Thinking of Christopher Hitchens

This is for all non-EC or peripheral-EC topics. We all know how much we love talking about 'The Man' but sometimes we have other interests.
Post Reply
User avatar
Jack of All Parades
Posts: 5716
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:31 am
Location: Where I wish to be

Thinking of Christopher Hitchens

Post by Jack of All Parades »

Once again PD has brought attention to something worth sharing-in this case the preeminent site for Dylan[for me at least] Expecting Rain.com. It is always the first site I visit when I power on the computer. It is thorough, enlivening and always full of tangential areas of information that go well beyond the 'worshiped' artist-in this case an interesting series of video interviews with Christopher Hitchens and his best friend Martin Amis as they discuss his illness, mortality, religion and anti antisemitism. I offer these links for those interested:

http://www.theatlantic.com/video/archiv ... ion/60931/

As usual he is extremely lucid, funny, self-deprecating and just plain engaging. I share his aversion for religion, amongst many other concerns[in particular his compelling aversion to antisemitism and all forms of prejudice] and do not relish a future time when he is no longer amongst us provoking, agitating and making me think. His recovery is highly unlikely but I take solace in watching and listening to him "rage" against the coming darkness that will envelope all of us. When my time comes I hope I can look it straight on as Hitchens is doing and continue to keep as agile and facile a mind.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
nord
Posts: 63
Joined: Wed Aug 25, 2004 8:16 pm

Re: Thinking of Christopher Hitchens

Post by nord »

Thanks.

He quoted from Jeeves and Wooster. I have been watching the tv-series on DVD this summer. Highly recommended.
User avatar
Jack of All Parades
Posts: 5716
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:31 am
Location: Where I wish to be

Re: Thinking of Christopher Hitchens

Post by Jack of All Parades »

Happy you liked it- if I can sum him up in one word it is irascible but not in a hot tempered way-your drawing attention to the Jeeves quote embodies for me my engagement with his thought process-he can draw from so many reference points.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
nord
Posts: 63
Joined: Wed Aug 25, 2004 8:16 pm

Re: Thinking of Christopher Hitchens

Post by nord »

Right. What ho Christopher! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=u-BAUG97gZo
User avatar
migdd
Posts: 3009
Joined: Sun Jun 22, 2003 6:16 pm
Location: Rolling in Clover, SC

Re: Thinking of Christopher Hitchens

Post by migdd »

Hitchens is a great free mind and when I think of him now I think of the line ". . . I know this world is killing you."
User avatar
Jack of All Parades
Posts: 5716
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:31 am
Location: Where I wish to be

Re: Thinking of Christopher Hitchens

Post by Jack of All Parades »

Thank you, Nord, for the fun reminder of Jeeves and the great Hugh Laurie. Miggd, sadly so true!
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
User avatar
Who Shot Sam?
Posts: 7097
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 5:05 pm
Location: Somewhere in the distance
Contact:

Re: Thinking of Christopher Hitchens

Post by Who Shot Sam? »

I take it you read his piece on his cancer diagnosis and aftermath in Vanity Fair?

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/featu ... ens-201009

I've always half-admired, half-detested Hitchens, but this was very moving.
Mother, Moose-Hunter, Maverick
User avatar
Jack of All Parades
Posts: 5716
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:31 am
Location: Where I wish to be

Re: Thinking of Christopher Hitchens

Post by Jack of All Parades »

Yes I did when I got my September issue a few days ago. Thank you for posting the link so that others, who maybe interested, can read the piece. You are quite right to note its 'moving' quality. Yet again an example of his unsparing eye and ear for me. As usual filled with excellent sentences like this-"In whatever kind of 'race' life may be, I have very abruptly become a finalist." Love the notion that "if Penelope Cruz were one of my nurses, I wouldn't even notice." I can empathize with that statement.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
adge
Posts: 35
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 4:55 pm

Re: Thinking of Christopher Hitchens

Post by adge »

Quite shocking to see Hitchens looking the way he does, i only heard he had cancer a few weeks back, and seeing him like this really throws the horror of the disease in your face.

As for his anti-theism, i think it's sometimes superficial, the constricted context in which these polemics are conceived that gets up my nose, and it also explains why either book is packed with glib examples and straw man arguments, to be endlessly rehashed by the books fans (who other than philosophy students, Hitchens and Dawkins preaches the design argument?) . For instance, removing different styles of religious belief from their social and political context allows every negative example of religiously styled behaviour to be conflated and then presented as some autonomous phenomena which can move like some contagion across the globe. Such an intellectual approach misses the standards of the enlightenment and also misses out on some interesting analysis. Is Islamism in the middle east, some dangerous meme, to be bombed out of existence?

