Whether it's your first Bonnaroo or you’re a music festival veteran, we welcome you to Inforoo.
Here you'll find info about artists, rumors, camping tips, and the infamous Roo Clues. Have a look around then create an account and join in the fun. See you at Bonnaroo!!
Sorry in advance for the longest first post in history.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monomyth copied from wikipedia The monomyth (often referred to as "the hero's journey") is a description of a basic pattern found in many narratives from around the world. This universal pattern was described by Joseph Campbell in his book The Hero with a Thousand Faces (1949). A noted scholar of novelist James Joyce, Campbell borrowed the term monomyth from Joyce's Finnegans Wake.
Campbell's insight was that important myths from around the world which have survived for thousands of years, all share a fundamental structure. This fundamental structure contains a number of stages, which includes
1. A call to adventure, which the hero has to accept or decline 2. A road of trials, regarding which the hero succeeds or fails 3. Achieving the goal or "boon", which often results in important self-knowledge 4. A return to the ordinary world, again as to which the hero can succeed or fail 5. Applying the boon, in which what the hero has gained can be used to improve the world
In a well-known quote from the introduction to The Hero with a Thousand Faces, Campbell wrote: “ A hero ventures forth from the world of common day into a region of supernatural wonder: fabulous forces are there encountered and a decisive victory is won: the hero comes back from this mysterious adventure with the power to bestow boons on his fellow man. ”
The classic examples of the monomyth relied upon by Campbell and other scholars include the Buddha, Moses, and Christ stories, although Campbell cites many other classic myths from many cultures which rely upon this basic structure.
I believe my Bonnaroo experience was a damn good example.
The monomyth is composed of seventeen stages, which may not occur in every story.
Departure (or Separation) The Call to Adventure
The adventure begins with the hero receiving a call to action, such as a threat to the peace of the community, or the hero simply falls into or blunders into it. The call is often announced to the hero by another character who acts as a "herald". The herald, often represented as dark or terrifying and judged evil by the world, may call the character to adventure simply by the crisis of his appearance.
Campbell: The Call To Adventure – "A blunder – apparently the merest chance – reveals an unsuspected world, and the individual is drawn into a relationship with forces that are not rightly understood."
Hehoo:With nary a friend to ride with to Bonnaroo, I was frantic in utter disbelief of Bonnaroo 07's scheduled line-up. Flaming Lips starting at MIDNIGHT? 3 hour Ween set? This was enough. I knew I had to go. Bonaroo or bust. I started posting on the roo facebook looking for a potential ride. I'm pretty sure it was the next day that one of the cutest girls I've ever seen, in Indiana, was willing to carpool with me from Indiana (I live in Minneapolis). Ticket bought and ready to go right there. On the day I left, I overslept by about four hours and got caught in terrible Chicago traffic. Needless to say this girl wasn't all that happy. Whoops. I was so excited I couldn't sleep the night before.
Refusal of the Call
In some stories, the hero initially refuses the call to adventure. When this happens, the hero may suffer somehow, and may eventually choose to answer, or may continue to decline the call.
Campbell: Refusal of the Call – "Refusal of the summons converts the adventure into its negative. Walled in boredom, hard work, or 'culture,' the subject loses the power of significant affirmative action and becomes a victim to be saved."
Hehoo: No fucking way I was declining this call. The only thing that got me worked up was the nerves involved with heading to my first solo music festival.
Supernatural Aid
After the hero has accepted the call, he encounters a protective figure (often elderly) who provides special tools and advice for the adventure ahead, such as an amulet or a weapon.
Hehoo: My friend Jodesnack went to Roo the year before me and let me borrow her tent and told me to bring glowsticks (a weapon in the wars).
The Crossing of the First Threshold
The hero must cross the threshold between the world he is familiar with and that which he is not. Often this involves facing a "threshold guardian", an entity that works to keep all within the protective confines of the world but must be encountered in order to enter the new zone of experience.
Hehoo: This is obviously the wait to get your car inside and the wait for centeroo. The "threshold guardians" are obviously the "security".
Rebirth
The hero, rather than passing a threshold, passes into the new zone by means of rebirth. Appearing to have died by being swallowed or having their flesh scattered, the hero is transformed and becomes ready for the adventure ahead.
Hehoo: didn't experience this one, my flesh was not scattered but it did get very burnt, very quickly.
Initiation
The Road of Trials
Once past the threshold, the hero encounters a dream landscape of ambiguous and fluid forms. The hero is challenged to survive a succession of obstacles and, in so doing, amplifies his consciousness. The hero is helped covertly by the supernatural helper or may discover a benign power supporting him in his passage.
Hehoo: Probably the most poetic description I've ever heard for what goes on in Centeroo.
