This book covers a vast amount of the themes of Interstellar. It brings deeper meaning to much of the story, and explains a lot of what most critics don't see. I have not found anywhere on the Internet that this has been pointed out since the release of the Film... so, here I am today.

Here is a detailed dissection of just one paragraph:

"The profundity and sublime majesty of the suppressed mythology can
be appreciated best by way of two apparently unrelated clocks, one, the
ultimate clock of outer space, and the other of inner space-respectively,
the astronomical precession of the equinoxes and the physiological beat of
the human heart." -- The Inner Reaches of Outer Space, Joseph Campbell, 1986, page 12

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Ok, so bear with me here, because I'm going to break that down a bits:

1. "appreciated best" - oh baby, this is a nice film if you watch it over and over! Like the poems that Prof Brand repeats?
2. "suppressed mythology" - that means hated (suppressed) by the popular people, and also hidden. Mythology defines the category of story.
3. "two apparently unrelated clocks" - another word for "clock" is "watch", as in a Hamilton Wrist-Watch. And our film has two of them (Murph and Coop).
4. "the ultimate clock of outer space" -- Cooper's watch!
5. "the other of inner space" - Murph's watch!
6. "beat of the human heart" -- TARS - LOVE is the KEY! Like a drum-beat to a Song! Love is the encoding Morse Code Key!

The title of the educational book itself, The Inner Reaches of Outer Space - could even be a metaphor for the entire story. How Coop's pounding from outer-space, reaches, into the Inner house of his daughter Murph. You could sum up the entire Film with that book title, The Inner Reaches of Outer Space,

This is good stuff. May have to look into it more myself

The only color photograph of the entire 1986 book is a picture from 1950 on page 71. Themes of the color photo:

- The Native Crop of North America, the Corn Stalk - is used to Structure the Storytelling
- Male and female forms, pass through a Worm Hole to the Heavens
- The middle of the corn stalk has Lighting Bolts
- A bird is on the other side (above the stalk), symbolizing freedom from the past (like a Dove often represents)
- The old community is there to cheer the transformation, to witness.
- Corn Pollen male (Cooper), Egg female carrier (Brand)
- The Corn story has a saying: "Oh, beauty before me, beauty behind me, beauty to the right of me, beauty to the left of me, beauty above me, beauty below me, I'm on the pollen path."

I've found someone who put the color photograph from the book on the webs: http://unurthed.com/2007/05/24/the-navajo-pollen-path/

I recommend the entire book, as it goes into many more themes, including the problems of NASA keeping secrets in an American Democracy (Prof Brand using deceptions in science - his deathbed confession, and also Murph's school using deception about the Apollo Space Program).