Slight footnote to his Iran comments, Iran's position is essentially defensive, the rhetoric, the conflating nuclear power and nationalism (islamism?) i think Hitchens et al should ask, who has Iran invaded in the last say....200 years.
User avatar
Jack of All Parades
Posts: 5716
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:31 am
Location: Where I wish to be

Re: Thinking of Christopher Hitchens

Post by Jack of All Parades »

I never think Hitchen's is 'superficial' in his distaste for religion, a distaste I share. A reasoning human being, freed of the old superstitions that held people captive in their views of themselves and the world around them, knows that evolution is a process of adaptation and selection and enjoys the randomness of it-pure 'blind' chance. That is the beauty and intelligence of 'natural selection'. I will always marvel with Hamlet "what a piece of work is man" and for that matter the natural world around me and never believe it was planed or 'designed'.

Hitchens gets it right-"religion has run out of justifications"; it "no longer offers an explanation of anything important" for us.

As to Iran no argument from me or Hitchens and his friends about any invasion anywhere from them in the past near 200 years. But that is not his or my fear. I do not begrudge Iran the advantages of nuclear power for business and normal human activity with the energy it can provide. But I fear and abhor the notion that they are trying to enrich uranium in order to construct a bomb or multiple bombs. That is untenable when coupled with a regime that has publicly stated they would like to wipe Israel off the face of the map. That is intolerable by civilized nations and their citizenry. The regime in Iran is a dangerous one. I do not equate this with Islam or Muslims. Just an evil intolerance within these men heading this country that should be most disturbing to any thinking person.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
adge
Posts: 35
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 4:55 pm

Re: Thinking of Christopher Hitchens

Post by adge »

Asserting that to stand outside the paradigm of religion, implies some convulsive metamorphosis that ultimately liberates mankind to some hitherto unknown freedom is quite simply wacky in it's irrationality. To say religion has run out of justifications, is not to justify all else outside that either, that's your problem.
Tell me why Islamic fundamentalism arose in the Middle East during the course of the 20th century and the reasons surrounding the rise of Christian fundamentalism in America. On the strength of your imbibing the Hitchens thesis, this should be a doddle.Otherwise i must conclude that Hitchen's credo's are unconnected to any reality, and they have no constructive bearing on the world.
There are many lofty belief systems, like Humanism or liberalism for example, that take on many twisted and contradictory forms-in essence religions themselves are manifestations of the societies in which they grow (from Constantine, the reformed churches and Don Cupid-all Christian, but diverse, and essentially cultural manifestations).
What's needed is a critique that bridges this divide not one that poses the problem in such facile and polarising terms.


on Iran, let me float the explosive concept that Iran's religious fundamentalism is linked to the West's unhealthy relationship with it.
The Shah was imposed by the US and UK, just post war i think, replacing a parliamentary democracy with a brutal dictatorship, when there was a religious uprising in the 1970's to overthrow the Shah, a US backed coup soon followed. The US backed is friend Saddam Hussain's illegal war on Iran, a war that cost the lives of thousands of Iranians, you might forget this, the Iranians do not. Iranian rhetoric, which i mentioned earlier, is the upshot of post war US intervention-and quite understandable fear on the part of the Iranians.
Do you see any connection between US hegemony and current Islamic fundamentalism?
Even a few years ago, the US's refusal to back an EU directive, in which Iran had agreed to have it's enrichment programme monitored, this speaks volumes about a US policy which rejects enlightened negotiation, in favour of self interested school bully boy tactics.

As for your rhetorical 'civilized nations' i'll agree with Gandhi who said when asked what he thought of civilisation 'it would be a good idea',

show me a civilised nation before you make such grandiose claims
User avatar
Jack of All Parades
Posts: 5716
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:31 am
Location: Where I wish to be

Re: Thinking of Christopher Hitchens

Post by Jack of All Parades »

Finally got around to reading this piece in the accumulating magazines in my home-

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/featu ... ths-201106

God! I will miss this particular voice. As he so vigorously argues the best writing is the mirror of the human voice. I can think of several close friends who hold me enthralled when they talk-something that is mirrored in their prose. I am always eager to listen to them. This board, as well, has given me the opportunity to make acquaintance with good talkers. Hitchens has always filled this role for me. Really difficult to think of him as being silent.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
adge
Posts: 35
Joined: Sun Oct 18, 2009 4:55 pm

