Sunday, July 4, 2010

Christopher Hitchens: an appreciation

In his NY Times column (July 2)David Brooks writes generously and warmly about Christopher Hitchens, in my opinion, one of the leading public intellectuals of the day. Brooks points out that Hitchens' worldview was formed strongly by George Orwell. He is the voice of Orwell that we need in this troublesome century. Hitchens wrote a book called: "Why Orwell Matters" and we need one now titled: "Why Hitchens Matters". I came to Orwell when I lived in London in the 1960's and '70s. I didn't start with 1984 or even Animal Farm but with two early short pieces: "A Hanging", where Orwell's deep human sympathy is first expressed and "Shooting an elephant" which exposes the ignorance and folly of empire building. I wish people in the Pentagon would read things like this, but they never do. One of Hitchens' close friends is Salman Rushdie. Once upon a time Salman was a pal of mine, too. We worked at a big advertising agency in Mayfair. He was a junior copywriter and I was the International Creative Director. He would pop into my office from time to time to speak with great authority on politics, history, literature and the cinema, never campaign strategy. Then one day he was gone. He couldn't write an ad to save himself so he left to become one of the world's most famous authors, leaving me to write the deathless prose for 3M and Dow Chemical. We have to march to our own drummers, don't we? Hitchens is now undergoing chemotherapy for cancer. I wish him good health, and, to paraphrase one of Orwell's poems from the Spanish Civil War: " No bomb that ever burst can shatter your crystal spirit."

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