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A review by paladintodd
Arguably: Selected Essays by Christopher Hitchens
2.0
My first foray into Hitchens and it didn't go particularly well. Perhaps a mass collection of essays was not the best starting point.
A good part of that blame lies with me - I'm simply not educated enough to judge most of this writing. Hitchens may be making amazing points in analyzing Jefferson's motives for engaging the Barbary pirates, but since I know near nothing about the Barbary pirates I can't judge his conclusions. Thus, the first 400 pages were spent reading the first paragraph of each essay, realizing I didn't know enough to understand what Hitchens would be talking about, and thus skipping to the next. (It does not speak well of me that I had to skip the essays on American history and contemporary authors for lack of understanding, while the first essay I could read in entirety and understand was the one on BJs.)
Things didn't really get better once I understood them. Essays I could follow didn't challenge my thinking, solidify beliefs I already held, or provide particular insights. I didn't find myself slapping my head and thinking "great point!". Shouldn't an essay be doing that?
It wasn't all a loss though. I did enjoy some of the tourist-type essays. Reading about Sudan, Kurdish portion of Iraq, and other travels were interesting. I was just expecting to be moved more by a guy known as a great thinker.
A good part of that blame lies with me - I'm simply not educated enough to judge most of this writing. Hitchens may be making amazing points in analyzing Jefferson's motives for engaging the Barbary pirates, but since I know near nothing about the Barbary pirates I can't judge his conclusions. Thus, the first 400 pages were spent reading the first paragraph of each essay, realizing I didn't know enough to understand what Hitchens would be talking about, and thus skipping to the next. (It does not speak well of me that I had to skip the essays on American history and contemporary authors for lack of understanding, while the first essay I could read in entirety and understand was the one on BJs.)
Things didn't really get better once I understood them. Essays I could follow didn't challenge my thinking, solidify beliefs I already held, or provide particular insights. I didn't find myself slapping my head and thinking "great point!". Shouldn't an essay be doing that?
It wasn't all a loss though. I did enjoy some of the tourist-type essays. Reading about Sudan, Kurdish portion of Iraq, and other travels were interesting. I was just expecting to be moved more by a guy known as a great thinker.