The genius contrarian strikes again. Christopher Hitchens with an absolutely brilliant piece on the VTech tragedy.
While I devour many opinion pieces a day (usually in the form of blog entry or op-ed), there is no other author who makes my eyes light up when I see his name next to a piece. I don’t know any other opinion-mongerer who writes with such verve and spirit. He is an excellent, ferocious writer.
I absolutely need to set aside some time to study his writing style.
As you read my weblog, I think you know that my admiration for Hitch is, likewise, deep. Very deep. (I share with him the same ‘stigma’ of apostasy that those of us who were once flaming firebrands of the left now live with.)
Anyway, yes, his scathing piece on VT caught my eye, too. But something else occurred to me…
…lately, I’ve been getting the feeling that Hitch has been averting his gaze from the ruination of Iraq, as I haven’t read as much commentary from him thereon. I think he still thinks it the right thing to have invaded/occupied, but he may well be so thoroughly disgusted now with the appallingly inept execution of it, and the horrendous missteps in the nation-building effort (from little, to nil, to negative)… that talking about all that, or defending it, is an overwhelmingly embarrassing proposition.
Can’t say I blame him if he indeed felt that way.
p.s.
As for his writing style, I think a lot of that is born of his *reading* plus the whole ferment of verbal debate/analysis common in an Oxfordian education. (Sullivan is also an excellent product of such.)
If you can manage to find any of Hitchens’ speeches, talks, interviews on YouTube or wherever, you’ll get the sense that his verbal flair matches his writing panache. He’s an awesome debater.
So, here’s the rule as I see it: to get his writing style, also consider his verbal affect and find out what he considers the great books/authors of polemics and rhetoric.