Customer Reviews:
How bright I am.......2004-06-25
This book is not for filmgoers. Its focus is geared to the elite and erudite college student who will be impressed by name dropping of prominent philosophers in Western Lit. To be polite, it is dripping in stream-of-consciousness commentary that wreaks of self-indulgence, suggesting adult attention deficit problems. It is not uncommon to find sentences in excess of 50 words long, that if grammatically diagrammed would make Watson and Crick's double helix look like a straight arrow. Save time and save money. The clip art of movie scenes is primitive and should have been a clue as to the author's intent. A great disappointment.
A great book for lovers of classical American movies........1997-12-29
The goal of this book is to show that the classic American film comedies of the 30's and 40's are worthy of the best criticism. The author succeeds. If you love movies, and want to think about them seriously, this is your book. The films in it star Hepburn, Grant, Tracy, Gable, Stanwyck. This is a sophisticated book for a sophisticated film audience. The author is one of America's leading philosophers. Cavell brings his knowledge of concepts of friendship, conversation, gender, parenting, sexuality, fun, and adventure to bear on each of the romantic comedies he discusses. The genre explored here continues in GROUNDHOG DAY, FLIRTING WITH DISASTER, WHEN HARRY MET SALLY, SLEEPLESS IN SEATTLE, ALL OF ME, JOE VERSUS THE VOLCANO. This book is serious, and well worth it. It explores everything important to every romantic relationship. I highly recommend it to everyone.
A critical appreciation of film's greatest romantic comedies.......1996-05-18
Cavell identifies the "comedies of remarriage," those romantic comedies and comic romances that lit the screens and the hearts of the audiences of the 1930's and 40's. With the mind of a philosopher and scholar and the passionate appreciation of a true fan, he examines classic romantic comedies (and comic romances), including "The Lady Eve," "The Awful Truth," and "The Philadelphia Story." In a classical context (he compares the role of the woods in Shakespeare to the role of Connecticut in "Bringing Up Baby") he manages to illuminate the films without disturbing the gossamer that holds them together. The best that can be said is that he does justice to these lovely films, and makes us understand how smart we were to adore them
Book Description
Stanley Cavell has been one of the most creative and independent of contemporary philosophical voices. At the core of his thought is the view that skepticism is not a theoretical position to be refuted by philosophical theory but is a reflection of the fundamental limits of human knowledge of the self, of others and of the external world that must be accepted. This volume is the first attempt systematically and accessibly to describe and assess the full range of Cavell's work. There are new accounts of Cavell's contribution to the philosophy of mind and language, the theory of action, ethics, aesthetics, Romanticism, American philosophy. Richard Eldridge is Professor of Philosophy and Chair of the Philsophy Department at Swarthmore College. He is author of The Persistence of Romanticism (Cambridge, 2001), On Moral Personhood: Philosophy, Literature, Criticism, and Self-Understanding (Chicago, 1989) and Leading a Human Life: Wittengenstein, Intentionality, and Romanticism (Chicago, 1997), which won the 1998 Jean-Pierre Barricelli Book Prize awarded by the American Conference on Romanticism. He is the editor of Beyond Representation: Philosophy and Poetic Imagination (Cambridge, 1996).
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Contemporary Philosophy in Focus offers a series of introductory volumes on many of the dominant philosophical thinkers of the current age. Stanley Cavell has been one of the most creative and independent of contemporary philosophical voices. At the core of his thought is the view that skepticism is not a theoretical position to be refuted by philosophical theory but is a reflection of the fundamental limits of human knowledge of the self, of others and of the external world that must be accepted. This volume is the first attempt systematically and accessibly to describe and assess the full range of Cavell's work. There are new accounts of Cavell's contribution to the philosophy of mind and language, the theory of action, ethics, aesthetics, Romanticism, American philosophy, Shakespeare, and film and opera. Outside philosophy the appeal of this volume will be unusually broad.
Book Description
Thisnbsp;unique volume treats films as philosophy, rather thannbsp;speaking of films only in relation to philosophy and subjugating the film in question to pre-existing theories. Bringing together essays from some of the leading scholars in the field, the book also features an interview with Stanley Cavell in which he explains his most recent thinking on the belief that films can think; that they can, indeed, function as philosophy.
