Norman M. Klein, born in 1945, is professor in the School of Critical Studies at the California Institute of the Arts, and the author, for instance, of »The History of Forgetting: Los Angeles and the Erasure of Memory« (1997/2008) and »The Vatican to Vegas: The History of Special Effects« (2004), the multimedia historical novel, »The Imaginary 20th Century« (2016), »Freud in Coney Island and Other Tales« (2006). A critic, urban and media historian, and novelist, he has written extensively on the culture and politics of Los Angeles, on cinema, and on architecture.