In Memoriam: Christopher Hitchens, 1949–2011

Christopher Hitchens—the incomparable critic, masterful rhetorician, fiery wit, and fearless bon vivant—died today at the age of 62. Hitchens was diagnosed with esophageal cancer in the spring of 2010, just after the publication of his memoir, Hitch-22, and began chemotherapy soon after. His matchless prose has appeared in Vanity Fair since 1992, when he was named contributing editor.

“Cancer victimhood contains a permanent temptation to be self-centered and even solipsistic,” Hitchens wrote nearly a year ago in Vanity Fair, but his own final labors were anything but: in the last 12 months, he produced for this magazine a piece on U.S.-Pakistani relations in the wake of Osama bin Laden’s death, a portrait of Joan Didion, an essay on the Private Eye retrospective at the Victoria and Albert Museum, a prediction about the future of democracy in Egypt, a meditation on the legacy of progressivism in Wisconsin, and a series of frank, graceful, and exquisitely written essays in which he chronicled the physical and spiritual effects of his disease. At the end, Hitchens was more engaged, relentless, hilarious, observant, and intelligent than just about everyone else—just as he had been for the last four decades.

“My chief consolation in this year of living dyingly has been the presence of friends,” he wrote in the June 2011 issue. He died in their presence, too, at the MD Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, Texas. May his 62 years of living, well, so livingly console the many of us who will miss him dearly.

http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/12/In-Memoriam-Christopher-Hitchens-19492011

Christopher Hitchens dies at 62

Link to WaPo Article

Whether one agreed or disagreed with his opinions, the man had a sharp mind and was a great debater. May he rest in peace.

Also, fuck everyone of you who are wearing tightey-whiteys (keeping it in the Red Room). You're all a disgrace to humanity. Also, fuck bees.

:merge:

See, that's what happens when you spend so much time saying, "Fuck God in the neck."

Thousands of innocent children die of cancer every year. Your argument, along with your idea of a "just" god, is invalid.

Agree or disagree with him, you have to acknowledge there was a powerful intellect behind his opinions. I enjoyed listening to and reading him because of his masterful use of language and his prodigious power of persuasion.

I suspect he was right about the non-existence of God; though, of course, being right about that means never being able to confirm your belief. One thing Hitchens was provably right about (as unfortunately already shown in this thread) was that some of those claiming to be God's followers could be implacably hateful.

Eh, fuck'm. Stick a party hat on his corpse and prop him up for post-mortem publicity photos.

He ghost-wrote Probe.

I'm surprised nobody's bitched about how I've talked shit about him. Maybe y'all realize that, in life, it's a sign of exactly the kind of attitude he hoped people would come around to. Hitchens the sack of rotting meat isn't any more special than Hitchens the talking water balloon.

Well, most of the people posting in this thread have a little class.

And if you think your crassness wasn't noted, read the thread again carefully.

Hey, I'm a crass act arr the way. Besides, we're talking about a guy who championed empiricism, and empirically, he doesn't give a shit. If he isn't offended, why should you be?

I'm not surprised, nor particularly offended by your comments. I think Hitchens deserves discussing on a higher plane but whatever gives you a hardon is fine with me.

I absolutely admire Hitchens because he never allowed anyone to do his thinking for him. His opinions were a product of his own reasoning, they were intellectually honest and brilliantly articulated.

I remember the interview he gave 60 Minutes after he was diagnosed with "stage 4" cancer. He pointed out that "there is NO stage 5". When asked if he ever asked himself "why me?" His response was "why NOT me?" No deathbed conversions or lapses of self-pity. What a life and what a legacy.

There are too few people in the world who's ideology was shaped by observation and thought. For too many of us these days it's the other way around.

QFT

Yep, he had a good run. Now he's future worm shit.

Not terribly familiar with Christopher Hitchens, from this thread I gather his most important contribution was his well articulated opposition to religion.

Condolences to his family.

That's really only a small part of his appeal. Intellectual honesty and intellectual brilliance is all too rare. I remember when the mainstream media went ga-ga over Joe Biden's prediction that America's enemies would be eager to test Obama as quickly as possible, calling it a "gaffe". Hitchens dismissed the fuss saying that Biden was simply "speaking the God's honest truth."

So far, Obama has failed.

I'd say not religion but ideology.

The don't believe in God crowd can and is just as wicked as the religion crowd.

No, Hitchens had it right.

I have no issue whatsoever with faith or belief in a higher power.

I do, however, have massive issues with organized religion.

Perhaps my saying ideology was the wrong word choice. I consider religion just to be an one ideology out of many ideologies. I wasn't trying to limit it to political beliefs.

Let me put this way:

Good people will do good things and wicked people will do wicked things. But to get a good person to do a wicked thing, well, that requires [-]religion[/-] group think.

Probably still not the best word choice....

He had it right up to a point. That point being the word "requires".

I don't up to a point.
I think it's a fear-based thumb-sucking habit, and I find it passively depressing and pitiful such large swaths of the planet have the compulsion,...but what I won't stand is someone trying to pummel me over the head with their ego whilst they have such a flaw.
Pull that shit, you get some back.
S'how that goes...

Oh, hell, yeah.
As Hitch would say they're all "Chaucerian frauds".

Not only is it a con, but "liberty", is a joke while people are tied up in it.

You're gonna scream "liberty, liberty, liberty!!", at me about your dumb fuckin' wallet, but gleefuly have mind-shackles on?
Yeah, no.

And, I can hear the indignant lectures coming already, but the alternative to what I laid out is..." ohhh, it might be twue, if it makes you haaaapppy, goo goo goo, boodgie boo".

I don't think that does anyone any good.
In fact, I think it's harmful.
It's not materially productive in any way, but people take that path just because it's easy.
And over the decades it's been beaten into us that the easy-out is "wise".

Alright! Which one of you big bad Christians has been pummeling Diacanu over the head?