I don't hate Hitchens, I merely despise him.
If there's one thing I did not need to see, it's Christopher Hitchens taking a shower.
On the wax: "like a sandpaper handjob".
Fantastic.
I'm claiming Sandpaper Handjob as my future band name, BTW.
Even prior to 9/11, I never got the point of Hitchens, or why people seemed to admire him. But the slide show's pretty good. "Sack, back, and crack" is just perfect (it isn't his). And maybe it's a sign: prepare for Band Girl, ogged.
Yoo is evil, Hitchens merely crazy and drunk. You should read his sober but still crazy brother Peter sometime.
6: Is brother Peter some kind of reactionary Tory or something?
6: I thought Peter's Iran piece was good, but it's like reading something good from Derb: there is some odious position in the back there that I can't quite see but know is an important motivator.
I'm claiming Sandpaper Handjob as my future band name, BTW.
It would also be a good pseudonym if you ever feel the need to further anonymize.
I hate him well in excess of that much.
Even prior to 9/11, I never got the point of Hitchens, or why people seemed to admire him.
Because he's a good writer and writes about interesting things, and tries to defend positions that others are too lazy to actually try to defend.
I never actually read his stuff, but someone who smeared M. Theresa, Lady Di, and Kissinger can't be all bad.
The Kissinger book was good, maybe the best thing he's done, and I agreed in general with his arguments in the Clinton and Mother Teresa books. His post-9/11 descent into Slate-level contrarianism (which naturally led in short order to his regular Slate column) is indefensible, but I have to say that, based on one experience, he's a lot of fun to go drinking with.
12:John beat me to it.
Back when I was watching a lot of TV, I saw the brothers Hitchens go at each other on CSpan for about three hours, including autobiography. Before 9/11, I think it was. They were funny.
Look Amis has apparently gone crazy over Muslims. 9/11 changed everything.
PS:While researching High Wind in Jamaica I noticed that Martin Amis had a pretty large part as his one & only acting part. At 16 or so, not so far from the period of the The Rachel Papers. I am sure everyone already knew that, MA has probably written about it, and it isn't that interesting anyway.
Hitchens can really turn a phrase. Sober (rarely), drunk (often), and even hung-over, he can flat-out write. He's like a truly gifted athlete: playing another game than most of the rest of us (maybe not AWB, who's got the prose gene).
That said, when it comes to ideas, he's little more than a latter-day Podhoretz (Sr.) or Kristol (also Sr.): a true believer, from far left to extreme right. He lacks doubts, which makes him a bit dull, even when he wows me with a lovely construction. So I read him for the words and try to ignore the creepy ideology lurking beneath them.
I got tricked, HWiJ came out in 65 and MA was born in 49 but filmed the movie in like 62-63. So a wee lad. He devotes 2 pages to it in Experience.
18:I honestly don't know what Htchen's ideology is. Did he support the Tax Cuts? Bush supporter for the way Katrina was handled?
I should have read the Amis interview. Maybe the British & Europeans have an abhorrence of fervent religiosity that we Americans don't quite get. We always have been surrounded by God-crazies whereas for them militant Islam is the only variant left alive.
ober (rarely), drunk (often), and even hung-over, he can flat-out write.
This is one of the points at which I get stuck. He writes well. So do many, many others. He's not notably better than half the people writing in NYRB. Perhaps he writes a bit more crisply. The admiration feels like Anglophilia gone awry.
20: Fluid, to be sure, but always strident.
21: I think he's much better than almost anyone writing in the NYRB. Again, though, not on the ideas but the prose. Most of the contributors to the NYRB don't bother writing with image, wouldn't know meter if it crept up up and bopped them on the head, and ignore even journalistic conventions -- because they can't be bothered to try. When, for example, was the last time a NYRB writer had a real narrative arc in her review. I can't think of an example. But I skip quite a lot, to be honest.
As for Hitchens, he'll often write a sentence that makes me sit up and take notice. I admire him for that, even if I think he's a deplorable human being. Seriously, a repugnant and fetid bag of wind.
So he decided to go plucked turkey instead of cold turkey? Interesting.
He's basically a super-troll.
Yup. I kind of like him, even though he's an ass.
I have to admit he looks better after the makeover. And I absolutely love that he had the cynicism and skirt to not only do it, but be photographed doing it. Gotta admire an out-of-shape middle-aged alcoholic who'll let Vanity Fair publish pictures of him getting his crotch waxed.
24: Apparently he's been offering it up for a feel in NYC. Where did I read this?