Re: Thinking of Christopher Hitchens

Post by adge »

i'll miss Hitchens too, and he has a great speaking voice, i guess the fags helped, (irony barely sums it up) , but he has such a great sounding voice.
User avatar
Jeremy Dylan
Posts: 934
Joined: Thu Oct 15, 2009 6:39 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia
Contact:

Re: Thinking of Christopher Hitchens

Post by Jeremy Dylan »

I got to see him give a talk at the Sydney Opera House once. He reminded me of Orson Welles. One of the best gigs I've ever been to. He closed with a performance of the Bruces Philosophers Song.
User avatar
Jack of All Parades
Posts: 5716
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:31 am
Location: Where I wish to be

Re: Thinking of Christopher Hitchens

Post by Jack of All Parades »

Nice to see him still feisty and in fighting form with this latest piece in Vanity Fair. I admire that 'shtarker' in him:

http://vnty.fr/u3Fiih
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
User avatar
Jack of All Parades
Posts: 5716
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:31 am
Location: Where I wish to be

Re: Thinking of Christopher Hitchens

Post by Jack of All Parades »

The NY Times's 10 Best Fiction and non Fiction selections are out for 2011 and his Arguably is on it- well deserved- prose that is human, biting, and quite ofter funny and poignant at the same time- Love how he wisely revises the 10 Commandments in one of the 100 plus essays in this collection.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
User avatar
Jack of All Parades
Posts: 5716
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:31 am
Location: Where I wish to be

Re: Thinking of Christopher Hitchens

Post by Jack of All Parades »

News this morning as I woke of his passing earlier today or late yesterday. Not to hear his voice or read his thoughtful prose in a new piece in the coming years will be an adjustment. I am happy that he no longer is in pain. He was for me, arguably, a strong voice of conscience with a prose style that was vibrant and alive on the page, humorous and thoughtful. He was and will continue to be a 'model' for me of a thinking person, engaged and playful with the world around with him.

His obit in the NY Times:

http://nyti.ms/vjLgTq

and this touching piece by his friend Ian McEwan in remembrance- I like how he found comfort at the end in Larkin's The Whitsun Weddings and the special hookup that was arranged for him over the internet with thousands of his 'closest' fans and friends:

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/12/18/opini ... riend.html

I read that line 'Give me your arm, old toad: Help me down Cemetery Road." from Toads Revisited and I want to cry!

and finally this as an example of how I would prefer to remember him- skewering 'cant' nimbly and efficiently:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EZB0lLIc ... C52AD1391B
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
User avatar
Otis Westinghouse
Posts: 8856
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:32 pm
Location: The theatre of dreams

Re: Thinking of Christopher Hitchens

Post by Otis Westinghouse »


Can imagine how that combination of Larkin and Hitchens would be a potent one for you!

I'm more with McEwan than Hitchens on the ending of 'The Whitsun Weddings'.

I've never read much of his stuff, but am sad to see the loss of this significant intellect. I wish, though, he hadn't been so gung ho in his support of the invasion of Iraq. And whilst I commend his loathing of totalitarianism and absolutism (The Observer today reproduced the transcript of his meeting with Richard Dawkins, an atheistic orgy if ever there was one, and I love that 'What if?' radio clip you post!, seeing off the moronic questions of Todd Friel with aplomb), he could come across on such topics as overly absolutist himself. It must have been in the Hitchens genes: his right-wing brother Peter, from whom he was estranged but they made their peace, it seems, in recent months, is the most pompously absolutist person I've ever listened to!

I love the accounts of Hitch going to The Bible Belt ready to take on the hardest of the hardcore in promoting and defending God is not Great. I also love the subtitle of this book 'How Religion Poisons Everything'. I recently had the great joy of news that my niece had escaped from very literally being at death's door with a double lung transplant, but the blog set up about it had references to prayers in 90%+ of the comments on the blog, and even the horrendous assertion that the work of the noble surgeon (who was the only one of four at the UK's top transplant hospital brave/rash enough to take on her almost hopeless case) was 'an answer to prayer'. It was awful to feel anger in the face of such magnificent news, but indeed, here was religion poisoning the otherwise hugely uplifting blog.
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
User avatar
Jack of All Parades
Posts: 5716
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:31 am
Location: Where I wish to be

Re: Thinking of Christopher Hitchens

Post by Jack of All Parades »

I spent last night participating in a very 'Hitch' type activity, spending time with friends and numerous bottles of good wine and some potent Belgian Abbey ales at an intimate Belgian Brasserie on the east side of Manhattan in vibrant conversation part fueled by the potables.

