"I am always saying that we must let the films themselves teach us how to look at them and how to think about them," Stanley Cavell writes in Pursuits of Happiness, p. 25. I propose thst we follow follow his suggestion about the films and extend to his book.To paraphrase Cavelll, we must let Pursuits of Happiness teach us how to read it and how to think about it. what does that mean in practice? It means reading slowly. There is a lot to absorb. It means noticing repetitions of material across the book. Cavell writes in a very clear but also idiosyncratic, sometimes even eccrentic way. It's his idiosyncracies that will teach us. We will begin with Cavell's syntax We will come to see that his writing style and his style of thought are inseparable.

Your assignment is to select two really good sentences you think are both very well-written and well-thought and briefly explain why you think they are. You will have to read the text closely, both to understand it and also to ask yourselves why he wrote what he said the way he wrote it. You could call this double reading: at the same you time you will read for compreheension (this is immersive) and read for style (this is oblique; reading obliquely is reading the way a ceative writer would).

Choose what you think are the two best sentences in Stanley Cavell, "Introduction: Words for a Conversation," Pursuits of Happiness, pp. 1-30.  

Briefly explain why you chose each one.

2. Look up two BIG WORDs you didn't know and copy them and their definitions.

Post Your selected sentences on canvas AND on this google document here.

Your criteria are twofold for deciding on the "best": (1) the thoughtfulness of expression; and (2) the craft or artistry of expression. Consider this sentence: 

"My reference to Sweet Movie is not meant simply to suggest that now, four or so decades after the scenes in question, we are in the mature position of being able to treat such things explicitly; it is meant equally to suggest that now we are in the immature position of not being able to treat such things implicitly," Pursuits of Happiness, p. 94, note*

Your brief commentary on this sentence would follow here. (For example, in the sentence above, you could note Cavell's use of the semi-colon to split the sentence into two clauses and also observe his use of parallel phrasing to reverse the thought in the first clause to its opposite in the second clause while giving both thoughts equal weight.)

THE ASSIGNED READING IS NOT A PROMPT. IT IS THE OBJECT OF YOUR CRITICAL ATTENTION. YOU ARE TRYING TO EXPLAIN IT TO YOURSELF SO YOU CAN EXPRESS YOURSELF CLEARLY TO OTHER STUDENTS.