Do I really need to write an introductory paragraph here? By now, anybody who reads this blog knows who Norman Finkelstein is.
He is an Israel-hating crackpot academic who was booted out of DePaul University because of his nutty scholarship. And you gotta work pretty hard to accomplish that. Since then, he travels the world giving anti-Israel speeches to whomever is dumb enough to invite him. He is a snarly, bitter psuedo-intellectual. Yet, when he used to come to UC-Irvine to speak, he knew that faculty, deans, asst deans, vice chancellors and head custodians would turn out to hear his long monologues, swoon at his feet and laugh at his angry jokes. Since his last disastrous performance at UCI in May 2010, he knows he can expect a different kind of audience-one that will show him up for the boob that he is.
Other than all that, he is a pretty good egg.
(Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, is purely coincidental.)
But that is not the thesis of this (hit) piece on old Fink. I want to examine the questions over his odd-sounding name.
First of all, we need to ask; "Is it / Finkelstine/ or /Finkelsteen/?"
If you look at the German origin of the name, it should be /Finkelstine/. Yet, every time he has come to UC-Irvine, he is announced as "/Finkelsteen/". So apparently, he prefers to be called /Finkelsteen/.
In the words of that other famous crackpot with a similar-sounding name, "It's not Frankenstine-it's Frankensteen!" (At least it's not "Finkelgruber".)
Then there is his first name, Norman. One thing we learned from his last appearance at UCI (when he was basically laughed off campus), he hates to be called "Norm".
When a student called him that while attempting to ask a question, Norm flipped his lid launching into a wild tirade against the young man and nearly setting off a riot as one woman leaped out of her seat screaming at poor old Norm as students tried to restrain her. I know. I was there.
"Don't call him 'Norm!'"
Then there is the matter of his title. Now that Norm, I mean Norman, is unemployed, he is announced on flyers as "independent scholar with a PhD from Princeton University." That's pretty impressive, especially for this broken-down old DEA agent with a Bachelors from Cal State LA-and a beard to boot (Norm doesn't have a beard.) Unfortunately for Norm, he has no university affiliation to attach to his name. I mean, can you imagine having a business card that reads, "Dr Norman Finkelstein. Independent Scholar with a PhD from Princeton University."
Princeton University
Alma Mater of Norman Finkelstein
So I guess we still have no idea what to call this strange man. Maybe we should leave it to good old Dr Frankenstein- or Frankensteen. What say you, Doc?
But is that Finkelstein or ..........never mind.
Is it really necessary to talk about him at all... in between his appearances in public I mean?
ReplyDeleteYour description of him still reminds me in principle of David Horowitz, albeit their preoccupations point in opposite directions.