions. The form is defined by intense player involvement with a story that takes place in real time and evolves according to players' responses. It is shaped by characters that are actively controlled by the game's designers...
"Sean Stacey, the founder of the website Unfiction, has suggested that the best way to define the genre was not to define it, and instead locate each game on three axes (ruleset, authorship and coherence) in a sphere of "chaotic fiction""

BILL MOYERS: "it seems to me in order to experience the epiphany, that which you behold but do not want to possess must be beautiful in some way. A moment ago, when you talked about your peak experience, running, you said it was beautiful. Beautiful is an esthetic word."
That's a lot of what people don't grasp about Donald J. Trump's power. Donald J Trump is "transcendent of ethics, no didactics". People do not wish to have sex with Donald Trump, but they are beholden to him, in their hate of him, in their repulsive disgust of him.
Star Wars Fans were supposed to have studied this aspect of Darth Vader with these Bill Moyers and Joseph Campbell interviews filmed at Skywalker Ranch. But nobody can criticize why people can not resist the charm of Donald J Trump. Joseph Campbell was in his final year in 1987, he is spinning in his grave in 2025 at how ignorant Star Wars fans are about these Skywalker Ranch educational films for We The People.
People behold the Adult Depends Diapers of Donald Trump, like David Foster Wallace emphasized in the "Year of the Depends Adult Diapers". Joseph Campbell age 83: "that which you behold but do not want to possess" - that is Donald Trump. That is what draws Elon Musk and the entire population of mockers who mock and behold the social power of Donald J Trump in April 2025.

WTF?
I mean I understand the Bill Moyer's article. I watched the interview series when it first aired.
But the arg?
- I mean I understand the Bill Moyer’s article. I watched the interview series when it first aired.
  So did I! I graduated from Snider High School in Fort Wayne Indiana in 1988 and watched it that summer as a man approaching age 21 threshold of the www.GreatSealUSA.com
   
  But the arg?
  I started this Pale Blue Dot / James Joyce Alternate Reality Game on December 16, 2009 in Austin Texas on Facebook.
  There is more on the many websites:
  My Finnegans Wake publishing adventure began in December 2009. I had recently turned age 40 and discovered that my entire life I had autism without knowing what autism was. My 13 year marriage had ended and the Apple iPhone had started to change the entire world. I had known the significance of media generations from my ZBBS software development days at age 15, where I created from scratch a social media client/server app after coming from social media radio at age 13. The Fortress BBS in 219 was my public presence, and I was involved in clubs and users groups for social media from age 14 onward. IRL (In Real Life) was a big part of early social media radio and social media BBS systems - as range was limited. For Citizen Band Radio social media, I had a huge base station antenna that was higher than our two-story suburban Fort Wayne home (my mom was in Real Estate) in the shadow of Gerogetwon Square. With digital BBS systems, my ZBBS client/server app, we relied on modems that operated over POTS telephone lines - and you had to pay long-distance charges to call outside Fort Wayne - so geograhy was local for most.
   
  NOTE TO SELF: fix "Gerogetwon" typo, "Georgetown"
  It reminds me when Kevin Fry in Fort Wayne told me and Sean Howard a story... about calling the city of Fort Wayne to ask when they would come around to trim the trees on the street that were nearly hitting the above-ground power lines on telephone poles. They told him like 12 years in the future with an exact date for his house / street address. He found it absurd and hilarious and shared the story with us on a weekend night out.
   
  ::: ________
  "The form is defined by intense player involvement with a story that takes place in real time and evolves according to players’ responses. It is shaped by characters that are actively controlled by the game’s designers…"
  
  Is the joke that you write a stream of consciousness?
  Btw, I knew a Fortress BBS but it was east coast not Texas or Ft Wayne. Those were the days of fidonet, zmodem and doors.

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James Joyce ARG / Alternate Reality Game