Customer Reviews:
Excellent collection. If you read one book on film, read this........2007-04-25
This collection builds on seminal work on Film by the philosopher Stanley Cavell, whose works include, The Claim of Reason: Wittgenstein, Skepticism, Morality, and Tragedy & The World Viewed: Reflections on the Ontology of Film, Enlarged Edition. Cavell's work, in turn, is deeply influenced by the Philosophy of Ludwig Wittgenstein (see the collection The New Wittgenstein).
The approach to film explored in this collection is one that eschews the application of theory to film. Film studies has generally approached film through theory: psychoanalytic, Marxist, Feminist, cognitive etc. This serves to render the film under discussion. This collection also eschews the approach evident in recent books on the philosophy of film or those that use films to illustrate philosophy (e.g. Rowlands' The Philosopher at the End of the Universe). While the books in the latter category have their place, they merely use film as a resource for the dramatisation of philosophical problems. In contrast the essays in the collection under review here read the films under discussion as doing philosophy, exploring philosophical themes, actively thinking through philosophical problems. The collection contains a fascinating interview with Stanley Cavell. Stephen Mulhall revisits his own earlier writings on the Alien films, first discussed in On Film (Thinking in Action) (Thinking in Action). Phil Hutchinson and Rupert Read bring to life the philosophical work undertaken by Christopher Nolan's film Memento, seeing it as a therapeutic dialogue in the manner of Wittgenstein's Philosophical Investigations (3rd Edition). The book also contains chapters on Fight Club (Widescreen Edition) and Terence Malick's The Thin Red Line (Malick was a student of Cavell's at Harvard; the lead character in the film is named Witt...). Contributors include Simon Glendinning, author of The Idea of Continental Philosophy; Simon Critchley; and Andrew Klevan.
A groundbreaking and enjoyable collection.
Book Description
Stanley Cavell is a leading figure in American philosophy and one of the most exhilarating and wide-ranging intellectuals of our time. In this book Espen Hammer offers a lucid and thorough account of the development of Cavell's work, from his early writings on ordinary language philosophy and skepticism to his most recent contributions to film studies, literary theory, romanticism, ethics, and politics. The book traces the many lines of skepticism occurring in Cavell's work and shows how they amount to a rich and subtle picture of human subjectivity. Hammer explores Cavell's passionate engagement with Austin and Wittgenstein's visions of language, and his uncovering of conceptions of the ordinary in Emerson and Thoreau. Central sections of the book are devoted to the tragic and the comic as these modes of existence come into play in Shakespeare and Hollywood cinematic drama. In elaborating Cavell's responses to thinkers such as Heidegger, Levinas, and Derrida, the author situates Cavell's writing within the wider context of contemporary continental philosophy. Hammer clearly reveals the existential dimensions of Cavell's thought. He argues that his variant of ordinary language philosophy is a vital stimulus to self-transformation in cognitive, aesthetic, ethical, and political domains, contributing significantly to a rethinking of issues such as responsibility and autonomy, and the relationship between philosophy and literature. A critical introduction to the thought of an inordinately complex writer, this book will be of great interest to students and scholars in philosophy, literary theory, cultural theory, comparative literature, and media and cultural studies.
Customer Reviews:
The bias of prejudice.......2006-07-17
Cavell relies on his own experience of cinema in such a way that the reader is invited to try to find himself with respect to his claims. There may or may not be a meeting of the minds. But this doesn't mean Cavell is biased. He's simply calling it as he sees it. He asks nothing more and nothing less of us. I don't see that a personal judgment might not be objective. And if it is very difficult to experience what Cavell is gesturing towards, that seems like all the more reason for being cautious when referring to what you might wrongly be calling "subjective prejudices." This book is worth the hard work.
Creative but Prejudiced.......2000-05-08
Since Stanley Cavell was an esteemed philosophy professor at Harvard University, when he wrote this book, it was a boon for film theorists everywhere; the academic elite were finally taking film theory seriously. However, even though in the book there are great moments of insight into the spectatorship of films, Cavell is very biased towards his own cinematic experience and will often make broad claims to the superiority of the classic films with which he grew up over any recent film. His predilections are often purely personal and do not involve an objective understanding of the films. The book contains many wonderful moments that stem from a thought-provoking philosopher yet it is very difficult to experience them through the author's subjective prejudices.
