Haha..I just have strong opinions. I think he really became a hypocrite post-9/11 (though he was always an arrogant starfucker) but I guess that's when he became most well known. He was a great stylist but like any drunkard the drink caught up to him and his thinking and writing suffered.
His book on Orwell and Kissinger are both great and his book on the relationship between the UK/USA, Blood, Class and Empire is underrated, his most sustained and substanial writing at book length that I've read. Ironic to read in light of his 'patriotic' statements upon gaining American citizenship.
Yeah, a lot of people haven't forgiven him for the turn he took after 9/11. I loved Blood, Class, and Empire, but my view of his work is probably colored by the fact that I started reading him shortly before (or after) 9/11. My opinion of Hitchens now might be less favorable if I'd started reading his work in the late eighties or early nineties. But at that time I was just starting to cut my teeth on Hunter S Thompson and Tom Wolfe, and Hitchens simply wasn't on my radar yet. Even if I'd read his work at that point in time when I started reading Thompson and Wolfe, I wouldn't have immediately grasped Hitchens' significance.
Previous Topic
Index
