Christopher Hitchens: Paxman

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http://www.vanityfair.com/online/daily/2011/12/In-Memoriam-Christopher-Hitche... Vanity Fair In Memoriam: Christopher Hitchens, 1949--2011, by Juli Weiner, Dec 15th 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. "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
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November 2010: Jeremy Paxman talks to the writer, polemicist and commentator Christopher Hitchens at his home in Washington DC about his cancer diagnosis, his life, his politics and writing. He is suffering from cancer of the oesophagus, has described his illness as "a bit of a yawn" and accepted that it is a result of his hard drinking and smoking lifestyle. He has been told that he has only a one in 20 chance of living for longer than five years.

He said he was not surprised by the diagnosis, which came earlier this summer, and said: "If you've led a rather bohemian and rackety life, as I have, it's precisely the cancer that you'd expect to get" "I think my main fear is of being incapacitated or imbecilic at the end. That, of course, is not something to be afraid of, it's something to be terrified of" "But for my family it's not very nice. I could wish perhaps to have led a more healthy and upright life for their sake, and that's a very melancholy reflection, of course...I feel a sense of waste about it because I'm not ready"

Christopher Eric Hitchens (born 13 April 1949) is an Anglo-American author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the Hoover Institution in September 2008. He is a staple of talk shows and lecture circuits and in 2005 was voted the world's fifth top public intellectual in a Prospect/Foreign Policy poll. He's known for his admiration of George Orwell, Thomas Paine, and Thomas Jefferson and for his excoriating critiques of, among others, Mother Teresa, Bill and Hillary Clinton, and Henry Kissinger. His confrontational style of debate has made him both a lauded and controversial figure. As a political observer, polemicist and self-defined radical, he rose to prominence as a fixture of the left-wing publications in his native Britain and in the United States. His departure from the established political left began in 1989 after what he called the "tepid reaction" of the Western left following Ayatollah Khomeini's issue of a fatwa- calling for the murder of Salman Rushdie. The 11 September 2001 attacks strengthened his internationalist embrace of an interventionist foreign policy, and his vociferous criticism of what he called "fascism with an Islamic face." His numerous editorials in support of the Iraq War caused some to label him a neoconservative, although Hitchens insists he is not "a conservative of any kind"

Category:

Education

Tags:

• Jeremy Paxman
• Christopher Hitchens
• Hay festival
• God is Not Great
• Religion Poisons Everything
• author
• journalist
• books
• essays
• columnist
• The Atlantic
• Vanity Fair
• Slate
• World Affairs
• The Nation
• Free Inquiry
• George Orwell
• Thomas Paine
• Thomas Jefferson
• Mother Teresa
• Bill Clinton
• Henry Kissinger
• Atheism
• anti-theist
• Enlightenment
• god
• Hitch-22
• oesophageal cancer

[Manuscript4]

What is the last word of 28.14?

[nightjarflying]

@Manuscript4 "...what a difference it can MAKE" I think

[McJohnstable]

I was unfortunate to only be introduced to Hitchens after hearing of his death. Still glad I'm able to hear his views online though. I completely agree with him.

[RosesTimes]

We still don't know which two politicians he has gay affairs with...he didn't say in his autobiography...

[ManicTheManic]

R.I.P Hitchens. Gone forever but not forgotten.

If the fundies are right, then I'll see you in hell Hitchens!

[ElMufro]

Great interview, RIP to one of the great thinkers of our time.

[stalinist666]

@thesupermegadude

There is probably a God.

[101truthhurts]

Jeremy Paxman is an intellectual, true. He was so sensitive to Hittchens' needs. What an EXCELLENT interview. Long live, truth, science and love. R.I.P. C. Hitchens.x.

[markyboy28able99]

he became very over-rated once diagnosed with cancer. He was good with words. Thats about it.

[biggboots]

He died a great man. Forever of reason and argument. Although gone, thanks to the internet and his books. He will, in a sense life on..

[Afrikitty]

@aaddaammize The Scriptures have spoken!

[aaddaammize]

@Afrikitty You seem very smug about your false belief that this great man is now burning for eternity and regretting his entire life. Silence, you evil immoral christian.

[thesupermegadude]

Too great a man. I can't wait to slay all his books this summer when I'll finally have time.

By the way, there is no God.