Christopher Hitchens on Charles Dickens, Alexis de Tocqueville, Ghostwriters (2/4) (1997)

May 25, 1997 http://www.amazon.com/gp/redirect.html?ie=UTF8&location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.... Watch the full program: http://thefilmarchived.blogspot.com/2010/11/christopher-hitchens-and-james.html

Charles John Huffam Dickens (7 February 1812 -- 9 June 1870) was the most popular English novelist of the Victorian era and he remains popular, responsible for some of English literature's most iconic characters.

Many of his novels, with their recurrent concern for social reform, first appeared in magazines in serialised form, a popular format at the time. Unlike other authors who completed entire novels before serialisation, Dickens often created the episodes as they were being serialized. The practice lent his stories a particular rhythm, punctuated by cliffhangers to keep the public looking forward to the next instalment. The continuing popularity of his novels and short stories is such that they have never gone out of print.

His work has been praised for its mastery of prose and unique personalities by writers such as George Gissing and G. K. Chesterton, though others, such as Henry James and Virginia Woolf, criticised it for sentimentality and implausibility.

American Notes for General Circulation is a travelogue by Charles Dickens detailing his trip to North America from January to June, 1842. While there he acted as a critical observer of these societies almost as if returning a status report on their progress. This can be compared to the style of his Pictures from Italy written four years later, where he wrote far more like a tourist. His American journey was also an inspiration for his novel Martin Chuzzlewit.

Alexis-Charles-Henri Clérel de Tocqueville (29 July 1805, Paris -- 16 April 1859, Cannes) was a French political thinker and historian best known for his Democracy in America (appearing in two volumes: 1835 and 1840) and The Old Regime and the Revolution (1856). In both of these works, he explored the effects of the rising equality of social conditions on the individual and the state in western societies. Democracy in America (1835), his major work, published after his travels in the United States, is today considered an early work of sociology and political science.

An eminent representative of the classical liberal political tradition, Tocqueville was an active participant in French politics, first under the July Monarchy (1830--1848) and then during the Second Republic (1849--1851) which succeeded the February 1848 Revolution. He retired from political life after Louis Napoléon Bonaparte's 2 December 1851 coup, and thereafter began work on The Old Regime and the Revolution, Volume I.

Kelly Flinn (born December 23, 1970), sometimes referred to as Kelly Flynn in media sources, was the first female B-52 pilot in the United States Air Force. Flinn was discharged from the U.S. Air Force in 1997 after being charged with making a false statement, adultery, and disobeying orders. Flinn's trouble with the Air Force received widespread media attention at the time and was discussed in a U.S. Senate hearing on May 22, 1997.

A ghostwriter is a professional writer who is paid to write books, articles, stories, reports, or other texts that are officially credited to another person. Celebrities, executives, and political leaders often hire ghostwriters to draft or edit autobiographies, magazine articles, or other written material. In music, ghostwriters are used in film score composition, as well as for writing songs and lyrics for popular music styles ranging from country to hip-hop.

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[feindhortmit]

Keep in mind that Dickens was prejudiced towards America because some Americans stole his work, published it and never paid him a penny. Plus ca change, we dispise the Chinese for that today.

[themanfromutopia1]

Go ed Hitch I think ye kite gave them a smack in the boolags.Sum old baigs are faigull of shaigit.De kite on thaigem old fuaigkers was bril.Keaigep fuaigking wit der skulls.XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX

[mrsthursday]

say what you want about Hitchins he was always upfront and honest in his views and he was on point in any discussion. Unlike every other interview these days, I never got the feeling he had a hidden agenda, he had his opinions and screw the consequences.

[VideoGameCoupons]

nice clips.. keep it up thanks for sharing ..

[BandWagon1987]

@hammertapping Even if you meant that as an insult, that's exactly what he will do, and you will too.

[hammertapping]

@JT2012a i agree, if you mean ROT in peace.

[JT2012a]

RIP Christopher Hitchens

[CurzonRoad]

@hammertapping

You really haven't a clue, do you?

[hammertapping]

@CurzonRoad "why"? why not? lol

why not expose a hitchens the fraud and pop the groupie bubbles (in this case the groupies are usually typical western liberal idiots, at various ages). its fun!

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"finest writers" !? groupie indeed. lol

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as i said i am yet to see any original, deep, scholarly (and even beautiful) anything from hitchens. groupies are free to offer examples here.

[hammertapping]

@CurzonRoad whether i am a hack etc does not matter bc i don't pretend i am the opposite of those.

on the other hand,

while hitchens, always was a superficial and derivative hack, with no originality or scholarship, he and his idiotic groupies(u one?) think and pretend he is opposite of those things.

show me anything of his that shows originality, depth, or scholarship.

he in fact smelt not 20th or even 19th, but of 18th century old hat.

good riddance!