>On Jun 7, 2009, at 1:03 PM, Michael Smith wrote:
>
>>Obviously, I'm a fan. I can understand why others might not like
>>him. But frankly, I don't think it says anything good about them.
>
>Yes. There are things I disagree with Noam about, but I admire the guy
>enormously, and I've always found him incredibly generous with his
>time. And from what I get from linguists, he's a real giant. Someone
>once told me that people at MIT find his politics a little odd, but
>they view having him on the faculty as being like having Einstein on
>the faculty.
>
>Doug
ha. that's what's interesting about this book. he comes off as a human being, who isn't any brighter than your average star -- in terms of linguistics. and there's nothing about this book that comes off as an attempt to knock the guy down a peg or something. she just points out that the fandom is as bad (possibly worse?) in academia as it is among politicos. the interesting thing is that, from what i'm reading, the fandom in academia is far less deserved than it is in terms of politics. people took his word for thing, scientifically, just because he said them. they weren't formulated. they were one offs written in footnotes. didn't matter. Chomsky said ti? then it was true.
that's fucking scary.