Our Hitch memorial

December 16, 2011 • 7:24 am

I don’t intend to extol Christopher Hitchens in detail: I’ve done that before, and others are far better than I at expressing our sadness at the passing of this great lion of a man.  But perhaps we can do this as a tribute: take a picture that represents your feelings about Hitchens and his life, and send it to my email address (available via a minute’s Googling) by Sunday morning.  It would be nice if you were in it, but that’s not necessary; just let it represent your memorial to Hitchens.  Do avoid mundane pictures of just his books, as we all have those, and try to be creative.  And let me know how you want to be identified.  Or, if you wish, make a drawing, but a new one.

Amber restoratives immediately suggest themselves.

I’m not offering prizes, as that would be unseemly, but since Hitch had the monopoly on eloquence, let us celebrate his life instead through pictures. I’ll be contributing one too.

26 thoughts on “Our Hitch memorial”

  8. Hitch and Orwell will always be interlinked. I’m not sure how much Hitch consciously modelled his views on Orwell’s – but this clip represents a great tribute to both men.

  9. From my dream-funeral for Hitchens: “Ere goes Chris Hitchens, arse solid man, two thumbs to his mind and eight fingers to his mouth. Badly burned, another nail in the gauguin, he stood on bothsides of selfabuse, for the bodies but against the Head. I hope to see him glorified in this afterlife, stillfighting with the corpus of his Mother Theresa.”

  10. I’ve already said something on this earlier. Here’s what I posted at the New Yorker site, and perhaps best exemplifies my present feelings.

    “I think the most perspicacious nugget of wisdom I learned from CH was that death is neither to be feared, endured, nor celebrated: it is to be experienced as much as one is able to consciously experience that ‘dying of the light’.

    As much as I am saddened at his death, I am also gladdened for having known of him.

    My sincere condolences to his family and friends.

    We have all lost a knight, and I share your grief.”

    I’m sorry, but there’s no picture I could take that would convey my feelings, except one pilfered from that video where CH recommends certain books to a young reader.

    (I want to express my personal thanks to all the wonderful comments re Hitchens’s death. There is sorrow and there is grief. There is also expensive whiskey and cheap vodka. But there is also the acerbic wisdom passed on to us who mourn from the mortal man himself. Take some comfort from that, if you will.)

    Sincere regards,

    Detlef Pelz (aka Michieux, Moochie elsewhere)

  11. 62 years is not enough. Especially for one of such boundless intellect and eloquence. The world needs minds like Hitchens’. He was on my short list of heroes.

    Speaking of memorials, I’m currently working on a musical tribute. As Dr. Coyne wrote, Hitchens owned words. So I thought this would be the best and most meaningful way to express myself. I hope to have it completed soon. Perhaps I’ll put a link to it here.

  14. And let’s please avoid distasteful pictures related to The Missionary Position.

    Sorry, I couldn’t help myself. Hitch will be missed!

  16. Mason Crumpacker’s mother has coined a new word, and I think it is a good one:

    hitchling [hitch-ling]
    noun
    a child void of religious indoctrination who is encouraged to read broadly and to seek the truth unapologetically.

    N.B. A hitchling is not a Christopher Hitchens “fan.”

    She also adds that her own hitchling is very sad today. Here’s the whole post.

  17. I don’t own a camera, and even if I did, likely don’t own the skill to take the photo I would like to. Nevertheless, if I could, I would take the following photo:

    A dark room with a single light illuminating a fine wood table or desk. A book, cover down, clearly finished sits next to an ashtray with an empty package of cigarettes leaning against it. Farther over, an empty glass sits next to an empty bottle lying on it’s side.

    Simplistic, I know, but it’s the image that came to mind when I read that Hitchens had died. We have smoked, or sipped, our last Hitch, but can always turn the book back over to read again.

  20. I am just stricken with grief. I have never identified with a human being so deeply. I almost met him. At a book signing/lecture. The la public library’s author series. bought the tickets last year. Bought the Johnnie Walker Black. Then it was cancelled. Hitch was sick… First i heard of his cancer. opportunity lost…

    The world is at once better for having you and worse for the loss….

  22. it is odd I guess, but I am crying right now because my most awesome and amazing ‘hero’ or whatever you call him died. I don’t think anyone can replace him in a hundredmillion years. It is so bad.

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