When Joseph Campbell speaks of a hero’s initiation into the worlds of knowledge and experience, he takes for granted that the hero’s mission is a noble one, and that his actions will benefit one or many good citizens of the society in which s/he lives. He speaks of a hero’s willfully answering the call; defeating the negative other, usually through killing or banishment; and returning to the world of the senses having learned something about his or her strengths and limitations. He further acknowledges that such a process is accepted as part of the hero’s destiny. In the process, Campbell suggests, both the hero and society benefit from the action(s) taken. Clive Barker’s Midnight Meat Train turns all these ideas on their collective head and describes a venture into the unknown that is overwhelmingly horrifying. The protagonist answers the call largely out of curiosity; his actions lead to self-defeat and self-negation despite brief and initial victories over the other; and ultimately, he joins with the other, performing the actions which he and other people have found so abhorrent throughout the movie, hovering forever between the world of the senses and the imaginary. If we look at MMT as a story about one man’s initiation into the world of experience, we must then ask the following question: what do you do when your destiny is not to defeat the shadow, but to embrace it?
About the presenterJ A White
Jules White teaches English literature, humanities, and psychology and literature at Morgan State University in Baltimore MD. He is currently working on a proposal on the use of archetypes in adult gaming, specifically video games and slot machines.