I may not know a lot of things, but one thing I know is bombast. I've used it to great effect many times. Bombast isn't truth, and it isn't insight.
Christopher Hitchens was bombastic. Prolific? Sure, but so's Piers Anthony. Doesn't mean any of it is any good.
Hitchens lost me seven years ago.
http://www.slate.com/articles/news_and_politics/fighting_wor...
And, to the above article, Michael Moore is a propagandist. (And I say this with a heavy heart because I loathe to hate on a Spartan, but its the truth.)
See, I'll go with that. Hell, George Will is sometimes correct. Nobody is busy flagellating themselves over someone who is "sometimes correct" however. They're all up on the wailing wall for Christopher Hitchens, Literary Lion.
Bombast isn't necessarily falsehood, either. It's just the art of writing loudly. Hitchens was a one-trick pony who was so good at that one trick that people forgive the substantial trespasses he made against journalism and literature.
Is Michael Moore a propagandist? I doubt even Michael Moore would contest that. Thing is, though, Hitchens called him a liar over and over and over again. As if the facts in FAHRENHEIT 911 hadn't been substantiated again and again and again. Hitchens wasn't the slightest bit interested in the truth, he was wholly given over to making you pissed off at the same things that pissed him off. And as a capricious and focus-poor gasbag, "things that pissed him off" changed on a daily basis with no attempt to reconcile his prior vitriol.
History will forget Christopher Hitchens for the exact reasons it remembers William F. Buckley. And I think it's important to point out that my politics are much more closely aligned with Hitchens... but my respect is wholly with Buckley.
A decent columnist doesn't need to lie to prove a point.
Aside: I've always enjoyed this Buckley/Hitchens conversation: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m0LR2mxqMNM
Plenty of people are bombastic. PJ O'Rourke is bombastic. Andy Rooney was bombastic. Neither of them said "My way is 100% correct, unassailable truth and all other ideas and opinions are purest excrement."
Christopher Hitchens argued from a position of such pure, unexamined certainty that he was able to pass off colon-extracted hyperbole as if it were holy writ. This is a man who was consistently and unexaminedly wrong about much of the world yet never re-examined or restated anything on the numerous subjects where his bloviating certainty turned out to be wholly and completely mistaken.
I've been wrong before. I'll be wrong again. Even Greenspan has admitted he fucked up the economy. It takes a big man to do that.
Christopher Hitchens was not a big man.
I have no idea though. What I do know is that if he was a one trick pony I sure wish more writers would learn this trick. His writing got me to challenge assumptions, made me laugh aloud and definitely had me looking up world history events to put some reference in context. I enjoyed that about his writing. He toggled the point of rococo while remaining relevant and humorous. He had a style. I liked it. I wish he didn't croak.
I'll never forget him calling out the disgraceful, opportunistic, scum of the earth jackass that is Ralph Reed on Hannity when Jerry Falwell died. -There was no bombast in that last sentence btw, it's fact.
Only the failures.
You wanna see what believing your own hype looks like? Check out Kevin Smith or M Night Shamalyan. Hitchens had the requisite amount of anger right about the time the atheists were getting brave. You'll notice they quote Sam Harris a lot less - he's less "quippy" and he's a lot less pissed off. He's a better writer, though, and he's more truthful.
Big left turn, aside: My moms in town and thus, I have a couple evenings free and want to go see a movie. Only have pretty mainstream movie theaters. suggestions?
A while back I remember you writing that your friend had some kick ass photos of Dubai. I'm guessing it's the same friend? The scenes there were pretty kick ass. Chase scene in a sand storm, the kind of thing you could only get away with in a movie called "Mission Impossible".
Verdict, it was a good action film. I'd recommend it to people that like action films that are incredibly straight forward and with little to no subtext.
Thanks again for the recommendation.
Guy who I saw it with was one of four storyboard artists. Works with JJ Abrams often enough to call him "JJ."
Guy who took photos of Dubai worked for this company: http://www.wetdesign.com/
They did the fountain at the Birj, same as they did the fountain at the Bellagio.
Cosmo is an amazing hotel btw.
Hope your projects are going well.
I bought it a little over 6 months ago between Chapel Hill and Durham, NC. I think I'll be lucky if I break even on it when I sell 3 years from now, but my wife loves it, I love it. It's not an "investment", it's where I live.
I'd much rather live beside a "waterfall" in WA but till then, this will do.
Definitely the selling point of the home. I love, love, love that stove. It makes cooking even more enjoyable when you have good equipment. Now there's no one but me to blame if a dish sucks.
We already make booze, and we do a damn fine job. This, however, changed everything:
Re-read it and didn't think it came across that way.