MetaFilter posts tagged with christopherhitchens

'as a liberal, I say bomb the shit out of them'

the man of twists and turns — Mon, 21 Jan 2013 03:11:12 -0800

Richard Seymour has a new book out: Unhitched: The Trial of Christopher Hitchens. It is reviewed in In These Times: Christopher Hitchens Stands Trial

That said, Hitchens’ later years and the enormous celebrity he enjoyed during that period are a case study of just how handsome the rewards are for those willing and able to serve as attack dogs for the dominant powers of their place and time. Hitchens’ main service to the American elite was to employ a combination of innuendo and character assassination to cast aspersion on virtually every high-profile figure critical of American foreign policy after 9/11—a roster that includes Julian Assange, Noam Chomsky, George Galloway, Michael Moore, Harold Pinter, Edward Said, Cindy Sheehan, Oliver Stone and Gore Vidal.

It is also reviewed in Links International Journal of Socialist Renewal: Christopher Hitchens: The guilty bastard

It has often been remarked that Hitchens was a contrarian who could defend the Iraq War and support wiping Iran off the map, while also praising Leon Trotsky. There is nothing especially unique about this. Hitchens was the type of apostate who could say that “he didn’t leave the party, but the party left him”. He may have had a way with words, but as Seymour rightfully points out there is a long tradition of this style of apostacism from the New York Intellectuals to the French New Philosophers who dress up their support for imperialism with words borrowed from the left. Hitchens may have been immensely quotable in this regard, but he was hardly unique.

The CS Monitor has some background:

“Unhitched” grew out of an essay Seymour had written about Hitchens which was published in a collection called “Christopher Hitchens and His Critics.” After Seymour sent Hitchens a copy of that essay, their relationship deteriorated. “We stopped exchanging emails shortly afterwards,” Seymour recalls. “He thought of it as an insult and threw a few back.”

Seymour's blog is Lenin's Tomb, and he has an article about the book in The Guardian: Christopher Hitchens: from socialist to neocon - 'His tragedy is that he became what he had despised – a living and ignominious satire upon himself'

Contrarian.

lazaruslong — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 17:30:58 -0800

Stephen Fry and Friends on Christopher Hitchens. Parts 2 3 4 Richard Dawkins join Stephen in the actual theater, and voice chat guests include Martin Amis, Christopher Buckley, James Fenton, Salman Rushdie, and Sean Penn.

RIP Christopher Hitchens

naju — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 20:54:58 -0800

In Memoriam: Christopher Hitchens, 1949–2011

Trial of the Will

homunculus — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 09:10:12 -0800

Trial of the Will. "Reviewing familiar principles and maxims in the face of mortal illness, Christopher Hitchens has found one of them increasingly ridiculous: 'Whatever doesn’t kill me makes me stronger.' Oh, really? Take the case of the philosopher to whom that line is usually attributed, Friedrich Nietzsche, who lost his mind to what was probably syphilis. Or America’s homegrown philosopher Sidney Hook, who survived a stroke and wished he hadn’t. Or, indeed, the author, viciously weakened by the very medicine that is keeping him alive." [Via]

"P.S. I would like to start with 'The Myths' by Robert Graves."

overeducated_alligator — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 16:40:34 -0800

Christopher Hitchens responds to a nine-year-old's question: "What books should I read?"

Based on a True Story

Artw — Tue, 01 Feb 2011 22:59:09 -0800

The King's Speech is an extremely well-made film with a seductive human interest plot, very prettily calculated to appeal to the smarter filmgoer and the latent Anglophile. But it perpetrates a gross falsification of history. - Christopher Hitchens on the historical revisionism of The King's Speech. The LA times suggests that this, along with the History Channel digging up footage of King George VI not really stuttering all that badly at all, might be the beginning of a backlash against the film, which has been gaining Oscar momentum since it's SAG Award wins. With The Social Network, 127 Hours and The Fighter also having a basis in reality, is today's film making too hung up on the "true" story?

