I’ve decided that I’d rather lie in bed struggling for rest, my mind racing and exhausted, then fall asleep easily from boredom. But that’s an entirely different story…
Anyway, check out part 1 of the conversation between Michael Totten and Christopher Hitchens. Some very interesting discussion points on Islamic fundamentalism and so-called Western liberalism. Totten interviewed Hitch over scotch (of course) and the scene was set interesingly:
Hitchens is certainly famous, and is recognized on the street a lot more often than I am. A tall and slightly disheveled man in his fifties rudely interrupted our conversation outside the bar at one point and said “I can’t remember your name, but I recognize you from YouTube.”
“You should read more,” Hitchens said. He didn’t remind the man of his name.
Not two minutes later, an attractive young woman walked up to him, squeezed his arm gently, and said “I love you.”
“How often does this happen?” I said.
“This,” he said and smiled at the pretty young woman, “doesn’t happen nearly enough. But that,” he said and gestured to the man who recognized him from YouTube and would not go away, “happens too often.”
this little “conversation” was recently criticized by the religious commentator at newsweek, Lisa Miller. She commented how Hitch, Dawkins and someone else seem to dominate the conversation and shape it. Also taking a swipe at their record book sales.
I can take Hitch’s personality for so long and I concede that he is a great thinker. What I have some issue with in this post is his comment regarding the you-tube aspect of his fame.
At anytime he can retreat from the camera lights if he does detest being more well known for his tv appearances than his writing. He doesn’t have to go on Bill Maher’s show, Penn & Teller, etc. . He doesn’t have to do this song and dance with a cocktail in one hand a smoke in the other at a pub somewhere in Europe with a camera over his shoulder. As if he trying to pull off some cool intellectual act. All the while trying to act like he is not giving a shit about anyone’s thoughts or opinions.
then after appearing on all these shows, doing this pseudo conversation/media/Dean Martin act be condescending to admirers of his. It smacks of William Buckley to me.
I read one of Hitch’s books, but it was after I saw him in print and on TV. Not the other way around. That’s the way it works douchebag. So stay in your cottage on the lake and turn down all forms of media if you don’t like being recognized on Youtube. You may have a harder time getting your message across though…
And if you are so effing intellectual why are you smoking?!
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OK. #1: Miller’s article in Newsweek was about the broader God v. Reason debate. She doesn’t “criticize” the discussion topics of Hitchen and Totten. H & C discussed censorship, the degradation of liberal traditions of western Europe (the Danish cartoons), the stereotypes of Muslims vis-a-vis their experience in Beruit, etc. Not everytime Hitchens or Dawkins open their mouths is it about atheism. (Did you click through the link?)
#2 Hitchens wasn’t rejecting his celebrity. He was put off that the guy didn’t even know who he was. If the guy would have said, “Hey, I saw your debate Doug Wilson on YouTube” or “I really liked your commentary on Maher regarding such-and-such” or “I think you’re comments on MSNBC re: Kurdistan’s autonomy are flat wrong” I think the reaction would have been different. Yes, he is a media whore but only secondarily to “sell” his books, essays, journals, etc.
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yes I clicked
and I’m sticking with my Buckley/Dean Martin assessment.
I detest people that want it both ways, which I feel is what he is trying to do. I’m a one way kind of guy
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Very nuanced positioned
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or nuanced position??
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