Hitchens has written admiringly of Chomsky on several occasions, and recalls being impressed when, as a youth, he heard Chomsky speak at Oxford. PREPARED FOR THE WORST contains a 1985 essay on Chomsky.
"Welcome and familiar (as a good columnist is supposed to be) at the precinct house and the taproom and the convention hall and the picket line, he could also have passed for a don. Not a don from Brooklyn or Little Italy (though he was able to make himself welcome there, too) but a don from one of the poorer and more racy and intrigue-ridden Oxbridge colleges, with his bicycle clips and Latin and Greek tags and silvered locks and beaming spectacles."
"[Americans are] overimpressed with things about England that I'm underimpressed by. For example, the monarchy, the class system, the theme-park aspect, as if the whole country was covered in thatch, a few people who are eccentrics and some people with coronets, "Upstairs, Downstairs" and "Masterpiece Theater." Instead of being keen on the British national health service, or the BBC as a broadcast organization, both of which are better than their American equivalents. But they don't admire that more...
"[Americans are] overimpressed with things about England that I'm underimpressed by. For example, the monarchy, the class system, the theme-park aspect, as if the whole country was covered in thatch, a few people who are eccentrics and some people with coronets, "Upstairs, Downstairs" and "Masterpiece Theater." Instead of being keen on the British national health service, or the BBC as a broadcast organization, both of which are better than their American equivalents. But they don't admire that kind of thing. They don't borrow the right stuff. Instead you get a lot of tawdry, semi-monarchical pseudo-aristocratic bullshit."less...
"For a lot of people, their first love is what they'll always remember. For me, it's always been the first hate, and I think that hatred, though it provides often rather junky energy, is a terrific way of getting you out of bed in the morning and keeping you going. If you don't let it get out of hand, it can be canalized into writing."
Christopher Hitchens has been a book reviewer for the esteemed British journal the New Statesman and has written for several American magazines, including Vanity Fair and The Nation, where he has written the "Minority Report" column--in his words, "an attempt to mount a Left critique of society and politics." In his books, Hitchens has written on issues as diverse as Britain's obligation to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece, the conflicts in the Middle East, and Anglo-American relations; but Hi more...
Christopher Hitchens has been a book reviewer for the esteemed British journal the New Statesman and has written for several American magazines, including Vanity Fair and The Nation, where he has written the "Minority Report" column--in his words, "an attempt to mount a Left critique of society and politics." In his books, Hitchens has written on issues as diverse as Britain's obligation to return the Elgin Marbles to Greece, the conflicts in the Middle East, and Anglo-American relations; but Hitchens is perhaps more well-known for his scathing attacks on Princess Diana, Mother Teresa, Bill Clinton, and Henry Kissinger--whom he just about calls a war criminal. An Englishman by birth and upbringing, Hitchens attended Balliol College of Oxford University, where he studied PPE--Politics, Philosophy, and Economics. He came to America in the early 1980s, living first in New York City and then in Washington, D.C.less...
Cathy wrote a review on Animal Farm, and, 1984 Nineteen Eighty-Four
I have enjoyed these books so much that I have read them about 10 times in my lifetime. I hope you will give them both a chance as they have underlying messages that never seem to grow old...cr
I have enjoyed these books so much that I have read them about 10 times in my lifetime. I hope you will give them both a chance as they have underlying messages that never seem to grow old...cr