I'd long made it a habit to automatically read anything by Christopher Hitchens that came across my vision, and it has been an unpleasant feeling this past year of so to realize each time that this may be the last thing we'll have. It feels terrible that this long anticipated absence has finally arrived.
Others will say more precisely and more eloquently what they'll miss about his work. I'll miss the routine of engagement, the curiosity that comes trying to figure what he'd have about this or that. I can't think of any other writers who could make you applaud or hiss with such regularity. I'll never come around to his opinion about the Iraq War -- which I guess "ended" the same day he did (and don't read too many fawning eulogies without also reading John Cook's blisteringly honest breakdown of his biggest mistake). Also, I'll probably never think much more of Martin Amis and Salman Rushdie than I do now, but those times when you agreed with him... boy, you felt there were legions with you.
Bless him for never letting an idea alone, for proving that "received wisdom" is a wholly bad idea. His insistence on looking hard and critically at Mother Theresa, Henry Kissinger, the Clintons, Jimmy Carter (to name just my favorites) were great blows for truth and justice. I wish more people would be persuaded.
I think that his last great crusade, the "New Atheism" as it has been dubbed, is an important legacy. I was never wholly sold on it, mostly because I think protesting quite so much crosses the line into just being a jerk, but I'm incredibly glad he didn't shrink from the fight. This is a world in which born-again Christians continue to obnoxiously insist they are a persecuted minority, and I'm very grateful that he had the vision and courage to speak out on behalf of the real victims of oppression: the godless, and by extension those who wish to be free to explore their doubts.
If I was often impressed by the reasoning in his writing, I was often less fond of his style. They say he could churn out columns in 30 minutes, and it often showed. They often felt like hectoring emails. But great "writers" are a dime a dozen these days. His achievement was to keep the spirit of George Orwell alive for another generation. He proved that all wasn't lost to self-absorbed craftsmen and panicky careerists.
From his formative years in London in the 1970s right up to today, he wrote when the the sureties and pieties of the "short" 20th century were coming to a messy, confusing end. We have no idea what is being forged at the moment, but no doubt we'll need to be as curious, argumentative, and unintimidated as he was.
Others will say more precisely and more eloquently what they'll miss about his work. I'll miss the routine of engagement, the curiosity that comes trying to figure what he'd have about this or that. I can't think of any other writers who could make you applaud or hiss with such regularity. I'll never come around to his opinion about the Iraq War -- which I guess "ended" the same day he did (and don't read too many fawning eulogies without also reading John Cook's blisteringly honest breakdown of his biggest mistake). Also, I'll probably never think much more of Martin Amis and Salman Rushdie than I do now, but those times when you agreed with him... boy, you felt there were legions with you.
Bless him for never letting an idea alone, for proving that "received wisdom" is a wholly bad idea. His insistence on looking hard and critically at Mother Theresa, Henry Kissinger, the Clintons, Jimmy Carter (to name just my favorites) were great blows for truth and justice. I wish more people would be persuaded.
I think that his last great crusade, the "New Atheism" as it has been dubbed, is an important legacy. I was never wholly sold on it, mostly because I think protesting quite so much crosses the line into just being a jerk, but I'm incredibly glad he didn't shrink from the fight. This is a world in which born-again Christians continue to obnoxiously insist they are a persecuted minority, and I'm very grateful that he had the vision and courage to speak out on behalf of the real victims of oppression: the godless, and by extension those who wish to be free to explore their doubts.
If I was often impressed by the reasoning in his writing, I was often less fond of his style. They say he could churn out columns in 30 minutes, and it often showed. They often felt like hectoring emails. But great "writers" are a dime a dozen these days. His achievement was to keep the spirit of George Orwell alive for another generation. He proved that all wasn't lost to self-absorbed craftsmen and panicky careerists.
From his formative years in London in the 1970s right up to today, he wrote when the the sureties and pieties of the "short" 20th century were coming to a messy, confusing end. We have no idea what is being forged at the moment, but no doubt we'll need to be as curious, argumentative, and unintimidated as he was.
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