As previously noted, Private Eye doesn’t put its content online, so you can’t go to its website to read UK satirist Craig Brown’s merciless parody of Christopher Hitchens. I have never understood why Hitchens is regarded as a stylist: I like what he says but not the way he says it. He is almost always interesting, but his writing strikes me as overblown and self-regarding – and that is what Brown captures so brilliantly. The piece begins:
I moved into Mart’s sock – where you lived was your “sock”. Your rug was your “hair”. Your knee was still your knee: we couldn’t think of another word for it. We called our penises our “willie winkies” and our shared lavatory “the bog”. There were a lot of brilliantly inventive word games of that kind.There is much more in that vain. So three cheers for Vanity Fair, which reprints the whole thing in full here.
A brilliant parody, although the original is so like self-parody.
ReplyDeleteYep, that's what I have thought for a while. Hitchens's book reviews in the Atlantic over the last few years were what gave me pause - the judgements were well-argued but the phrasing was less well. And the whole "My Favourite Martin" love-in is just embarrassing. But he remains a hero for his bravery under fire.
ReplyDeleteDespite everything, yes.
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