That mixture of Larkin and him is most potent. Both are so clear eyed in their assessments of human beings and our susceptibility to 'cant' and its ilk. I, too, probably lean towards McEwan's reading of the end. That image of the two, one assisting the other in the medical center, and the registering of that line from the poem for both friends is touching for me. I could not keep the tears out of my eyes when I was reading it to my wife on Saturday. Thank you for the video- it gives me a strange peace.

I, too, was taken aback by his stance on Iraq and his support of Bush. But, I do give him a partial pass because he was so fiercely opposed to totalitarianism, of both the right and left varieties. You cite his absoluteness, perhaps not a favorable trait. If I needed someone to advocate for me, though, I would want no one but him. It is a trait I have to admit I share with him and not my best. Another poster on this board suggested I like to 'pull the curtains tight around me' oddly in some writing on Larkin and religion. It is true and I am not proud of it. If I believe something or feel something I too often take it on fully and leave little room for shades of gray.

I have treated myself this Christmas to his big essay collection, just published, Arguably. I may not agree with all his opinions but I know they will be fully argued and presented in a prose that is alive on the page and filled with a thinking man's involvement with the world and the many treasures it holds, not the least the poetry of Larkin and the numerous other poets that he seemed capable of reciting at the drop of a hat. He would have my respect for his engagement with poetry alone. I will miss his bulletins from his part of the world. And that he so honestly skewered Religion and its poisoning tentacles for me is something I will always cherish. I walk through my community this holiday season and see the crosses on the lawns and the signs that invoke "Keep Christ in Christmas" planted resolutely on people's front lawns and I cringe and wish he was still agitating on this side of the 'void' not having taken his final walk down the Cemetery Road.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
User avatar
Jeremy Dylan
Posts: 934
Joined: Thu Oct 15, 2009 6:39 pm
Location: Sydney, Australia
Contact:

Re: Thinking of Christopher Hitchens

Post by Jeremy Dylan »

To my writing classes I used to open by saying that anybody who could talk could also write. Having cheered them up with this easy-to-grasp ladder, I then replaced it with a huge and loathsome snake: "How many people in this class, would you say, can talk? I mean really talk?" That had its duly woeful effect. I told them to read every composition aloud, preferably to a trusted friend. The rules are much the same: Avoid stock expressions (like the plague, as William Safire used to say) and repetitions. Don’t say that as a boy your grandmother used to read to you, unless at that stage of her life she really was a boy, in which case you have probably thrown away a better intro. If something is worth hearing or listening to, it’s very probably worth reading. So, this above all: Find your own voice. - Christopher Hitchens
User avatar
Jack of All Parades
Posts: 5716
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:31 am
Location: Where I wish to be

Re: Thinking of Christopher Hitchens

Post by Jack of All Parades »

Thank you for that nugget of prose-it encapsulates for me how his voice flowed, both on the page and in the air-thank you, Jeremy.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
User avatar
Otis Westinghouse
Posts: 8856
Joined: Tue Jun 03, 2003 3:32 pm
Location: The theatre of dreams

Re: Thinking of Christopher Hitchens

Post by Otis Westinghouse »

Christopher Sjoholm wrote:I walk through my community this holiday season and see the crosses on the lawns and the signs that invoke "Keep Christ in Christmas" planted resolutely on people's front lawns and I cringe and wish he was still agitating on this side of the 'void' not having taken his final walk down the Cemetery Road.
Funnily enough there's a place in my 'hood that used to be an old people's home and now seems to be a younger 'community' of some sort, never worked out what, but then they've put up 'Keep Christ in Christmas' in their window, so now I'm worrying. They could do with a dose of Hitch for Christmas!

Arguably, great book title. Probably should be a Pet Shop Boys album too.
There's more to life than books, you know, but not much more
User avatar
Jack of All Parades
Posts: 5716
Joined: Sun Apr 12, 2009 11:31 am
Location: Where I wish to be

Re: Thinking of Christopher Hitchens

Post by Jack of All Parades »

A thoughtful piece in today's NY Times Book Review on writers and death by the poet Meghan O'Rourke:

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/07/books ... ?ref=books

I appreciate her intelligent discussion on Hitchens and his last work Mortality and her dissection of the great poem by James Merrill "Christmas Tree" where one can see the tie in to "Jimmie". I like that final line quoted from Susan Sontag- "Everyone who is born holds dual citizenship, in the kingdom of the well and in the kingdom of the sick." That is a new one to be carved upon the rafter.
"....there's a merry song that starts in 'I' and ends in 'You', as many famous pop songs do....'
Post Reply