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Stanley Cavell: Philosophy's Recounting of the Ordinary
Stephen Mulhall
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Must We Mean What We Say?: A Book of Essays
ASIN: 0198238509 |
Book Description
Stephen Mulhall presents the first full-length philosophical study of the work of Stanley Cavell, best known for his highly influential contributions to the fields of film studies, Shakespearian literary criticism, and the confluence of psychoanalysis and literary theory. It is not properly appreciated that Cavell's project originated in his interpretation of Austin's and Wittgenstein's philosophical interest in the criteria governing ordinary language, and is given unity by an abiding concern with the nature and the varying cultural manifestations of the sceptical impulse in modernity. This book elucidates the essentially philosophical roots and trajectory of Cavell's work, traces its links with Romanticism and its recent turn towards a species of moral pefectionism associated with Thoreau and Emerson, and concludes with an assessment of its relations to liberal-democratic political theory, Christian religious thought, and feminist literary studies. It will be of interest to anyone concerned with the relationships between Anglo-American and Continental philosophy, and between philosophy and other disciplines in the humanities. 'an excellent presentation and discussion of [Cavell's] thought . . . very timely' Political Studies 'Learning to read Mulhall is both a suitable and a worthy first step to learning to read Cavell' British Journal of Aesthetics 'there can be no doubt as to the depth of Mulhall's knowledge of Cavell's writings or to his ability as an advocate. [The book] is also very well written. Mulhall's prose is capable of registering the fine grain in a subtle and elusive thinker and, while more conventional than Cavell's, is no less supple or eloquent.' Times Literary Supplement '[Mulhall's] explication is careful enough to explain the importance of Cavell's work, clarify the subtleties of Cavell's ideas, provide a complete overview of Cavell's thought, and show the coherence in Cavell's diverse writings . . .invaluable' Harvard Review
Book Description
Since Socrates and his circle first tried to frame the Just City in words, discussion of a perfect communal life--a life of justice, reflection, and mutual respect--has had to come to terms with the distance between that idea and reality. Measuring this distance step by practical step is the philosophical project that Stanley Cavell has pursued on his exploratory path. Situated at the intersection of two of his longstanding interests--Emersonian philosophy and the Hollywood comedy of remarriage--Cavell's new work marks a significant advance in this project. The book--which presents a course of lectures Cavell presented several times toward the end of his teaching career at Harvard--links masterpieces of moral philosophy and classic Hollywood comedies to fashion a new way of looking at our lives and learning to live with ourselves.
This book offers philosophy in the key of life. Beginning with a rereading of Emerson's "Self-Reliance," Cavell traces the idea of perfectionism through works by Plato, Aristotle, Locke, Kant, Mill, Nietzsche, and Rawls, and by such artists as Henry James, George Bernard Shaw, and Shakespeare. Cities of Words shows that this ever-evolving idea, brought to dramatic life in movies such as It Happened One Night, The Awful Truth, The Philadelphia Story, and The Lady Eve, has the power to reorient the perception of Western philosophy.
Customer Reviews:
Perfectionism--Love it or Live it.......2004-08-28
No one should mistake City of Words for a book about film, though it comments on a number of movies. Nor is it exactly a book on moral philosophy, if you're looking for thorough accounts of differing views of the good or the right. Those who know Cavell's other writings will find familiar ground here, as he keeps returning to old favorites: Emerson, of course, screwball comedy, Shakespeare and melodrama (new to me are some thoughts on Eric Rohmer, Henry James and Max Ophuls).
What the book does deliver is a set of virtuoso variations on the "register of the moral life" that Cavell calls "perfectionism"--the sense of disappointment with the world as it is and the (in principle endless) aspiration to a transformed, better, more desirable state. He finds perfectionist themes all over the philosophical tradition, but he's more interested in the philosophical life than the tradition. For Cavell, the pleasure of the films lies in the way they embody--and invite, or provoke--conversation, the mutual exploration and testing of human souls, and their dramatization of the various ways conversation can go wrong and correct itself.
The book is a summa of sorts: "city of words" is how Cavell describes Plato's Republic and Kant's "kingdom of ends"--that is, the heaven of the philosophers--and to enjoy this, you'll have to be willing to find the entertaining of possibilities to be entertainment enough. As incentive, Cavell offers wonderful scene-by-scene synopses of the films he discusses (although you'll want to watch them for yourself). Mostly, though, it offers an occasion to be in the company of a thoughtful and humane mind--at times, surprisingly enough, your own.
The book is based on a course in Moral Reasoning that Cavell taught for years at Harvard.
The Missing Link.......2004-06-25
This is the third book by Dr. Cavell that I have read in the last few months. I am a fan of the cinema of the Great Depression era, and an article about this book in the New York Times' Arts section drew my interest to them. This is not a book for fans of movies of that era. I will say that the book sleeve and other promos, at least for this volume, do not mislead. This is a book for the learned, for the erudite, and scholarly who have a desire to integrate classical philosophy into their own value system and who have a strong background and familiarity with Great Western philosophers.
