he had good zings
― Matt Armstrong, Friday, 16 December 2011 02:31 (24 minutes ago) Bookmark Permalink
― wil smif, Friday, 16 December 2011 06:57 (twelve years ago) link
oh damn why couldn't it have been peter?
― degas-dirty monet (lex pretend), Friday, 16 December 2011 08:00 (twelve years ago) link
like most writers who say what needs to be said he said a bunch of stuff that didn't need to be said but it came with the territory. sleep well you brilliant, angry shit-stirrer.
― Angles that bitch (Julie Lagger), Friday, 16 December 2011 08:32 (twelve years ago) link
^^ i f/w with this epitath
― wil smif, Friday, 16 December 2011 08:43 (twelve years ago) link
^Thirded. RIP Hitch :'(
― Derek Pringles (Deep in the Tony Hart land), Friday, 16 December 2011 09:29 (twelve years ago) link
RIP and ty
never met hitch but we both wrote for the same ny tabloid for awhile in the late 80s. not trying to exalt myself rather i'd like to claim him as mentor of sorts, his weekly book review column became a touchstone for me. an instructive example of how much can be accomplished in just 500 or 750 words. quite a bit, in his case.
― the deli llama, Friday, 16 December 2011 10:29 (twelve years ago) link
http://i.imgur.com/Up2xH.jpg
― schalke nult fear (nakhchivan), Friday, 16 December 2011 13:08 (twelve years ago) link
One of those writers who were part of the environment – I took him for granted. An incalculable influence on my thinking and writing over the years. I saw no reason to take it personally when we disagreed more often than not the last ten years.
― Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 16 December 2011 13:32 (twelve years ago) link
for those keeping track, below the fold
http://26.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lwa8osRq9P1qz6z0no1_500.jpg
― max max max max, Friday, 16 December 2011 13:39 (twelve years ago) link
Sullivan shares an anecdote:
I'd asked him last year to write a letter to the Immigration Services sponsoring me to finally become a permanent resident of the United States. Who better than my fellow Englishman immigrant of the last twenty-five years? A while later, he emailed:"Safely in the US mail. I managed to say that your faith had allowed you to extend a warm hand to so many of your fellow men, and then remolded that bit to make it sound a touch less close to the heart's desire. Brunch? Sunday? Smooch Hitch"I responded,"lol. many many many thanks. an honor. brunch sounds great. we tend not to be conscious till around noon, tho. xx a" He replied:"Dearest Andrew I always think of Sunday lunch as beginning at about 2.30 ("a lavish and ruminative feast", as Waugh says about elevenses). Want to come here?"Yes, I do, Hitch. Yes, I do.
"Safely in the US mail. I managed to say that your faith had allowed you to extend a warm hand to so many of your fellow men, and then remolded that bit to make it sound a touch less close to the heart's desire.
Brunch? Sunday? Smooch Hitch"
I responded,
"lol. many many many thanks. an honor. brunch sounds great. we tend not to be conscious till around noon, tho. xx a"
He replied:
"Dearest Andrew I always think of Sunday lunch as beginning at about 2.30 ("a lavish and ruminative feast", as Waugh says about elevenses). Want to come here?"
Yes, I do, Hitch. Yes, I do.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 16 December 2011 13:43 (twelve years ago) link
That "lol" must have advanced the crawl of Hitch's cancer.
― Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 16 December 2011 13:44 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah the difference in casual email tone does say it all.
Frum:
A friend of theirs once took Christopher Hitchens and his wife Carol Blue to dinner at Palm Beach’s Everglades Club, notorious for its exclusion of Jews.“You will behave, won’t you?” Carol anxiously asked Christopher on the way into the club. No dice. When the headwaiter approached, Christopher demanded: “Do you have a kosher menu?”
“You will behave, won’t you?” Carol anxiously asked Christopher on the way into the club. No dice. When the headwaiter approached, Christopher demanded: “Do you have a kosher menu?”
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 16 December 2011 13:46 (twelve years ago) link
Also from that:
On one of the last occasions I saw him, my wife and I came to drop some food–lamb tagine–to sustain a family with more on its mind than cooking. Christopher, though weary and sick, insisted on painfully lifting himself from his chair to perform the rites of hospitality. He might have cancer, but we were still guests–and as guests, we must have champagne.
Hell the whole piece is one anecdote after another. I'll stop with this one:
Hitchens was not one of those romantics who fetishized “dialogue.” Far from suffering fools gladly, he delighted in making fools suffer. When he heard that another friend, a professor, had a habit of seducing female students in his writing seminars, he shook his head pityingly. “It’s not worth it. Afterward, you have to read their short stories.”
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 16 December 2011 13:48 (twelve years ago) link
That Frum obit is the best I've read so far.
― Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 16 December 2011 13:52 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, just finished it. Definitely the keeper at this point.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 16 December 2011 13:52 (twelve years ago) link
really really sad news.
