In the late 1960s, in Boston, I was one of two panelists at an anti-war event. Chomsky was the other. He focused on what he intended to say as if my remarks had happened somewhere else. Not rude in the least, just intensely focused on delivering what he was saying. He was great on the Vietnam stuff, as on most everything else.
Gene > On Dec 21, 2015, at 10:18 AM, Perelman, Michael <[email protected]> > wrote: > > Chomsky came to Chico years ago. He gave 3 1.5 hour lectures without a > break. One was on international politics; one on the media. I don't > remember the other one, but they were all exceedingly impressive. We decided > on the subjects shortly before his presentation. Nonetheless, in his > lectures, he would say something like "on July 16 1986, the NY Times wrote: > "... he filled in the blanks. Someone who walked in to the lectures would be > sure that he spent many days preparing them. As we walked across the campus, > students would greet him and give him their name. Chomsky would respond, > with something like "Your last message about Palestine ..." I asked him how > many hours per day he corresponds with students from Chico. He said, an hour > or two for correspondence. We went to a dinner with a few people, then a > reception that lasted till midnight. I picked him up the next day at 8:00 > AM. He then began to tell me about what he had been reading the night > before. Noam Chomsky is AMAZING. > > > Michael Perelman > Economics Department > California State University > Mperelman at csuchico.edu > Chico, CA 95929 > 530-898-5321 > fax 530-898-5901 > www.michaelperelman.wordpress.com > > -----Original Message----- > From: [email protected] > [mailto:[email protected]] On Behalf Of Louis Proyect > Sent: Monday, December 21, 2015 6:40 AM > To: Activists and scholars in Marxist tradition > <[email protected]>; Progressive Economics > <[email protected]> > Subject: [Pen-l] Fwd: What It's Like to Be Noam Chomsky's Assistant - The > Chronicle of Higher Education > > I could see from his work that his memory was a force of nature, and one day > I dared to ask him about it. He told me he has what he calls "buffers," or > little drawers in his brain that he opens to retrieve conversations and > correspondence from as long as 50 years ago. He told me he thought for a long > time that everyone had this ability. > > http://chronicle.com/article/What-Its-Like-to-Be-Noam/234667 > > I got some exposure to this about a decade ago when I was walking along 120th > Street near B'way during lunch when a cab pulled up and Chomsky stepped out > on his way to some speaking engagement at Columbia. Since his daughter was a > Tecnica volunteer, I thought I'd introduce myself. > Five seconds after my introduction, he began commenting about what his > daughter and other volunteers had done in Nicaragua more than a decade > earlier. My jaw dropped. > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l > _______________________________________________ > pen-l mailing list > [email protected] > https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l _______________________________________________ pen-l mailing list [email protected] https://lists.csuchico.edu/mailman/listinfo/pen-l
