Happiness is...a twenty-two point analytical framework? How's that possible?

One important source of happiness is intellectual gratification. Satisfying your curiosity, mastering a new subject, acquiring a new skill – these bring intense happiness. Also, intellectual gratification doesn’t necessarily involve other people. It’s clear that a critical – perhaps THE critical – element of happiness is strong bonds with other people, but I, for one, also enjoy retreats into solitude.

For me, discovering unexpected patterns and echoes among people’s behavior is enormously satisfying. I love the identification of universal, unifying characteristics.

That’s why I love brilliant, mind-blowing books like A Pattern Language, lots of work by Carl Jung and Mircea Eliade, The Thirty-Six Dramatic Situations, Coup d'Etat: A Practical Handbook, The Golden Bough, The Accursed Share, and Crowds and Power. In law school, I was fascinated by the idea of "Restatements" of law.

That’s why I had such a delightful time writing my own books, Power Money Fame Sex: A User's Guide and Profane Waste.

So I was thrilled to discover a list by Lord Raglan, from The Hero (1936), in which he identified patterns in the lives of heroes. He found twenty-two archetypal features shared across the hero-myths of many cultures.

Consider:

1. The hero's mother is a royal virgin;
2. His father is a king, and
3. Often a near relative of his mother, but
4. The circumstances of his conception are unusual, and
5. He is also reputed to be the son of a god.
6. At birth an attempt is made, usually by his father or his maternal grand father to kill him, but
7. He is spirited away, and
8. Reared by foster-parents in a far country.
9. We are told nothing of his childhood, but
10. On reaching manhood he returns or goes to his future Kingdom.
11. After a victory over the king and/or a giant, dragon, or wild beast,
12. He marries a princess, often the daughter of his predecessor and
13. And becomes king.
14. For a time he reigns uneventfully and
15. Prescribes laws, but
16. Later he loses favor with the gods and/or his subjects, and
17. Is driven from the throne and city, after which
18. He meets with a mysterious death,
19. Often at the top of a hill,
20. His children, if any do not succeed him.
21. His body is not buried, but nevertheless
22. He has one or more holy sepulchres.

To see this framework applied to the lives such as Krishna, Moses, Jesus, Buddha, King Arthur, Odysseus, Zeus, and Harry Potter, check out an analysis by Professor Sienkewicz of Monmouth College.

Why does this kind of thing make me so happy? It just does. And the challenge of this kind of interest is that I can’t just walk into a library and head to a certain shelf, or run a search on the internet. I have to stumble across it, so the joy of finding something is rare and intense.

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Speaking of the happiness of satisfying your curiosity, I've always been curious about something I'd heard about (I think there was a movie?): that in World War II, a group of "Code Talkers" used their Navaho language to communicate in an unbreakable mililtary code. Yipppee, I found an article on Gimundo that was was just long enough to satisfy my curiosity.

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Comments

[Eastof Weston]

Wow! That list is my life in a nutshell. At least through number 10. Must make "Attain dragon-fighting skills" my next project immediately!

[CDeBoe]

The analyis link ends in /default/htm" -- if you delete the quotemark at the end, you get a viable link.
Looking at a couple of examples I'm familiar with, I get the feeling that he is in some cases forcing the pattern on the story. For instance, Jesus's parents weren't of royal status and were not closely related. They were both from the line of David, but David had lived 1000 years before. It's about the same as saying that any two people who can trace back to William the Conqueror are closely related, and royal.

[Chris at HumanKind Media]

"Whoever is happy will make others happy, too." I echo Mr. Twain. Thanks for this post. It makes me smile. And, now I have a new list of books to check out.

[Zyada]

Have you read Joseph Campbell's "The Power of Myth" or any of his other books? You must read these.

[Joseph Miller]

This is powerful! Thanks for pointing out something else for me to derive from books.

[Whitney Johnson]

Gretchen --

I'm surprised that you didn't mention Matt Langdon, The Hero's Workshop. He's done significant amount of work on heros, including developing a curriculum for teaching young children how to view their lives as a hero's journey.

http://heroworkshop.wordpress.com/about/

My best,

WhitneyJ

[Bridget]

I adore finding overarching patterns in things/people/life. As you point out it is a little difficult to find those books through any usual methods. I have read a number of articles citing Canetti, but have yet to read that book itself, I should do that.

Another book that might fit into your love of patterns is Marvin Trachtenberg's 'Dominion of the Eye'.

http://www.amazon.com/Dominion-Eye-Marvin-Trachtenberg/dp/0521728258/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203688514&sr=8-1

Also, while not as delightful as I was expecting it to be, you might also enjoy Lawrence Weschler's 'Everything that Rises: A Book of Convergences'.

http://www.amazon.com/Everything-That-Rises-Book-Convergences/dp/1932416862/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1203688994&sr=1-1

[Gretchen Rubin]

I've talked about The Hero's Workshop before - I agree, it's a great site to check out.

And I'm off to Amazon to look these recommendations RIGHT NOW. One line that has haunted me my whole life is "Everything that rises must converge." and in fact I've been meaning to go back and re-read Teillard de Chardin.

And how did I forget about Joseph Campbell? The title "Hero with a thousand faces" is a perfect description of this entire field.

More recommendations!!!! keep them coming!

[Brenda Friedrich]

Like you I love uncovering the patterns and commonalities in human behavior (and I'm so glad that Joseph Campbell was mentioned in the comments here since he really has shed light on this subject in relation to the hero's story). Still, although I often write about the observations I've made in my own life, I remain continually amazed at how often readers respond, saying "me, too!"
At any rate, having recently completed a post that touches upon happiness, I was delighted to come across your site!