The Hitch is dead.

amacachi

Didn't see it coming at all. I'll be toasting him with one of his favorite drinks I happened to buy a few days ago.


One of my favorite interviews of all time is with Paxman

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y-s9AyNQyCw

RIP, was damn fun having him around.

Turtwig

RIP.:( I will eventually read one of his books but I did enjoy his articles, even if I didn't always necessarily agree with them.

murrayp4

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8HocoXyWFJ8

I'll have a JW Black tonight.

Elliemental

This is such sad news, that goes without saying. But, it doesn't do to dwell on his death. Instead, remember his fine life. So, tonight, I'll be pouring a nice glass of Johnnie Walker Black Label, and watching YouTube's fine selection of Hitchslap compillations to relive that ferocious wit and intellect.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mQorzOS-F6w

amacachi

That compilation is one of my favorite things ever.

Turtwig

As predicted the other memoriam thread has already descending into the "RIP" debate.

amacachi

One of those funny little coincidences that I finally got around to buying a bottle of Johnnie Walker specifically to drink while watching some of his stuff with a mate before Christmas. Suppose it doesn't change the plans we had in the end.

HUNK

Goodbye Hitch

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

In Memoriam: Christopher Hitchens, 1949–2011


By Juli Weiner

11:45 PM, December 15 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.

Turtwig

Hitchens wrote:

What can be asserted without evidence can be dismissed without evidence

Nuff said.:)

Tomk1

Damn it, never got the chance to meet CH. ...
Thankfully at least, it's highly unlikely that parts of his body will be paraded around the world as somekind of sick worldwide relic tour.

Hitch has been a great motivation in my life for standing up as an Atheist.

MagicMarker

Was just in the shop queuing for a coffee when I saw the headline scrolling across the bottom of Sky News, my heart just sank.

Beruthiel

He'll be sadly missed.
RIP Hitch.
You made a difference to a lot of people.

Improbable

Saddened beyond words.

Sindri

No one else was able to leave theists in daze like Hitchens.

RIP

DapperGent

Really going to miss him, scotch tonight I think.

So it goes.

Delirium

Farewell, Mr. Hitchens.

Thanks for providing the stimulating articles/books/debates.

Doctor DooM

Aw. It's a sad day for anyone who enjoyed the written or spoken word, really.

Delirium

Just found this on my twitter feed.

Exclusive extracts from the writer's final interview.

Update: Christopher Hitchens has died of oesophageal cancer at the age of 62. This was his final interview.

As we revealed earlier this week, this year's New Statesman Christmas special is guest-edited by Richard Dawkins (copies can be purchased here). Among the many highlights is Dawkins's interview with his fellow anti-theist Christopher Hitchens, who began his Fleet Street career at the NS in 1973.

The great polemicist is currently undergoing treatment for stage IV oesophageal cancer ("there is no stage V," he notes) and now rarely makes public appearances but he was in Texas to receive the Freethinker of the Year Award from Dawkins in October. Before the event, the pair met in private to discuss God, religion and US politics. The resulting conversation can now be read exclusively in the New Statesman.

I'd recommend pouring yourself a glass of Johnnie Walker Black Label and reading all 5,264 words but, here, to whet your appetite, are some short extracts. As they show, though physically frail, Hitchens retains his remarkable mental agility.

"Never be afraid of stridency"

Richard Dawkins One of my main beefs with religion is the way they label children as a "Catholic child" or a "Muslim child". I've become a bit of a bore about it.
Christopher Hitchens You must never be afraid of that charge, any more than stridency.
RD I will remember that.
CH If I was strident, it doesn't matter - I was a jobbing hack, I bang my drum. You have a discipline in which you are very distinguished. You've educated a lot of people; nobody denies that, not even your worst enemies. You see your discipline being attacked and defamed and attempts made to drive it out.
Stridency is the least you should muster . . . It's the shame of your colleagues that they don't form ranks and say, "Listen, we're going to defend our colleagues from these appalling and obfuscating elements."

