Oliver Kamm, the noted music critic and obituarist, writes:
But it's worth paying attention to Finkelstein's arguments for another reason. In an interview published this week, Finkelstein invokes an extraordinary analogy to his being denied tenure:
Afterward, Finkelstein says, he lost seventeen pounds. "People saw me wasting away," he says. A student group held a hunger strike; Chomsky and others defended him. One of his colleagues made him a mix CD with tracks like "I Will Survive" and "What's Goin' On?" "I'm an old fan of the Negro spirituals," Finkelstein says. "I was going around singing to myself, 'Were you there when they crucified my Lord? Were you there?' That’s how I felt. I was being crucified by the end."
There isn't much ambiguity there. Critics of Finkelstein's tendentious writings on the Holocaust "industry" and the Israel-Palestine conflict are, in his view, Christ-killers.
As I said in my last post on this strange journalistic cottage industry, Kamm's an intelligent man. What does he think he has to gain with this transparent bollocks?
"Oliver Kamm, the noted music critic and obituarist"
ReplyDeleteThis is the best description of Oliver Kamm that I have yet seen. I will try to use it myself in all future references to him.
I believe it was not, in fact, John Lennon who coined the phrase "You don't have to be Christ to get crucified here, but it helps."
ReplyDeleteHe's not intelligent, he's clever.
ReplyDeleteActually, though, he reminds me of something else. In Darkness At Noon - I think we're talking about the second interrogator here - Rubashov basically agrees that provided anything can be found that could plausibly be presented as resembling in any way the actions of which he's accused*, even though the interpretations put on the evidence are entire nonsense, he'll accept that particular accusation and move on to the next one.
ReplyDeleteOllie has a technique somewhat like this.
[* I am paraphrasing hugely and from memory]
He's not even that clever, more a reasonably gifted mimic. Its like he's hung around some intelligent people, and tries to become one by aping their style, presentation, etc. And it works on people who are themselves not intellectually minded.
ReplyDeleteat least he's a brilliant writer.
ReplyDeleteI laughed. It has to have been a joke, right?
ReplyDeleteKamm is much better in the original German, I'm sure. So much subtlety and nuance is lost in translation. Critics like Daniel, who are unable to consult the original sources, presume to judge the great man.
ReplyDelete"This is the best description of Oliver Kamm that I have yet seen."
ReplyDeleteI'll raise you a "Web Walter Mitty"
noted book reviewer as well.
ReplyDeleteDid you know that "It would surely be an understatement to describe Nick Cohen's What's Left? as book of the decade"?
That last one is a joke - a running gag becausae I believe Cohen's publisher wrote to Kamm et all and asked them to say nice things about the book in their various media outlets.
ReplyDeleteCan I just pop up here and say how much I enjoy reading entries where Oliver Kamm gets a kicking, so thanks for that. He's such a smug bastard, calling him a "noted ... obituarist" is genius. And does he have to go on about that time he almost got libelled so much? I swear to god, every single post there's a paragraph where he writes: "I happen to know a bit about English libel law and the internet, having myself been the victim of yadda yadda yadda." Every fucking post.
ReplyDeleteThis description of Oliver the Great found favour at Charlotte Street (now wherever did that go?):
ReplyDelete"A jumped-up bank clerk forever reliving the ephemeral triumphs of some sixth-form debating society."
A bit long-winded, to be sure, but then isn't that appropriate?