Marriage
The ultimate trial is often represented as a marriage between the hero and a queenlike, or mother-like figure. This represents the hero's mastery of life (represented by the feminine) as well as the totality of what can be known. When the hero is female, this becomes a male figure.
Hehoo:I would imagine this to be falling in love at roo, which I did when I saw many of the beautiful girls at Roo. One older goddess in particular. No luck. If you have, props.
Woman as Temptress
His awareness expanded, the hero may fixate on the disunity between truth and his subjective outlook, inherently tainted by the flesh. This is often represented with revulsion or rejection of a female figure.
Hehoo:bummed out Friday night when I realize my dirty, smelly, ugly ass is probably not going to hook up at Roo I wander back to my tent. Realizing no sex will ever stimulate my senses like the Tool show I've just seen, I jerk off and go to sleep. Tool was better.
Atonement with the Father
The hero reconciles the tyrant and merciful aspects of the father-like authority figure to understand himself as well as this figure.
Hehoo: I feel like my visible excitement for music, especially recently, has allowed me to reconnect with my dad in a way we never really had before.Anyone else experience this after Roo?
Apotheosis
The hero's ego is disintegrated in a breakthrough expansion of consciousness. Quite frequently the hero's idea of reality is changed; the hero may find an ability to do new things or to see a larger point of view, allowing the hero to sacrifice himself.
Hehoo: The general vibe at Roo is so much different than everyday life in a way that is undeniably refreshing. At times I could totally feel myself losing my ego into the crowd, which at times seemed to choreographed perfectly with the music. There is so much focused energy it is ridiculous.
Having found bliss and enlightenment in the other world, the hero may not want to return to the ordinary world to bestow the boon onto his fellow man.
Hehoo:I never wanted to leave. I think that Bonnaroo should be it's own country. The rest of the season hippies can live there in a glorious commune and sell their burritos 1 for 3, 2 for 5 to get by.
The Magic Flight
When the boon's acquisition (or the hero's return to the world) comes against opposition, a chase or pursuit may ensue before the hero returns.
Hehoo: back to the gorgeous girl I came with. She seemed sort of nice in a way when we first met. But I quickly realized she didn't really give a shit about me and I spent the entire weekend without her. On sunday morning she told me she was leaving early in her truck because she was too sick from the ridiculously intense smorgasbord of partying she did. She told me she would try to find me a ride through one of her sister's friends who was there. I say that's ok and hang out, not looking to go anywhere. A while later she tells me to pack my stuff into her truck and we would go to her sister and friend's sits to look for a ride. I load up my shit and then go hang out with her for the first time at a site next to ours. I saw her buy a white powder I don't do and smoked with some dudes. I went to a neighbor's site who I had become friends with and while I am gone she apparently decides that's the time to hop in her truck and drive away. She calls me up telling me to come find her. I have no idea where the fuck I'm supposed to go. I heard pod 10 but I didn't know if it was maybe campsite ten. I try calling several times. No answer. I get to pod 10 and she finally calls telling me she's going to buy (helium) balloons. I have to wait another twenty minutes and when she finally gets there, her truck is stuffed 4 in the front, shit in the cab and the back. I tell I'd rather find a ride and carry ALL MY SHIT. I then decided to walkback to the campsite I was at where I at least knew friendly faces would be. I had to walk probably a mile in intense heat carrying tent, poles, blankets, pillow, food, clothes, backpack, etc.
Rescue from Without
The hero may need to be rescued by forces from the ordinary world. This may be because the hero has refused to return or because he is successfully blocked from returning with the boon. The hero loses his ego.
Hehoo: I was eventually rescued by one of the nicest dudes ever who happened to live about four hours south of my car which was parked in Indiana. He was the only willing ride I could find. We spent the ride back together with my hand (involuntarily) on the steering wheel and him playing a mandolin and working the gas pedal. I heard the craziest stories about goats on top of his family's heirloom piano and his experiences poisoning himself with several gingko biloba fruits because he heard they were called "silver apricots". He drove me to the Greyhound station in Louisville, Kentucky. Tons of Roo hippies, but no buses that day and no buses in general near my car. He decided he would drive four hours out of his way to get me home. Luckiest score of my life was probably meeting that guy.
The Crossing of the Return Threshold
The hero returns to the world of common day and must accept it as real.
Hehoo:how disappointing
Master of Two Worlds
Because of the boon or due to his experience, the hero may now perceive both the divine and human worlds.
Hehoo:Bonnaroo is the divine world.
Freedom to Live
The hero bestows the boon to his fellow man.
Hehoo:I've been telling all of my friends for the past year how crazy they would have to be to miss out on the Roo experience. I think many a fellow man is about to be bestowed.
jung was a huge influence on campbell based on his work with archetypal images. I definately see a parallel btn. the heros journey and the journey to roo.
