By: Jonathan Lee on November 19, 2021
How to Disappear: Notes on Invisibility in a Time of Transparency is a collection of essays written by Akiko Busch. Akiko Busch has been writing about culture, remote places in the world, and design for over two decades as a contributing editor at Metropolis magazine and a faculty of the School of Visual Arts in…
By: Kayli Hillebrand on November 18, 2021
How to Disappear by Akiko Busch provides a manual of sorts for the reader, walking into how to embrace a life that is less outwardly seen and more inwardly at peace. Using personal experiences of how embracing nature and a less digitized world has impacted her life in various avenues, Busch advocates for less engagement…
By: Roy Gruber on November 18, 2021
I am drowning in a digital sea I am slipping beneath the sound Here my voice goes to ones and zeros I’m slipping beneath the sound The above chorus from the song “Digital Sea” by Thrice expresses the concern of Akiko Busch’s How to Disappear: Notes on Invisibility in a time of Transparency. Busch strikes a…
By: Henry Gwani on November 18, 2021
How to Disappear is a practical book that draws significantly from the author’s personal observations of nature to suggest several values and ways to being inconspicuous in a time when many seek undue self-promotion. Yet it is also philosophical, building upon the work of Edmund Burke, D.W. Winnicott and other important psychologists and philosophers. Akiko…
By: Elmarie Parker on November 18, 2021
In my jet-lagged state of being tired but unable to sleep or focus on anything more substantive, I have watched a few movies. Two, serendipitously, have resonated with the themes explored by Akiko Busch in her book, How to Disappear: Notes on Invisibility in a Time of Transparency. In The Mitchells Vs. The Machines (2021),…
By: Denise Johnson on November 18, 2021
My first response to Akiko Busch’s book “How to Disappear: Notes on Invisibility in a Time of Transparency,” was a spontaneous laugh. I thought how she could have known that all I want to disappear into a land of anonymity. At the moment I was wondering if only I could be invisible…
By: Troy Rappold on November 18, 2021
In Akiko Busch’s book, “How to Disappear: Notes on Invisibility in a Time of Transparency,” a step back is taken from the interconnected world and the ubiquitous feeling of the need to see and be seen in our online culture. Busch emphasizes in eleven chapters (which function more as eleven stand-alone essays), the importance of…
By: Nicole Richardson on November 18, 2021
“I feel trapped!” This was the only response I could muster amid a panic attack I had at 11,200 feet in the San Juan National Forest. It was two weeks in the making, that panic attack. I was one of nine students participating in a seminary class entitled An Adventure in Wilderness and Spirituality. Adventures…
By: Andy Hale on November 18, 2021
Just in case you needed to know, here is a fun fact: 93 million selfies are posted per day. [1] Since that report is coming from Google, specifically on data from Android devices, it merely reconfirms that big tech is watching us. What is our obsession with being seen? What motivates 93 million self-portraits to be posted…
By: Michael Simmons on November 17, 2021
The French social scientist, Roger Caillois once wrote that civilizations have existed without ploughs, wheels or leavers, but never without masks. [1] Akiko Busch’s memoir, How to Disappear: Notes on Invisibility in a Time of Transparency, weaves together images, metaphors and analogies, which leave the reader convinced of the need to seek invisibility in an increasingly…
By: Eric Basye on November 17, 2021
How to Disappear is a memoir written by author Akiko Busch. Taking the reader down an exciting journey, the author utilizes images in nature to challenge the concept of identity. In a time of social media and self-marketing, modern culture leads us to believe that to be seen is to be known, and in being…
By: Mary Kamau on November 14, 2021
One of the greatest mistakes quoted in missions, is cases of missionaries assuming that they can impose their ideas in a cross-cultural context, understanding the culture is key to working in a new culture. Joseph Campbell is a literature scholar and professor of mythology whose works reflect more of comparative mythology. His book, ‘The Hero…
By: Elmarie Parker on November 12, 2021
Every hero receives a call, an urging into action. Joseph Campbell describes it as “The Call to Adventure” in his heroic epic Hero with a Thousand Faces.[1] A specialty under the Philosophy, Psychology, Religion umbrella, Hero is classified as Comparative Mythology with a Philosophical Literature orientation. Campbell masterfully explores cultures from both the Occident and…
By: Henry Gwani on November 11, 2021
The Hero with a Thousand Faces is a classic that integrates mythology with psychology and philosophy to discuss heroism. Building on the remarkable contributions of Sigmund Freud, Carl Jung and other respected psychologists, Campbell argues that “ by entering and transforming the personal psyche, the surrounding culture, the life of the family, one’s relational work,…
By: Jonathan Lee on November 11, 2021
In his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Joseph Campbell presents stories and imageries of different myths from all over the world. Joseph Campbell’s lifelong passion for comparative mythology is extensively demonstrated in this book. The book is divided into three parts, prologue – the monomyth, part I – the adventure of the hero,…
By: Michael Simmons on November 11, 2021
I learned of Joseph Campbell through his 1988 PBS special, The Power of Myth, which details in expansive description how myths support, transform and renew the world and human experience. Campbell defines myth as an organization of symbolic images, which metaphorically communicate the possibilities of the human experience and fulfillment within a given culture. [1]…
By: Nicole Richardson on November 11, 2021
Who is your hero? Who is mine? Our choice illuminates the battles we choose to fight. It also reveals the deep yearnings we have for purpose, belonging, and hope in better world. Good prevailing over evil, it’s the human yearning. We cheer for the underdog. We sit on the edge of our seats hoping against…
By: Roy Gruber on November 11, 2021
What do Luke Skywalker, Frodo Baggins, Neo of The Matrix, and the Blues Brothers have in common? Author Joseph Campbell pioneered anthropological and sociological research producing the premise that diverse fictional hero tales share the monomyth or, in other words, all heroic stories tell the same tale. “The Hero with a Thousand Faces,” a work…
By: Troy Rappold on November 11, 2021
In his magnum opus, “The Hero with a Thousand Faces,” Joseph Campbell reveals the common elements of the Hero’s Journey found in the world’s religions and mythologies. Campbell asserts that many teachings found in religion and mythology have become distorted and therefore lost their essential truths. Campbell wants to “uncover some of the truths disguised…
By: Andy Hale on November 11, 2021
Throughout oral and written storytelling, the most widely favored tales follow the hero’s journey, whether the story is about Gilgamesh, Skywalker, Alice Kingsleigh, Indiana Jones, Harry Potter, Elizabeth Bennet, Dorothy, or Bilbo Baggins. In Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero with a Thousand Faces,” the comparative mythologist defines a hero as someone who has given themselves over…
