• Quick note - the problem with Youtube videos not embedding on the forum appears to have been fixed, thanks to ZiprHead. If you do still see problems let me know.

Hitchens is dying

I've spent countless hours watching him speak on YouTube and leeching off the breadth of his knowledge, admiring how extensively he can sermonise. His speeches seem almost charitable to me. I don't have the same apathy that I would have for another celebrity for whom I had a passing appreciation. His name is known because of the sheer grandeur of his erudition. There's a different sort of demand for him, a less superficial one.

I guess if I could tell him one thing it would be to find solace in the exponential nature of his words, because here I am at 19 feeling like a life mentor of mine is living his crepuscular moments, wondering if I've absorbed everything I can from him.
 
Legend said:
I've spent countless hours watching him speak on YouTube and leeching off the breadth of his knowledge, admiring how extensively he can sermonise. His speeches seem almost charitable to me. I don't have the same apathy that I would have for another celebrity for whom I had a passing appreciation. His name is known because of the sheer grandeur of his erudition. There's a different sort of demand for him, a less superficial one.

I guess if I could tell him one thing it would be to find solace in the exponential nature of his words, because here I am at 19 feeling like a life mentor of mine is living his crepuscular moments, wondering if I've absorbed everything I can from him.
Click to expand...

What?!?
 
angrysoba said:
Uh-oh, here comes the God Squad, circling like vultures.

Apparently because Hitchens disagrees with Nietzsche on something Nietzsche wrote when he was probably insane that means Hitchens is going to convert to Christianity.
Click to expand...

Not surprising. There's a certain subset of believers who think atheism is equivalent to Nietzsche-ism.
 
Complexity said:
We don't think you have a clue what 'exponential' means.
Click to expand...

I don't think you have a clue how to infer.

What I mean is that his words are disseminated and absorbed by people like me, who end up learning from him and consequentially using things Hitchens has said in our own debates, whether citing him or not. It'll filter down generations and the effect of his words is compounded.

Still don't know what his highlighting is for.
 
Legend said:
I don't think you have a clue how to infer.

What I mean is that his words are disseminated and absorbed by people like me, who end up learning from him and consequentially using things Hitchens has said in our own debates, whether citing him or not. It'll filter down generations and the effect of his words is compounded.

Still don't know what his highlighting is for.
Click to expand...


You would have been more successful at communicating if you said what you just said the first time.

Believe it or not, this is intended as a friendly suggestion.
 
Complexity said:
We don't think you have a clue what 'exponential' means.
Click to expand...

I would also say that "apathy" is probably wrong as apathy tends to refer to a general mood towards the world in general rather than specific things.

Legend, I think, "I'm usually indifferent when a celebrity dies but I can't feel that way about the death of Hitchens" makes more sense.

I also wouldn't have used the words, "sermonise", "charitable", "crepuscular moments", "grandeur of his eruditicn" etc...

Hitchens gets away with it because he's usually a very good writer, but his imitators tend to look pretentious. Try Orwell first, particularly Politics and the English Language, and try not to repeat phrases that you have heard other commentators use when they gush over Hitchens (just never use "erudition" as it is now a complete cliche where Hitchens is concerned).
 
Complexity said:
You would have been more successful at communicating if you said what you just said the first time.

Believe it or not, this is intended as a friendly suggestion.
Click to expand...

I think my intention was fairly obvious, to be perfectly fair.

angrysoba said:
I would also say that "apathy" is probably wrong as apathy tends to refer to a general mood towards the world in general rather than specific things.
Click to expand...

Get the biggest roll eyes emoticon you can find and insert it here.

angrysoba said:
I also wouldn't have used the words, "sermonise", "charitable", "crepuscular moments", "grandeur of his eruditicn" etc...

Hitchens gets away with it because he's usually a very good writer, but his imitators tend to look pretentious. Try Orwell first, particularly Politics and the English Language, and try not to repeat phrases that you have heard other commentators use when they gush over Hitchens (just never use "erudition" as it is now a complete cliche where Hitchens is concerned).
Click to expand...

I use these words regardless of the topic of discussion, but I get particularly grandiloquent when I feel that I have something important to say. One look at my post history (erudition) or the interrogation of someone I know, or someone who has talked lots with me on this forum, would confirm that.

I can't actually believe that this conversation is going on.
 
Last edited:
Not to mention, Angrysoba called me out on my post, but never replied when I asked for some clarification.

You can not be a fan of the Hitch. That is permissable. But if I'm using cliches, or somehow being ridiculous in suggesting he is a great thinker, I'd appreciate some form of response.
 
Antiquehunter said:
What specifically is the collection of cliches? The article I posted? That is his own writing.

I'm sorry if my comment didn't end in 'for me'. I wasn't pretending to speak for anyone else.
Click to expand...

