Library Experiment This Thursday

The Ames Free Library sponsored over 700 programs last year, This year they are focusing a number of programs (including three of my own in the interests of full disclosure) on boomers. Those are folks born from 1945 to 1960 not jet pilots who have broken the sound barrier. Along with estate planning and how to find your keys (and remember what they're for), the library is trying some very exciting programming.

One of these great ideas is a series on the Philosophy of Film by Professor Ed McGushin of Stonehill. The first, to be held this Thursday at 6:30 in the Main Library, should appeal to film buffs and philosophers of all ages. Professor McGushin will be leading a discussion on the themes in Alfred Hitchcock's great movie, North by Northwest.

The flyer for the discussion mentions "identity, the context of the Cold War, and interrogation of modern life." We'll get back to those in a minute, but I want to let people know that they are NOT showing the movie. We showed this a few years ago at the Hockomock Film Club and it runs for 136 minutes which would leave little time for discussion. You can rush in and borrow the film from the library, which has multiple copies, but you can't get it streaming through Netflix. If you are like me you remember Eva Marie Saint, mistaken identity (again Hitch?), crop duster, Mt. Rushmore, and Eva Marie Saint. So I suggest going to Wikipedia and refreshing your memory about the plot and production. While you are there you might want to check out Hitchcock's 1942 film Saboteur

This one has Bob Cummings running in the opposite direction across the country and ending up on the Statue of Liberty instead of Mt. Rushmore. I'm one of the few who actually prefers the hokie patriotic dialogue of this wartime version to the sophisticated banter of the later film.  The mistaken identity stuff appears in a number of Hitchcock films including the early classic The 39 Steps.

The issue of identity-what makes you you and all its permutations has been a big deal in philosophy since the ancient Greeks argued about the Ship of Theseus, but with today's neuroscience issues of personal identity have come to the fore. You can check out a pretty readable entry on personal identity at the Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy. If you want more you can follow one of the links in the entry to here.  It's always interesting to look at the influence of a time on its film and the Cold War certainly had a huge impact. Cary Grant's gray suit also typified the 1950s. As far as "interrogating modern life," I have no idea what that means; but my first question would be  "Why aren't their more women like Eva Marie Saint today?" And geez, Hitch, if you had made the darned film three years earlier you could have had Grace Kelly!