Maybe the British & Europeans have an abhorrence of fervent religiosity that we Americans don't quite get. We always have been surrounded by God-crazies whereas for them militant Islam is the only variant left alive.
I read something about Tony Blair's being seemingly about to convert to Catholicism, and how it made him a real weirdo among the political class to even think about religion, and how most of the best-loved British prime ministers of this century had no religion at all. It said that something like 7% of Engish people go to regular Church of England services. So if there are some public institutions that pay lip service to and subsidize religion in the absence of actual religious people, and the governments continue to hypocritically pretend that religion is important to people, they should be worried that "religion" will one day mean "Islam" for these purposes.
12 nails it. I have to admit that I really like Hitchens, even given his sailor dive into clash of civilizations crazitude. He almost never fails to make me laugh. Also, this should be required reading every Christmas.
Why is getting a Brazilian part of a makeover? That shit is not standard.
That shit is not standard.
get with the times, granpa
27: One of the Blair legacies is the renewed fervor of the god botherers, whether scary Opus Dei Catholics like, well, half Blair's cabinet it seemed like or crazy fundie loons imported from America whinging about Jerry Springer: the Opera.
I've read Hitchens' book on Kissinger back in 2001 or 2002 or so and while it's good, it's nothing that any other dedicated writer couldn't have written. If you'd paid attention when Kissinger was in office, you would've known everything Hitchens put in that book.
"There's no joke Dick Cheney or John Yoo could make or participate in that would crack me up."
This is an untenable position.
Dick Cheney would merely have to deadpan quack the There Once Was a Man from Nantucket limerick to bring down the house, you included.
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Hitchens is a rather lovable artist and persona with loathsome political views. Folks like that have always existed. Deal with it.
It's an interesting question whether we can be (should be) amused by loathsome people.
As I recall, an apparent majority of you were amused by a loathesome person diving headfirst into the bottom of a swimming pool, so there is that.
#34. Tragedy is when I cut myself; comedy is when Krauthammer dives into a shallow pool.
Hitchens is a rather lovable artist and persona
Whoa, horsey! Let's not follow Charles into the pool. I can't see anything particularly loveable about Hitchens, but he is witty, he can turn a phrase, etc. He's entertaining to read, usually, even when I think he's nuts. I imagine he'd be entertaining to drink with, too--for a while, at least. It's a shame he came all this way just to be Auberon Waugh, though.
"he is witty, he can turn a phrase, etc. He's entertaining to read, usually, even when I think he's nuts. I imagine he'd be entertaining to drink with, too--for a while, at least."
That's lovable in my book.
I imagine he'd be entertaining to drink with, too--for a while, at least.
For precisely as long as it took for him to start with his characteristic moral preening--which, I imagine, would happen three sips into the first beer if you were having any kind of serious conversation.
Really, folks, Hitch is personally unpleasant in exactly the same way Andrew Sullivan is: he has unshakeable confidence in the infallibility of his own moral judgement, and to disagree with said judgement is to mark yourself as a moral cripple. That these moral judgements are remarkably coincident with the author's own prejudices and self-interest (Hitchens: the execution of Ricky Ray Rector puts Bill Clinton beyond the pale for all decent people; Sullivan: revealing embarassing personal details about someone's sex life is the most morally despicable invasion of privacy imaginable) provokes exactly zero self-reflection on their part.
Boris Johnsons is loathesome but lovable; Hitchens is loathesome tout court.
Hitchens was invited to a recent atheists convention and made a point of spending all his time baiting them with pro-war bullshit. Troll is right.
Hitch is personally unpleasant in exactly the same way Andrew Sullivan is: he has unshakeable confidence in the infallibility of his own moral judgement
And you know who else is like that? Jamie Fucking Kirchick. Except he has none of the redeeming talents of Sullivan and Hitchens.
But I guess I'm preaching to the choir here, so I'll stop.
Boris Johnson is loathesome but lovable
Via YouTube: Boris Johnson is reminded of his involvement in a bungled criminal conspiracy.
Just watched Depp in The Libertine again this week. John Wilmot at 18 was the toast of the court but in ten years became universally loathed after he turned his rapier toward his friends.
There is a kind of vicious wit that can be fun to watch while it is directed at one's enemies but becomes intolerable when it is recognized as misanthropy. The misanthrope can arbitrarily limit his targets, but then becomes cynical and disgusted with himself. This can be expressed ironically with an obviously absurd self-righteousness.
Or fuck and drink himself to death while still young enough to make the effort.
Looking good, Billy Ray!