The battle with cancer:

The bargaining stage, though....Unfortunately, it also involves confronting one of the most appealing clichés in our language. You’ve heard it all right. People don’t have cancer: they are reported to be battling cancer. No well-wisher omits the combative image: You can beat this. It’s even in obituaries for cancer losers, as if one might reasonably say of someone that they died after a long and brave struggle with mortality. You don’t hear it about long-term sufferers from heart disease or kidney failure.

Myself, I love the imagery of struggle. I sometimes wish I were suffering in a good cause, or risking my life for the good of others, instead of just being a gravely endangered patient. Allow me to inform you, though, that when you sit in a room with a set of other finalists, and kindly people bring a huge transparent bag of poison and plug it into your arm, and you either read or don’t read a book while the venom sack gradually empties itself into your system, the image of the ardent soldier or revolutionary is the very last one that will occur to you. You feel swamped with passivity and impotence: dissolving in powerlessness like a sugar lump in water.
Click to expand...

This appeared in his article, "Topic of Cancer". The title, "Topic of Cancer" amusingly references a Henry Miller book, as you may know. "Battle with cancer" is, on the other hand, a stale cliche.

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/09/hitchens-201009


Legend said:
Get the biggest roll eyes emoticon you can find and insert it here.
Click to expand...

Okay:

:monrolleyes:

I use these words regardless of the topic of discussion, but I get particularly grandiloquent when I feel that I have something important to say. One look at my post history (erudition) or the interrogation of someone I know, or someone who has talked lots with me on this forum, would confirm that.
Click to expand...

Well, you're the one who is interested in disseminating Hitchens' ideas. I thought I'd help you out.

As Complexity would say, "Believe it or not, this is intended as a friendly suggestion." ;)

I can't actually believe that this conversation is going on.
Click to expand...

I've had better myself.
 
Last edited:
devnull said:
Hey all

Thought it was about time we had a thread for this. Perhaps it is better suited to Community though?

I love Hitchens - he is one of the few thinkers that, to my mind, is so clear in thought and communication that it is inspirational to those of us who use so many words to say so little.

Im also a bit pissy at him, why the hell couldnt he give up the booze and smokes sooner? For someone who prides themselves on rationality, I find it hard to comprehend how he managed to justify his behaviour to himself for so long. I guess we all have blind spots.

So - Hitchens is dying. How does that make you feel?
Click to expand...

Dear devnull,

I rue the coming passing of Mr. Hitchens. He is an excellent foil for religion and implacable enemy of totalitarianism. As a Catholic, I pray for his soul, that he will find a comfortable place in Purgatory.

I also understand the deal with the bottle and the weed that he made. People need things to survive and be all they can be; his things happened to be alcohol and tobacco. For others, it's homosexuality, or workaholism. Ce la vie et la mort.

Cpl Ferro
 
CplFerro said:
Dear devnull,

I rue the coming passing of Mr. Hitchens. He is an excellent foil for religion and implacable enemy of totalitarianism. As a Catholic, I pray for his soul, that he will find a comfortable place in Purgatory.I wish really hard he suffers.

I also understand the deal with the bottle and the weed that he made. People need things to survive and be all they can be; his things happened to be alcohol and tobaccoreason, rationality and intellectual freedom. For others, it's homosexuality, or workaholism. Ce la vie et la mort.

Cpl Ferro
Click to expand...

ftfy

I'm sure he would appreciate your condescending wish for a comfortable damnation.
 
CplFerro said:
Dear devnull,

I rue the coming passing of Mr. Hitchens. He is an excellent foil for religion and implacable enemy of totalitarianism. As a Catholic, I pray for his soul, that he will find a comfortable place in Purgatory.

I also understand the deal with the bottle and the weed that he made. People need things to survive and be all they can be; his things happened to be alcohol and tobacco. For others, it's homosexuality, or workaholism. Ce la vie et la mort.

Cpl Ferro
Click to expand...


And just like that, you are out of my universe.
 
I am sad about the impending, early passing of Hitchens. There is so much that he would have written and spoken were he to live to old age -- it's a lost possibility, unequaled eloquence that might have been.
 
CplFerro said:
I rue the coming passing of Mr. Hitchens. He is an excellent foil for religion and implacable enemy of totalitarianism. As a Catholic, I pray for his soul, that he will find a comfortable place in Purgatory.
Click to expand...

Did the CC drop the idea of purgatory? Or was that something else?

CplFerro said:
I also understand the deal with the bottle and the weed that he made.
Click to expand...

I dont think he made a deal so much as he justified it by claiming it made other people less boring etc

People justify all sorts of behaviour in all sorts of different ways.

CplFerro said:
People need things to survive and be all they can be; his things happened to be alcohol and tobacco. For others, it's homosexuality, or workaholism. Ce la vie et la mort.
Click to expand...

I dont know if homosexuality is something you "survive". At best you could "survive" the larger community's hate-filled overreaction to something that is perfectly acceptable from a secular POV.

Would be nice if the Hitch survived this though.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Back
Top Bottom