Fascism and the Catholic Church

RD The people who did Hitler's dirty work were almost all religious.
CH I'm afraid the SS's relationship with the Catholic Church is something the Church still has to deal with and does not deny.
RD Can you talk a bit about that - the relationship of Nazism with the Catholic Church?
CH The way I put it is this: if you're writing about the history of the 1930s and the rise of totalitarianism, you can take out the word "fascist", if you want, for Italy, Portugal, Spain, Czechoslovakia and Austria and replace it with "extreme-right Catholic party".

Almost all of those regimes were in place with the help of the Vatican and with understandings from the Holy See. It's not denied. These understandings quite often persisted after the Second World War was over and extended to comparable regimes in Argentina and elsewhere.

Hitchens on the left-right spectrum

RD I've always been very suspicious of the left-right dimension in politics.
CH Yes; it's broken down with me.
RD It's astonishing how much traction the left-right continuum [has] . . . If you know what someone thinks about the death penalty or abortion, then you generally know what they think about everything else. But you clearly break that rule.
CH I have one consistency, which is [being] against the totalitarian - on the left and on the right. The totalitarian, to me, is the enemy - the one that's absolute, the one that wants control over the inside of your head, not just your actions and your taxes. And the origins of that are theocratic, obviously. The beginning of that is the idea that there is a supreme leader, or infallible pope, or a chief rabbi, or whatever, who can ventriloquise the divine and tell us what to do.

Source

Penn

The world just got a little dumber because Hitchens is gone.

He will be missed, yet his work will be enjoyed for decades to come.

The Mad Hatter

What a shame.

Edit: Hitchens' ten commandments:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v-63cTYJDCA

pH

Sad day - he'll be missed.

“The four most over-rated things in life are champagne, lobster, anal sex and picnics.”
- Hitchens

Zamboni

The world has lost a great intellect.

Tim Robbins

RIP Hitchens. A very lively and engaging speaker.

Ellis Dee

This evening I'll raise a glass of really good red wine to his memory and in celebration of his work to dispel ignorance and superstition.:):):)

fisgon

One of my first thoughts on hearing this was - we've lost a pretty strong ally.

Kxiii

Just in the middle of re reading God is Not Great, his writing style and wit were second to none.

RIP Hitch.

bnt

I think it's somewhat fitting that Richard Dawkins was the last person to interview The Hitch. Though I imagine that RD would wish that many more had the opportunity to do so.

RD.net is linking to the obituary on ABC News, which is quite long but very good. I think it's fair to say that it wasn't all researched and written last night. I must try and find Alexander Cockburn's "Letter to a Lying, Self-Serving, Fat-Assed, Chain-Smoking, Drunken, Opportunistic, Cynical Contrarian." :pac:

CerebralCortex

amacachi wrote: »

Didn't see it coming at all. I'll be toasting him with one of his favorite drinks I happened to buy a few days ago.


One of my favorite interviews of all time is with Paxman



RIP, was damn fun having him around.

"It will yield to reason and science" You tell em Hitch!!!

Dades

I shall raise several glasses in your honour tonight.

Didn't agree with everything he ever said, but the person in the mirror is the only one anyone could say that about.

Links234

RIP Hitch

b318isp

Very sad news, I preferred his approach and reasoning much more than Dawkins. For me, he opened new ways of looking and challenging the world. Even though he could direct his attacks, he did so logically and with a compendium of facts. A practical Socrates for our time has now gone.

Wacker

I'll be raising a Johnny Walkers Black in his memory tonight.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BP51NnoVErA

5uspect

A true great, he will be missed.

Daftendirekt

RIP, Hitch. Haven't read any of his work, but he's been on my Amazon wishlist for as long as I can remember. Always enjoyed hearing him debate, though.

[-0-]

RIP Hitch.

I never had a JW Black, and also saved one of his finest books.

I will be indulging in both relatively soon.

kelly1

I'm genuinely saddened to hear this news. All I can say is, God have mercy on his soul (as I would say about anyone who dies).

checkyabadself

Tonight I have a reason to crack open a recently acquired bottle of Johnnie Walker Double Black. I'm deeply saddened to learn of Christopher's passing. His articles in Vanity Fair, Slate and particular his many books helped me come to terms with atheism in a religious family that was very hostile to any criticism of religion.

His prose was second to none and he put what I felt and thought into words that I could never have hoped to.