― Mordy, Friday, 16 December 2011 14:10 (twelve years ago) link
I remember when this appearance inspired a lot of friends who'd never read him to give him a look:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PrFgX83OsEY
― Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 16 December 2011 14:20 (twelve years ago) link
rip. dude was a fucking gangsta
― adam, Friday, 16 December 2011 14:41 (twelve years ago) link
by which i mean with hitch basically goes the entire tradition of public intellectualism
― adam, Friday, 16 December 2011 14:42 (twelve years ago) link
how come DOOM or Ghostface never asked him to appear on a record
― Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 16 December 2011 14:50 (twelve years ago) link
Perrin knew him quite well in the late '80s and '90s -- he was his "hero" at the time -- and the last 3/4 of this piece is pretty amusing:
http://redstateson.blogspot.com/2006/10/our-reflection-darkly.html
― Dr Morbius, Friday, 16 December 2011 14:59 (twelve years ago) link
obv I loved his work for the Voice and the Nation before he lost his marbles. And I hope God is merciful to him.
― Dr Morbius, Friday, 16 December 2011 15:11 (twelve years ago) link
And I hope God is merciful to him.
eh, fuck that. RIP, in the ground.
― ledge, Friday, 16 December 2011 15:14 (twelve years ago) link
Perrin's Hitchens obit... from 2003:
http://www.citypages.com/2003-07-09/news/obit-for-a-former-contrarian/
― Dr Morbius, Friday, 16 December 2011 15:20 (twelve years ago) link
The man was so prolific that you can, if you wish, ignore the polemics and concentrate on the essays on literature. Unacknowledged Legislation is his best collection.
― Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 16 December 2011 15:34 (twelve years ago) link
don't think this piece answers the ¿Quien es mas Macho? question quite as Perrin intended
― Brad C., Friday, 16 December 2011 15:49 (twelve years ago) link
i think this is certainly a huge blow to the kind of foreign affairs intellectualism that Hitchens championed. he really made the most eloquent arguments for what could broadly be called a sort of post-neoconservatisim (lol), amid a larger group of polemicists who were neither as smart, ethical or interesting as him. thinking that i would never read another new piece by him again i felt so saddened and gripped by a great sense of loss.
― Mordy, Friday, 16 December 2011 16:13 (twelve years ago) link
I rather see what machismo is in Perrin (and he certainly cops to some, in a post-bullied Irish kid way) being rather more self-aware. xp
Hard to believe CH was so right-on as little as 12 years ago in analyzing what a horrible piece of shit Bill Clinton is.
― Dr Morbius, Friday, 16 December 2011 16:14 (twelve years ago) link
he thought p much everyone was a horrible piece of shit tho
― Cooper Chucklebutt, Friday, 16 December 2011 16:16 (twelve years ago) link
no, just most Important People
― Dr Morbius, Friday, 16 December 2011 16:17 (twelve years ago) link
lol no
― Cooper Chucklebutt, Friday, 16 December 2011 16:18 (twelve years ago) link
― Cooper Chucklebutt, Friday, December 16, 2011 10:16 AM (9 minutes ago)
If you read any of the personal remininiscences posted and linked above, you'll see that isn't so.
― William (C), Friday, 16 December 2011 16:28 (twelve years ago) link
I'd wager that we'll be reading Hitchens on Byron, Powell, Waugh, Kipling, Wilde, Daniel Deronda, to choose a few, long after the political essays have gone on the shelf.
― Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 16 December 2011 16:30 (twelve years ago) link
RIP HITCHENS you weren't afraid to TELL THE TRUTH about ANYTHING. A true hero!
― billy goat, Friday, 16 December 2011 16:33 (twelve years ago) link
I only know of this guy as a nü-atheist with a penchant for annoying people even more than Dawkins does. Have never "read him" so I guess my conception is off.
― silby, Friday, 16 December 2011 16:36 (twelve years ago) link
xp kinda insane to tell an atheist to RIP also
lol billy
― one pug (dealwithit.gif), Friday, 16 December 2011 16:37 (twelve years ago) link
Jacob Weisberg:
Amazing about Hitchens: his generosity to young people. He sought them out and befriended them. He responded when they called with requests to speak at their college, contribute to a symposium, or stand with any oppressed minority. He hated to say no to anything worthwhile, and cared less about getting paid than anyone I've ever known. After doing unaccountable favors for unimportant people, he named them comrades, which meant welcoming them into his circle of solidarity and acting as if they belonged in his home, with cocktails.
― Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 16 December 2011 16:37 (twelve years ago) link
His atheism, which he always seemed to think was very important, always seemed like the least interesting about him. I read 'God is Not Great' and enjoyed it (and it even gave me some of the language I needed at the time to sort through my own feelings about religion) but it was so much of a lesser work than his other writings. Just fundamentally shallow + sad.
― Mordy, Friday, 16 December 2011 16:41 (twelve years ago) link
dude was funny, but I didn't agree with him much. rhetorical skills were first-rate.
― aesthetic partisan (Shakey Mo Collier), Friday, 16 December 2011 16:42 (twelve years ago) link
uncountable favors for the unimportant graduates of elite universities
― Cooper Chucklebutt, Friday, 16 December 2011 16:42 (twelve years ago) link
he got college kids drunk--awesome!
