Role Models or, An Excuse To Write About Christopher Hitchens

Most profound apologises yet again for my lack of blogging over the past month or so; naturally would I put it down to my busy lifestyle, but then I realised that it was more to do with the fact that I have just simply got progressively lazier, and that my lifestyle can be described with a multitude of adjectives, but busy certainly is not one of them. Alas, I am back.

          As I sit at my desk writing this there is, in front of me, a copy of Christopher Hitchens’ Autobiography Hitch-22: A Memoir. Now for those of you not currently aware of the life and work of this great man, get exploring. I promise you, he certainly won’t leave you bored. Christopher Hitchens or Hitch as he was affectionately referred to, was an Anglo-American author, essayist and journalist who, amongst other things, was world renowned for his confrontational style of debate, often on the subject of religion, of which he had a famous disgust for; writings such books as The Missionary Position, a scything critique of Mother Teresa and perhaps his most famous book God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything, which I read a couple of years ago and which helped me to affirm my religious non-beliefs by pretty much listing everything I thought was wrong with world religion. I felt like he was on my page (pun intended). In fact, it is from his religious critiques that the quote “that which can be asserted without evidence, can be dismissed without evidence” is taken from; forever one of my favourites.

          Now, whilst writing his autobiography, that which is sat in front of me, he was diagnosed with stage-four esophageal cancer (his never-faltering quick wit and humour always led him to point out that there was no stage-five). It is strange reading the book knowing that when the author was writing it, he was dying, and had no idea himself. It was this, or rather the pneumonia he developed as a result of this, which unfortunately took his life on 16^th December 2011. On that day the world lost a great writer, public speaker and all-round gifted intellectual.

          ‘Woah’ you may be saying, ‘this is a bit deep for this guy; he normally talks about noisy neighbours or University life or something. This is bullcrap.’ Well that may be so but I thought that this week I would use this platform to tell you about my favourite writer. As self-indulgent as it may seem, there is logic and reasoning concealed behind it. As an English student, and a keen writer, I consider people like Christopher Hitchens, as well as George Orwell, Cormac McCarthy, Ian Fleming and John Le Carre as my literary heroes. I say this because last week I read an article that suggested that we shouldn’t have ‘heroes,’ that we should do everything of our own accord. The blatant stupidity and arrogance of such an article makes me angry that so many people like that are working regularly, whereas some incredibly talented people struggle on their arses.

          I think people need role models to get a sense of perspective in their lives; whether their role model may be such flesh-wastes as Nicki Minaj and Lady Gaga, any or all members of the members of sickly One Direction, or terrible, just oh so terrible ‘actors’ such as Hugh Grant, Hayden Christensen or Kirstin Dunst, role-models give people inspiration. Feel free to tell me who your role models are in a comment below if you like. 

            A long history of journalism and writing for public consumption allowed for that journalist to write that article and so for him to dismiss any kind of influence on himself or the people around him shows, frankly, an obscene arrogance and mis-placed self-assurance that I find hard to comprehend, even on a basic humanistic plain. I won’t even get started on an article that was brought to my attention the other day entitled “Why One Direction are Better Than Beatles.”

          So some people may find this post boring (to be honest, I bet most people saw the title and strayed away), so some people may dismiss this blog out of hand for the foreseeable future. I’m not bothered, they can do that. If you however have read this far, if you are intrigued about Hitch’s work, about where this post was going but are now bored and feeling betrayed, or even if you thought you’d read it because you have nothing better to do, I thank you. I thank you for indulging me just this once. Normal service will resume next week, I promise.