I'm buoyed by the fact that he always claimed to live his life to the fullest and when told by someone that he burned the candle at both ends, he said it produced a lovely light.

muppeteer

Sad day.
Every time I read one of his essays I used to curse him and thank him in equal measure.
The curse for when I was forced to reach for the dictionary when I came across another beautiful word I did not understand, and the thanks for the extra education while reading another insightful piece.

Vomit

Wow, all this talk of knocking back whiskey to remember a man who drank himself to death.

MagicMarker

Vomit wrote: »

Wow, all this talk of knocking back whiskey to remember a man who drank himself to death.

I know, one shouldn't need an excuse to open a fine bottle of JW Black.

If I wasn't poor I'd be getting a bottle myself.

Elliemental

Vomit wrote: »

Wow, all this talk of knocking back whiskey to remember a man who drank himself to death.

It was probably more the smoking. Anyway, Hitchens lived his life. He shouldn't be condemned for it.

vibe666

checkyabadself wrote: »

I'm buoyed by the fact that he always claimed to live his life to the fullest and when told by someone that he burned the candle at both ends, he said it produced a lovely light.

i'm very much saddened by his passing, but had managed to keep a dry eye despite everything i've been watching and re-reading from him today up until i read that.

he will be sorely missed.

i think it's time to head over to the kindle store to buy a copy of one (or more) of his works. http://www.amazon.com/Christopher-Hitchens/e/B000APSKR0/ref=ntt_athr_dp_pel_1

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

think i'll watch the four hoursemen tonight


--edit

I wonder how long it will take for the stories that he accepted jesus on his deathbed

a week?

Vomit

Elliemental wrote: »

It was probably more the smoking. Anyway, Hitchens lived his life. He shouldn't be condemned for it.

If it was the smoking, then it would more likely have been throat or lung cancer.

I just can't shed too many tears for Hitchens. He supported the Iraq war and defended Bush for probably no other reason that in his jaded mind he just wanted to see the Muslims get a hiding. Everything for him became about religion once he gave up on being a serious political commentator. He even called the situation in Northern Ireland a fight between people who can't decide which type of Christian they want to be.

I think alcohol and cigarettes are poison, and I won't risk my health by having one drop to remember this man.

MagicMarker

Vomit wrote: »

If it was the smoking, then it would more likely have been throat or lung cancer.

I just can't shed too many tears for Hitchens. He supported the Iraq war and defended Bush for probably no other reason that in his jaded mind he just wanted to see the Muslims get a hiding. Everything for him became about religion once he gave up on being a serious political commentator. He even called the situation in Northern Ireland a fight between people who can't decide which type of Christian they want to be.

I think alcohol and cigarettes are poison, and I won't risk my health by having one drop to remember this man.

Cool story bro.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

did you ever even read or listen to his arguments in favour of the iraq war?

he never convinced me but he was the only person in favour of the war I wouldn't just dismiss out of hand.

The Mad Hatter

Vomit wrote: »

I just can't shed too many tears for Hitchens. He supported the Iraq war and defended Bush for probably no other reason that in his jaded mind he just wanted to see the Muslims get a hiding.

That's quite a statement, given that his reasons for supporting the Iraq war were more clearly articulated and consistent than anyone else I've heard supporting it - that is to say, in order to free people from the rule of a tyrant. He also supported making war on North Korea, so your muslim comment doesn't really fly.

I have disagreed with the Iraq war since the beginning, but Hitchens was its most coherent defender. It's interesting that he passed on on the same day that the troops withdrew.

Wereghost

I was shocked by the apparent suddenness; thought he had been doing as well as could be expected.

I'm a relative newcomer to Hitchens, but a copy of God Is Not Great currently adorns my desk. Anyway, here's an amusing if somewhat strident video of the man in action:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HL8MDnuUsE4

Vomit

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar wrote: »

did you ever even read or listen to his arguments in favour of the iraq war?

he never convinced me but he was the only person in favour of the war I wouldn't just dismiss out of hand.

Ah you couldn't dismiss him straight away. Great, tell that to the over 1,000,000 dead.

Undergod

I don't know a lot about the man, but the waterboarding debate won him my respect.

Zillah

Well this is last ****ing thing I expected or wanted to hear today. Some how I thought he might be able to beat the odds, especially that he had so many excellent people working on him.

Bye Hitch