tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post3463481069232740138..comments2024-02-23T03:28:33.435-05:00Comments on Culture Industry: L'Affaire FinkelsteinMark Scrogginshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01431113440875342809noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post-45877871283633760752007-08-31T21:00:00.000-04:002007-08-31T21:00:00.000-04:00Oh my God! My husband is homonymous??? I can't b...Oh my God! My husband is homonymous??? I can't believe I have to learn this on the Internet. (The wife is always the last to know.)<BR/><BR/>- afAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post-60329306860928121282007-08-31T20:51:00.000-04:002007-08-31T20:51:00.000-04:00Hi everybody, it's the "uncontroversial" NF here. ...Hi everybody, it's the "uncontroversial" NF here. Mark, haven't been checking in lately, and see what I've missed! Computer complications, beginning of the term, looming deadlines [does anyone want to make a third on a Louisville Mackey panel with me and Robert Zamsky?], etc. Bob Archambeau, I can tell you tales of mistaken identity that would make Philip Roth's hair stand on end, but let's save it all for a round of drinks, eh? But let me mention that Norman G. and I go back a long way--we were at Binghamton as undergrads together. I've always thought there was a lot to be said for his analysis, though I find his endless appetite for controversy pretty annoying sometimes. As for the current mess, I feel it's outrageous that Dershowitz should meddle with the internal affairs of another academic institution, and even more outrageous that DePaul caved. But having spent my whole adult life in academia, I can't say I'm surprised.<BR/><BR/>As for the content of NGF's critique, I'd like to call attention to Tova Reich's amazing new novel, <I>My Holocaust</I>. It draws on what he's been saying in all sorts of brilliant, scathing ways--and it's a lot more funny than my namesake's style of moral outrage.Norman Finkelsteinhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03673105579717018812noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post-46285372162701636902007-08-29T00:03:00.000-04:002007-08-29T00:03:00.000-04:00Ah--that makes a lot more sense.Ah--that makes a lot more sense.Brianhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11057141977192915700noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post-28280811489357014382007-08-28T19:35:00.000-04:002007-08-28T19:35:00.000-04:00Thanks for correcting my grammatical/syntactical i...Thanks for correcting my grammatical/syntactical incoherence, Mark.<BR/><BR/>TyroneAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post-439425442745150772007-08-28T16:27:00.000-04:002007-08-28T16:27:00.000-04:00Thanks for mentioning this. I had never heard of *...Thanks for mentioning this. I had never heard of *this* Norman Finkelstein and this whole thing sent me into a tailspin of thinking.kfd313https://www.blogger.com/profile/01639339748894956092noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post-27680323172759761532007-08-28T14:36:00.000-04:002007-08-28T14:36:00.000-04:00Brian, I think Tyrone means that he's warning off ...Brian, I think Tyrone means that he's warning off people considering DePaul for graduate study, or considering applying for jobs there.Mark Scrogginshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/01431113440875342809noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post-31402679820013592892007-08-28T14:15:00.000-04:002007-08-28T14:15:00.000-04:00I don't understand, Tyrone--why take out your rage...I don't understand, Tyrone--why take out your rage at the university on their grad students? I doubt they had anything to do with the way Finkelstein was treated. I'd hate to think I wasn't considered for a job just because someone disapproved of the decisions made by the President of the University of Arkansas--I disapproved of a lot of his decisions as well.Brian Shttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15258964922666185002noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post-91926171061501432862007-08-28T12:50:00.000-04:002007-08-28T12:50:00.000-04:00Bravo for the rage Mark!I am turning away grad stu...Bravo for the rage Mark!<BR/>I am turning away grad students and prospective jobseekers from DePaul as of this morning when I read with disbelief the latest turn in this massacre of academic freedom.<BR/><BR/>TyroneAnonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post-46615537388436803962007-08-28T10:47:00.000-04:002007-08-28T10:47:00.000-04:00There's a strange irony at work here. On the one ...There's a strange irony at work here. On the one hand tenure is meant (among other things) to protect unpopular thinking, on the assumption that some of it may turn out to be very important. On the other hand, the tenure process tends to weed out controversial figures like Norman G. The political nature of the allegedly disinterested, professional tenure assessment process doesn't often come to light, but Dershowitz's campaign against Norman G. has certainly made it plain, hasn't it?<BR/><BR/>Has the <I>other</I> Norman (the non-controversial one) compiled a dossier of all the hate-mail he's received by accident from those who think he's Norman G.? Maybe it would make a good book, "Letters to the Other Norman"...<BR/><BR/>Still recovering from all the wine I drank at Josh Corey's "welcome to Lake Forest" dinner,<BR/><BR/>BobArchambeauhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17273511539172747550noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-11295909.post-56616988199165156602007-08-27T14:27:00.000-04:002007-08-27T14:27:00.000-04:00That is the shabbiest. I'd kept up with his story ...That is the shabbiest. I'd kept up with his story via Democracy Now! -- Amy Goodman interviewed both Noam Chomsky and Howard Zinn re: this controversy and in support of NGF -- but I had no idea they would take it that far, to the level basically of blackballing. There really is no more sacred cow than Israel: it is the ultimate convergence of the interests of all powerful parties, and it has clearly become an "if you don't support everything about Israel and it's relations with the US and the rest o' the Mid-East you are de facto a commie-Islamo-fascist-bin-laden." And, uh, I'm not going to say what I think of that. :-D (You never know...)Amyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/04736955125611064179noreply@blogger.com