There’s a reason I don’t usually read overly long introductions to books — especially nonfictionals — I’m about to embark on and Norman M. Klein in his preface to his “The History of Forgetting” definitely had me rolling my eyes almost had me saying “Forget about it!” at several points, such as this one:
“In the first section, I employ the term social imaginary, but not in the Lacanian or post-Hegelian sense, which seemed too elusive for research on urban planning…”
Lacanian or post-Hegelian? Elusive is right. Get the flock outta here! Sure, I can Google Lacan and Hegel and perhaps broaden my mind a bit as to who the hell these people are/were, but while I’m deciding whether or not to do that Klein damn well better shake lose all that arcanity in the intro because if he starts spouting such dry academentia around in the bulk of the book I’m gonna forget about “Forgetting” real quick.