Cities of Words : Pedagogical Letters on a Register of the Moral Life

Rating:
Summary: Perfectionism--Love it or Live it
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: The Missing Link
Review: 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.