SHUT UP OR GET NAKED

Todd Serencha makes a very good point. (via perpetua)

I think my new project is going to be taking a big dump on the Oscars.

Katha Pollitt, “Regarding Christopher” (The Nation, via The Awl)

At the risk of further distancing myself from my beloved former writing instructor, I’m going to pick at this quotation like a good little vulture skeptic. I think, yes, there is a certain amount of romance surrounding the combination of alcohol and writing, and that Christopher Hitchens was just one in a long and storied bloodline of soused geniuses whose chemical hobbies seemed to be essential personality traits. And I think, yes, the idea that alcohol made Hitchens better at his job, or that it has ever made anyone better at his/her job, is largely an invention of talentless douchebags who like to drink more than they like to work.

But I also think everybody pretty much knows that already, and that reporting it as news to readers of The Nation is pretty silly. And I also think that, even though it was bad for him, and even though it may have negatively affected his career and personal life, and even though a lot of people have a big cob up their asses about the whole subject, drinking was one of Christopher Hitchens’ favorite things to do, and I think there’s nothing wrong with acknowledging that in an honest appraisal of his life. And I think there are a load of socially admirable habits - like religious devotion - for which people are posthumously praised, and for which the entire world suffers immeasurably.