The Best American Essays 2010

craniac — Wed, 13 Oct 2010 14:33:36 -0800

The Best American Essays, 2010, edited by Christopher Hitchens. Many of the essays can be found online: The Murder of Leo Tolstoy [pdf] by Elif Batuman from Harper's The Bad Lion by Toni Bentley from The New York Review of Books The Dead Book by Jane Churchon from The Sun Irreconcilable Dissonance by Brian Doyle from Oregon Humanities The Elegant Eyeball by John Gamel from Alaska Quarterly Review How Einstein Divided America's Jews by Walter Isaacson from The Atlantic Lunching on Olympus by Steven L. Isenberg from The American Scholar "Me, Myself, and I" by Jane Kramer from The New Yorker When Writers Speak by Arthur Krystal from The New York Times Book Review A Rake's Progress by Matt Labash from The Weekly Standard "Brooklyn the Unknowable" by Phillip Lopate from Harvard Review On John Updike by Ian Mcewan from The New York Review of Books My Genome, My Self by Steven Pinker from The New York Times Magazine "Gyromancy" by Ron Rindo from The Gettysburg Review Guy Walks Into a Bar Car by David Sedaris from The New Yorker Speaking in Tongues by Zadie Smith from The New York Review of Books Rediscovering Central Asia [pdf] by S. Frederick Starr from Wilson Quarterly Gettysburg Regress by John Summers from The New Republic "Fatheralong" by John Edgar Wideman from Harper's Daredevil by Garry Wills from The Atlantic "A Fine Range" by James Wood from The New Yorker

Christopher Hitchens writes about his cancer

homunculus — Wed, 04 Aug 2010 22:18:45 -0800

Topic of Cancer. "One fine June day, the author is launching his best-selling memoir, Hitch-22. The next, he’s throwing up backstage at The Daily Show, in a brief bout of denial, before entering the unfamiliar country—with its egalitarian spirit, martial metaphors, and hard bargains of people who have cancer." Christopher Hitchens writes about his cancer. [Via]

Do not swallow your moral code in tablet form.

fiestapais — Thu, 04 Mar 2010 10:08:49 -0800

The New Ten Commandments by Christopher Hitchens The Ten Commandments were set in stone, but it may be time for a re-chisel. With all due humility, the author takes on the job, pruning the ethically dubious, challenging the impossible, and rectifying some serious omissions. The video at the bottom of the first page provides a nice summary of the article.

"The most important questions regarding North Korea are the ones least often asked: What do the North Koreans believe? How do they see themselves and the world around them?"

ocherdraco — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 10:23:01 -0800

Hitch reads up on North Korea: "I have recently donned the bifocals provided by B.R. Myers in his electrifying new book The Cleanest Race: How North Koreans See Themselves and Why It Matters, and I understand now that I got the picture either upside down or inside out. The whole idea of communism is dead in North Korea, and its most recent "Constitution," "ratified" last April, has dropped all mention of the word. The analogies to Confucianism are glib, and such parallels with it as can be drawn are intended by the regime only for the consumption of outsiders. Myers makes a persuasive case that we should instead regard the Kim Jong-il system as a phenomenon of the very extreme and pathological right. It is based on totalitarian "military first" mobilization, is maintained by slave labor, and instills an ideology of the most unapologetic racism and xenophobia." Read the first chapter here.

My pen is mightier than your pen!

The Card Cheat — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 10:05:58 -0800

The Top 10 Literary Feuds Of The Aughts, as compiled by Toronto journalist and author Shaun Smith. Some highlights: #8: Dale Peck vs. Rick Moody [previously] #7: Jonathan Franzen vs. Oprah Winfrey [previously] #4: Christopher Hitchens vs. Henry Kissinger [previously] #3: James Frey vs. Oprah Winfrey [previously] [previously]

When novelists attack

hydatius — Thu, 22 Nov 2007 10:50:24 -0800

Shame on him for saying it, and shame on us for tolerating it. In an article in Monday's Guardian, the writer Ronan Bennett argued that the lack of a popular outcry against Martin Amis' remarks about Islam (covered previously) represents a cultural failure that ought to shame us. Yesterday, Christopher Hitchens and Ian McEwan wrote attacking Bennett and defending Amis. Perhaps they ought to have deployed a slideshow.

Can't we just go Dutch?

goodnewsfortheinsane — Tue, 09 Oct 2007 15:25:38 -0800

If European and North American societies are morally responsible (print-friendly) for safeguarding free speech, should we also take financial responsibility for its proponents' safety (pf)? Hitchens seems to think so.

Today's moral dilemma is brought to you, of course, by the West's favourite Voltairian nightmare: prominent Islam critic, former Dutch MP, and scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, Ayaan Hirsi Ali.

The deus-ex-machina is not great

These Premises Are Alarmed — Sat, 11 Aug 2007 07:03:19 -0800

Christopher Hitchens reviews Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows. nyt, via their book review podcast.

