Roger Ebert on Christopher Hitchens

[kpete]

Traveler to the undiscovere'd country
By
Roger Ebert
on August 13, 2010

................

ON HITCHENS AS A MAN, WRITER, INTELLECTUAL

The man can write. He has lived a life. He has seen for himself, making it a point to travel regularly to dangerous and wretched nations. He has been a man of political passion, beginning first as a Trotskyite and becoming in recent years a supporter of the Neocon war in Iraq. ... He exists as that most daring of writers, a freelance intellectual. He's a good speaker, can be funny, has bad teeth, is passably good-looking, and is at no pains to be a charmer. ... Some years ago when I met him at the Telluride Film Festival, I was unaware of his fairly recent defection from the Left. I told him I read him in the Nation, which he'd by then severed his ties with. His reply was a masterpiece of irony, masked as egotism: "How clever of you."


ON GOD AND MYSTERY

I would agree with Hitchens that we can't rule out the possibility of some indefinable first mover, although I'm sure he doesn't mean mover as a being but as a force. To hope we can learn how the universe came about is admirable; one might as well call that hope by any name. ... I worship the void. The mystery. And the ability of our human minds to perceive an unanswerable mystery. To reduce such a thing to simplistic names is an insult to it, and to our intelligence.

CONCLUSION

Christopher Hitchens has spent his lifetime trying to figure out that small part of life the mind can comprehend. Now he's closer than most to that undiscovere'd country, from whose bourne no traveler returns. We all began that journey at the moment of our birth. We will all surely complete it. What lies beyond is no more knowable than what lay before. As a mourner in a pet cemetery in "Gates of Heaven" so truly observes, "Death is for the living and not for the dead so much."

...........

more:
http://blogs.suntimes.com/ebert/2010/08/traveler_to_the_undiscovered_c.html
http://www.theatlanticwire.com/opinions/view/opinion/Op-Ed-Spotlight-Roger-Ebert-on-Christopher-Hitchens-4710

[RandomThoughts]

1. Speaking again about Gates.

I agree some think of it that way, but that is an interpretation.

[givemebackmycountry]

2. Great read...Thanks!

I told him I read him in the Nation, which he'd by then severed his ties with. His reply was a masterpiece of irony, masked as egotism: "How clever of you."

Now, that's some classic shit right there.

[DavidDvorkin]

3. His reply about Ebert having read him in The Nation

is not a mastery of irony, masked as egotism. It's undisguised dismissive obnoxiousness.

[upi402]

4. I wonder if he sniffed a little after saying that... n/t

[Demit]

5. That's how it struck me too, no matter the kind spin Ebert put on it.

It's a stock sort of putdown response. Ebert has more class than Hitchens could ever lay claim to.

[Ernesto]

6. works for me nt

[Fumesucker]

7. As a fellow atheist I have no problem saying..

That Hitchens is an ass, a boor and a drunk.

[Ernesto]

9. Did I ever get flamed when I posted......

"Ba-bye Hitch"

[Warpy]

10. He's also a damned good read, even if you want

to throttle him the whole time. You have to give the devil his due, and he's a devil of a good writer.

He'd be off my list of dinner guests, although he might be allowed to come in as a speaker, relegated to a table by himself afterward. He is truly an insufferable ass.

Ebert has come the closest to writing about him honestly, though, and in such a way to demonstrated he understands a fellow dying writer completely.

This article was as much a pleasure to read as Hitch himself is.

[Hissyspit]

12. And an unrepentant warmonger.

No mention of Iraq civilian casualties in his book.

[Fumesucker]

14. One of the major reasons I think Hitchens is an ass.. n/t

[femrap]

8. I simply do not understand

how one can go from being a Trotskyite and writing in The Nation to being a Neocon???? :wtf:

Did he endure a case of encephalitis? I've heard that can change people from decent to selfish pigs.

I just don't understand....unless he is being paid large sums of money to prattle on about neo-conservatism.

eta: Just read the links provided...he's dying. Well, that's what happens when one becomes a selfish neocon pig.

[Dover]

13. In his interview with Charlie Rose the other night he seemed to explain the

apparent inconsistency as a continuing stand against totalitariantism and its leaders.
Apparently that was enough reason to support an illegal, ill thought out and self serving
invasion of Iraq. He didn't mention any other possible motives by this country who, itself
has shown plenty of signs of a developing global totalitarianism which some might call
imperialism.

I'm not at all familiar with his writings or his journey but his 'passion' seemed to come from his head rather than his heart, objectifying and rationalizing his life like a character in a novel in what seemed a fairly self indulgent way. And alcohol can often be used as a lubricant for attempting to evoke a feeling response to life while actually numbing them. I'm sure his mother's suicide and his father's cool aloofness and perceived disapproval of him took its toll and perhaps in the end he has taken on his father's conservative, colorless persona (his father was a military man). At any rate, if you have a chance to view that interview, you might find it revealing and informative.

[femrap]

15. Thank you for the insight....

I knew nothing of his parents and I guess if one drinks enough, it can 'float' the brain.

I'll check out the interview.

Again, thx.

[snagglepuss]

11. Bkmrkd to read later.

[saltpoint]

16. Ebert the writer just keeps on writing beautifully.

The account is tactile and truthful, and highly readable.

You go, Roger.