― flexidisc, Friday, 16 December 2011 16:43 (twelve years ago) link
"my first sanctimonious opinion" for kids to young to have lived through bill hicks
― one pug (dealwithit.gif), Friday, 16 December 2011 16:57 (twelve years ago) link
otm http://coreyrobin.com/2011/12/16/christopher-hitchens-the-most-provincial-spirit-of-all
― Cooper Chucklebutt, Friday, 16 December 2011 17:00 (twelve years ago) link
RIP, Opinionator.
― Aimless, Friday, 16 December 2011 17:10 (twelve years ago) link
BigBossOgg : 12/16/11 11:10
Yes, he is certainly in for a surprise, but I wouldn't go so far as to call it glorious.
In fact, I am betting my immortal soul on the probability that he's begging for a chance for just one moment, to warn his brother, warn his friends back here in the realm of the living, of the horrors awaiting non-believers.
― Lord Sotosyn, Friday, 16 December 2011 17:39 (twelve years ago) link
Spending eternity in heaven with someone called BigBossOgg sounds like hell to me, so.
― Ned Raggett, Friday, 16 December 2011 17:43 (twelve years ago) link
c'mon, you could spend all of eternity chasing those goldurned Duke boys thru the swamp
― OH NOES, Friday, 16 December 2011 17:45 (twelve years ago) link
till they crossed county lines
― silby, Friday, 16 December 2011 17:46 (twelve years ago) link
haha goole
― Cooper Chucklebutt, Monday, 19 December 2011 18:06 (twelve years ago) link
I'm pretty sure couscous is favored over chicken a la king on The Nation cruise.
also Richard Dreyfuss was on it a couple years ago
― Dr Morbius, Monday, 19 December 2011 18:07 (twelve years ago) link
why was Richard Dreyfuss on some couscous?
― OH NOES, Monday, 19 December 2011 18:08 (twelve years ago) link
Dan crunches on indefinite pronounds like cornflakes.
― Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 19 December 2011 18:10 (twelve years ago) link
RICHARD DREYFUSS OVER A BED OF COUSCOUS JOIN US NATION MAGAZINE CRUISE 2012
― Cooper Chucklebutt, Monday, 19 December 2011 18:10 (twelve years ago) link
*pronouns
btw I hate to tell u this year's returned to port yesterday
http://www.nationcruise.com/
― Dr Morbius, Monday, 19 December 2011 18:10 (twelve years ago) link
lol at puking while an intern holds his hair
― caek, Monday, 19 December 2011 21:06 (twelve years ago) link
http://nearemmaus.files.wordpress.com/2011/12/hitch.jpg?w=690
― Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 19 December 2011 21:10 (twelve years ago) link
omg he rode a folding bike, it all makes sense now
― Cooper Chucklebutt, Monday, 19 December 2011 21:14 (twelve years ago) link
he was recreating Lenin's arrival at Finland Station.
― Lord Sotosyn, Monday, 19 December 2011 21:17 (twelve years ago) link
http://www.salon.com/2011/12/20/i_knew_christopher_hitchens_better_than_you/singleton/#comments
― HOOS aka driver of steen, Tuesday, 20 December 2011 18:55 (twelve years ago) link
Not as funny as I wanted it to be.
― Lord Sotosyn, Tuesday, 20 December 2011 18:55 (twelve years ago) link
still pretty funny
― iatee, Tuesday, 20 December 2011 18:58 (twelve years ago) link
The first time I saw him, he had a bird on each arm and a woman by his side.
Sometimes the cheap laughs are the best.
― ledge, Tuesday, 20 December 2011 19:02 (twelve years ago) link
http://overratedwhitedudes.tumblr.com/post/14311784932/more-lucid-than-the-average-mean-spirited-drunk
― v-whiney (Cuauhtemoc Blanco), Tuesday, 20 December 2011 22:22 (twelve years ago) link
overrated tumblr whites
― nuhnuhnuh, Tuesday, 20 December 2011 22:32 (twelve years ago) link
Ron Jeremy? come on, bro.
― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, 20 December 2011 22:34 (twelve years ago) link
okay "the MGD 64 of human beings" for McConaughey is pretty funny
― OH NOES, Tuesday, 20 December 2011 22:37 (twelve years ago) link
yeah honestly I only disagreed with like 3 of them but Ron Jeremy is deserving of his status.
― Matt Armstrong, Tuesday, 20 December 2011 23:02 (twelve years ago) link
Oh man, I haven't thought about Neil Pollack in years!
― sterl, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 18:22 (twelve years ago) link
neither have i!
― river wolf, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 18:37 (twelve years ago) link
I don't have a clue who he is!
― Aimless, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 18:40 (twelve years ago) link
he was a thing for a while!
― Cooper Chucklebutt, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 18:49 (twelve years ago) link
The anthology of american literature is basically pieces like this about/in the style of most major macho literary figures of the 20th century. Since then, I guess he's written a bunch of other funny stuff too.
― sterl, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 18:49 (twelve years ago) link
Yeah, Anthology is hilarious
― Number None, Wednesday, 21 December 2011 18:52 (twelve years ago) link