This Void? Does it Vibrate?

bardic — Fri, 27 Apr 2007 17:52:37 -0800

AtheistFilter: Excerpts from Christopher Hitchens' God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything. Excerpt two: "Was Muhammad Epileptic?" Three: "Mormonism: A Racket Becomes a Religion" (via)

"Oh that."

Arthur "Two Sheds" Jackson — Wed, 07 Jun 2006 12:58:36 -0800

Christopher Hitchens, grumpy political type, on the blow job.

Cole vs. Hitch

homunculus — Wed, 03 May 2006 19:21:55 -0800

Christopher Hitchens vs. Juan Cole (via).

Repent and you'll get the supplies everyone pitched in for.

skallas — Wed, 09 Feb 2005 23:13:16 -0800

Is this what they are doing with my tsunami relief donations? From the article: "Jubilant at seeing the relief trucks loaded with food, clothes and the much-needed medicines the villagers, many of who have not had a square meal in days, were shocked when the nuns asked them to convert before distributing biscuits and water." Christopher Hitchens also exposes similiar actions in India by Christian missionaries in his book critical of Mother Theresa.

Wine. Is. Red!

Asparagirl — Tue, 08 Feb 2005 13:56:41 -0800

Drinking with Christopher Hitchens and the Iraqis Blogger Michael J. Totten recounts a night out with several angry Iraqis and one famous polemicist.

journalism

semmi — Sat, 02 Oct 2004 13:10:57 -0800

What's up with Christopher Hitchens nowadays? Here is an interview with him by Johann Hari.

Being English

MiguelCardoso — Fri, 17 Oct 2003 00:31:53 -0800

Forget British. Define English. The perennial ex-pat and honorary Yank Christopher Hitchens may not be the best Englishman to define it - though his embarrassingly reactionary brother Peter is even less suited - but at least he has a go. For everyone else in the world, there are the Scottish, the Welsh, even the Northern Irish - all strong nationalities in their own right, each one older and more culturally solid than the slightly French, slightly German and slightly Dutch English. So why persist, in this post-imperialist day and age, in the myth of the Brit? If it is a myth. Americans, whether from the U.S. or Canada, certainly continue to buy into it. Or is it, for the rest of the world, too dangerous for the English - with devolution raging - to find their own, muddied identity? Think of those football hooligans and their grotesque politics, St.George face-masks and flags. (Via Arts And Letters Daily.)

The last Minority Report in the Nation by Christopher Hitchens

semmi — Sat, 28 Sep 2002 23:45:27 -0800

The last Minority Report in the Nation by Christopher Hitchens

Stalin, Hitler, Guilt, Finger-Pointing And Friendship:

MiguelCardoso — Thu, 05 Sep 2002 08:27:39 -0800

Stalin, Hitler, Guilt, Finger-Pointing And Friendship: Timothy Garton-Ash reviews, a trifle superciliously but fairly, a very lively and soul-searching polemic between two consummate, consuming and irresistible writers, Martin Amis and Christopher Hitchens - who also happen to be old friends. Funnily enough, I'd suggest reading Hitchens's review in the Atlantic Monthly first; then the three [1] extracts from [2] Amis's book [3] and, finally, Hitchens's reply to them. All in all, it's that rare thing: a long, juicy, well-written and passionately argued polemic with plenty of insights into how generations come to terms with the honest indiscretions and oversights of their youth. Oh and there's a lot about communism, nazism, totalitarianism and the Sixties too...

The Latest Salvo From Gore Vidal, The Last Of The Great Wits:

MiguelCardoso — Wed, 24 Apr 2002 07:53:02 -0800

The Latest Salvo From Gore Vidal, The Last Of The Great Wits: He's a tremendous snob, infuriatingly opinionated and sets out to upset all and sundry, left, right and centre. But Gore Vidal is still the meanest, fastest wit in the West. Harry Kloman runs a magnificent fan site, bursting with goodies and verbal violence which is an education in itself. Or, for a contrarian view, check out rival wit John Simon's demolition job. But come on - can anyone compete with the Master? Christopher Hitchens? Fran Lebowitz? James Woolcott? Clive James? I think not.

The God Squad

Ty Webb — Wed, 03 Apr 2002 13:00:37 -0800

The God Squad Christopher Hitchens gives (another) one to organized religion, and reminds us of the important role that the Islamic world played in preserving Western Civilization.