Dr. Cavell uses the screenplay as a framework to structure his discussion. More about this later. It should also be mentioned that some of his earlier works in this style (philosophy and movies) and the critiques of them by his peers once again are discussed, defended where necessary, and otherwise explained. The writing although difficult to follow at times, has been edited more thoroughly than that in his previous books. One cannot but marvel at the breadth and depth of his knowledge.
One must accept, as a willing suspension of disbelief, that viewers of the film at the time of its release during the Great Depression had the wherewithal to understand links to any of the great philosophers of Western Civilization as Dr. Cavell does. They just wanted to escape the dreariness of life in the Great Depression by going to the movies. Think of Cecilia in "The Purple Rose of Cairo" contemplating the meaning of life while peeling potatoes. On one viewing, as Dr. Cavell has pointed out, one is not likely to contemplate deep philosophical meanings on the way home from the show.
Second, Dr. Cavell accepts and dissects the rendition of the screen play by the actors and directors in describing the story and its philosophical ramifications. In this book and his two previous works in this style. What is not discussed is the link, the filtration if you will, between the writers of the original manuscript and the effect of the screenwriters' adaptation and interpretation of that story. Without knowledge of that confounder, one realizes the artificiality of this construct and the richness of Dr. Cavell's imagination.
Book Description
This collection of essays, which originally appeared as a book in 1962, is virtually the complete works of an editor of Commentary magazine who died, at age 37, in 1955. Long before the rise of Cultural Studies as an academic pursuit, in the pages of the best literary magazines of the day, Robert Warshow wrote analyses of the folklore of modern life that were as sensitive and penetrating as the writings of James Agee, George Orwell, and Walter Benjamin. Some of these essays--notably "The Westerner," "The Gangster as Tragic Hero," and the pieces on the New Yorker, Mad Magazine, Arthur Miller's The Crucible, and the Rosenberg letters--are classics, once frequently anthologized but now hard to find.
Along with a new preface by Stanley Cavell, The Immediate Experience includes several essays not previously published in the book--on Kafka and Hemingway--as well as Warshow's side of an exchange with Irving Howe.
Customer Reviews:
A rare gem........1997-05-16
This book is a hard-to-find but fascinating and lightly-written look at film and its relationship with society. Warshow is elegant and interesting. If there are any publishers listening out there, my suggestion to you is to find this book, buy it, and reprint it
Book Description
This extensive collection offers a substantially complete retrospective of Stanley Cavell's previously uncollected writings on film. Cavell is the only major philosopher in the Anglo-American tradition who has made film a central concern of his work, and his work offers inspiration and new directions to the field of film studies. The essays and other writings in this volume, presented in the order of their composition, range from major theoretical statements and extended critical studies of individual films or filmmakers to occasional pieces, all of which illuminate Cavell's practice of philosophy as it has developed in the more than three decades since the publication of The World Viewed. All periods of Cavell's career are represented, from the 1970s to the present, and the book includes many previously unpublished essays written since the early 1990s. In his introduction, William Rothman provides a useful and eloquent overview of Cavell's work on film and his aims as a philosopher more generally.
Customer Reviews:
analytic philosopy and film.......2006-01-29
This is an enjoyable book written by one of the leading analytic philosophers. It takes some time to get into the book but once there is quite worthwile.
Customer Reviews:
LONG LIVE CAVELL.......2000-12-14
The brilliant mind of cinema and philosophy is made new again in this book by two writers passionate (and informed) about their subject. Where else can you read of American philosophy's presence in the films of Charlie Chaplin and Frank Capra? Interdisciplinary studies at its best.
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- Schmucks!: Our Favorite Fakes, Frauds, Lowlifes, Liars, the Armed and Dangerous, and Good Guys Gone Bad
- Sculpting a Galaxy: Inside the Star Wars Model Shop
- Sound Design: The Expressive Power of Music, Voice and Sound Effects in Cinema
- Spike, Mike, Slackers, & Dykes: A Guided Tour Across a Decade of American Independent Cinema
- Star Pilot (DK READERS)
- Steve McQueen The Last Mile
- Story: Substance, Structure, Style and The Principles of Screenwriting
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Cities of Words: Pedagogical Letters on a Register of the Moral Life
