Good evening, everyone,
Reality has sunk in at last. We really must say goodbye to Christopher Hitchens because Graydon Carter has lifted a jigger to, and toasted, the man in his Letter to the Editor in the February issue of Vanity Fair.
The magazine also includes Hitchens’ last article for the rag, entitled Charles Dickens’s Inner Child. I bought it today. It sits on my bed. So far I have refused to dive in. For once I do, I’ll be compelled to read it. And then ultimately I’ll finish the article. And then there really won’t be any more Christopher Hitchens to read every month and I hate contemplating that state of affairs.
There will never be another one like him. There will be someone else, that’s for sure…but not another like Hitchens. Few people have brains that big.
Giselle
January 8, 2012 at 12:09 am
Hear, hear.
January 8, 2012 at 12:20 am
I have been worrying about this one. I think we have enough to inspire and buttress those who dare question. It’s funny what you say about not wanting to read the last article. I also want to save some for when I know I will need it.
January 8, 2012 at 1:59 am
Thank you for alerting us to these, Giselle Minoli . Your thoughts will be with me as I read them.
January 8, 2012 at 2:00 am
We are of a mind paul stickland. Sort of like not drinking the last bottle of good wine. Or eating the last jar of caviar. I have a very difficult time saying goodbye. So I usually don’t!
January 8, 2012 at 10:32 am
Exactly, well put Giselle.
January 8, 2012 at 2:45 pm
Matthew Graybosch That was one of the qualities that I admired so much about Hitchens. As Graydon Carter pointed out, Hitchens could stick to his guns like nobody’s business. But he could also examine and re-examiner a point of view when necessary and change his own. Not many people do that. At least publicly. And, hey…you keep up with more stuff in the midst of writing a book than anyone I know…so you’re off the hook when it comes to not having read Hitchens!
January 8, 2012 at 4:57 pm
Matthew Graybosch I thought about you when I read this (don’t know why, but I did):
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/01/magazine/christopher-paolinis-dragon-lair.html
January 8, 2012 at 5:49 pm
Matthew Graybosch Seriously, please don’t think I was comparing you to Mr. Paolini….I know your writing is nothing like his and you don’t live in a mansion with your parents. I just thought the story of his success was interesting. Did I know you like magic realism? 100 Years is one of my favorite books…but that’s another story.
Re: the chain mail gaff…hilarious.
I only sent it to you because every day I read some story about an author I’ve never heard of who has become successful and I always applaud that.
I’m a weird one that way, Matthew. I tend not to follow the stories of writers like me but the stories (artistic lives I’m talking about here) of writers completely unlike me. I’m almost much more interested in the creative process than anything else and my tastes for things go all over the map.
So, when I wrote that it made me think of you, it made me think of you not in comparison as an author, but in the success of what Paolini has done. That’s really all. Should have explained that.
January 8, 2012 at 6:01 pm
What’s wrong with me that I have never been able to “get into” Rushdie’s words? Maybe i haven’t tried hard enough.
January 8, 2012 at 6:35 pm
He and Hitchens were friends, Matthew Graybosch. That says quite a lot.
January 8, 2012 at 6:42 pm
I remember feeling limited to a certain degree by the extensive reading list at the college I went to. As a youngster we railed against its restrictions and were always pressing the instruction committee to add new books. They would say…when you are free of this program you can read anything you want. That is true. Now I have newfound appreciation for how difficult it is to create reading lists. Unless one has an enormous amount of free time on one’s hands, it’s difficult to cover everything. I wanted to read Rushdie…but just haven’t. But to a certain degree I also believe this is something of an excuse. Hitchens was far more well-read than I will ever be. True confessions, here.
January 8, 2012 at 7:12 pm
Okay…add my name to the list of those of European-American descent, who are perfectly capable of reading the prose of some long-haired metalhead with delusions of erudition! 😉