Review: Stealing Fire from The Gods, by James Bonnet
Author: Susan Peck
Original Publication Date in Love Notes: April 2003

If you've studied Joseph Campbell's works on the role of myth in society, or if you've read The Writer's Journey by Christopher Vogler, you're familiar with the concept of the Hero's Journey. This central, fundamental pattern is repeated in most stories and movies, from ancient times to present. The structure is so common because it is so universal, because it holds the power to touch a chord deep inside each of us. As writers, we understand this intuitively and as readers, we respond to great stories instinctually, but have you ever wondered why? In Stealing Fire From The Gods, James Bonnet explores the relationship of the story to the individual psyche and to society as a whole.

James Bonnet is a screen and television writer who has acted in or written more than 40 TV shows and features. He's also served on the board of directors of the Writers Guild of America. This book came about through his own personal quest to understand what a "story" really was and what purpose it served. In the process, Bonnet integrates theories from the spheres of psychology and storytelling to develop his own model, the Golden Paradigm. This model draws heavily on the works of Joseph Campbell and Carl Jung.

The book is divided into four parts. Part One discusses the role of story in society, it's evolution and its importance. In Bonnet's view, story traditionally fulfilled a role of guiding the audience through major life passages, revealing hidden wisdom and giving them the skills for successful completion of a particular hurdle through the use of metaphor.

In Part Two, he expands on the use of metaphor and explains the archetypal characters in terms of the internal subconscious energies they represent.

In Part Three, Bonnet develops his own story model, which incorporates elements of the hero's journey, but goes beyond this straightforward plot both in detail and direction. Bonnet's model also allows for the antihero's journey, which is best exemplified by Macbeth, Faust or Oedipus. The Storywheel is a visual aid for understanding the cycles an individual character or a society passes through, both in story worlds and in real life.

In Part Four, Bonnet explores the creative process of developing a story from idea to finished product. His method is less structured than most texts on plotting or characterization. There are no charts or character worksheets. Instead, Bonnet describes an internal process of testing each idea, each scene, each character, and the story as a whole for feelings of resonance with an inner or universal truth.

Stealing Fire From The Gods is an intense book packed with information. It's the sort of book you have to reread several times to truly understand. If Vogler's The Writer's Journey is an introduction, Bonnet's Stealing Fire is an advanced course. There is a lot to be learned within the pages about the way the human psyche works, and the way stories communicate truths to us. Much of the book, though, reads like an advanced psychology text, and Bonnet has a tendency to give concepts new, specialized names, causing his writing to be jargon-heavy. But for the writer looking to understand the components of story on a deeper level and to use that knowledge to write more powerful tales, Stealing Fire From The Gods can provide that insight.

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