Christopher Hitchens has died.

"Christopher Hitchens, the engaging and enraging British-American author and essayist whose polemical writings on religion, politics, war and other provocations established him as one of his generation's most robust public intellectuals, has died. He was 62."

He was one of few strong voices that dared to stand apart, and that's a rare quality in this or any age.
Link to article.

I agreed with him vigorously on some things (pretty much anything to do with religion) and found him to be a troll at other times (His whole Women. Aren't. Funny. nonsense). A brilliant man and superb writer, even if he was really wrong about Iraq and could clearly be something of a d-bag.

I was just reading his latest (and I guess now last) article in Vanity Fair yesterday. Actually, I never really got to the article. There was a picture of him that was so startling that I was unable to focus for a little while after. He was diagnosed with cancer not too terribly long after I was diagnosed with a different type of cancer and seeing that picture really brought back some visceral memories of my own struggles with that effing disease. I'm so bummed his fight ended differently than mine. His mind will be missed, even if he could be kind of an asshole.

Updated On: 12/16/11 at 02:51 AM

His voice will be missed.


Gone too soon.


Christopher Hitchens - The Best of Hitchslap

Updated On: 12/16/11 at 10:21 AM

A Hitch classic from a few years ago. "Sausage-sized fingers" still makes me giggle to this day.


Falwell

Updated On: 12/16/11 at 12:14 PM

He was an asshole but if you agreed with him on some issues, it didn't much bother you because you knew he had the intellect. When you disagreed with him, it gets very problematic. Hated his sexism and hawkishness but boy, he was a great writer, orator, and his final pieces were great reads.

"I wonder what Mother Teresa said when he arrived."

Oh he knows that if God were to exist he would not be at the pearly gates as he considers himself an enemy.... unless you think Mother Teresa is in a different place, entirely.

Why waste a doublepost?




Women and religion

Updated On: 12/16/11 at 05:27 PM

Oh, that "women aren't funny" thing? Sure - but as Phyl said, Hitchens was obviously trolling there. If you look over his lifetime, Hitchens was a huge proponent of women's rights, and even went so far to say that if women were given any kind of control over their reproductive rights, they inevitably bettered the environment they were in, because they didn't have to spend all their energy taking care of child after child.

He could be a chauvinist, yes, but never a misogynist. He had a great deal of respect for women.