Hitchens and Paxman

Yesterday's Newsnight special.

Paxman seems, if not quite deferential, certainly a little awed in the presence of a man - more or less a contemporary - who, frankly, has made more of a mark both as a journalist and a writer.

I suppose it's always a fall-back position for interviewers to claim that they're not there necessarily as themselves but rather as proxies for the average viewer-on-the-couch, but still, Paxman's fairly predictable questioning didn't particularly inspire, and nor did his seemingly genuine shock that someone could actually bring themselves to criticise Mother Teresa, or mock the Koran and the Bible:

“Saying you find the Koran laughable: in what way does that help the spread of reason?”

“Well, I think mockery of religion is one of the most essential things. One of the beginnings of human emancipation is the ability to laugh at things.”

Hitchens is still, thank goodness, in fine form.

Comments

[tolkein]

You are surprised that Paxman could be shocked by Hitchens's attitude to Mother Theresa. Perhaps Paxman has some sensibility in him, unlike Hitchens. It takes a peculiar type of person to criticise people who care for the untouchables in Indian society whilst living a hard drinking louche life in darkest New York. I'm afraid that I regard Hitchens as morally disgusting.

[Mick H]

Well I regard Mother Teresa as morally disgusting. So we rather differ there, I'm afraid.

[tolkein]

In what way is caring for the homeless and untouchables, whom no-one else cared about, morally disgusting? Do tell.

[Mick H]

Well this is barely worth the effort. I'd say read Hitchens' book - http://www.amazon.co.uk/Missionary-Position-Mother-Teresa-Practice/dp/185984054X/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top - but of course you won't.

In brief then: a woman who built her much trumpeted reputation for sanctity on the suffering of others, which she believed was A Good Thing. "I think it is very beautiful for the poor to accept their lot, to share it with the passion of Christ. I think the world is being much helped by the suffering of the poor people." She flew round the world collecting millions, very little of which went to alleviate suffering: pain-killers and proper medical treatment for her little pet sufferers were right out of the question. They were there, after all, to burnish her piety. Instead she hobnobbed with corrupt dictators (the Duvaliers, Enver Hoxha) and fraudsters, and showed her love for the common people by declaring that contraception was as bad as abortion, ie murder. So, yes, a deeply unpleasant woman.

I honestly don't know why you keep commenting here, Tolkien, with the air of an affronted maiden aunt, every time I deal with these kinds of subjects. I make no secret of my atheism, nor of my admiration - by and large - for Christopher Hitchens. Not that I mind, of course, but when you say you find Hitchens "morally disgusting" I do, as I say, have to wonder why you bother. Or indeed why I bother replying.

[Ms Baroque]

I've never expected to agree with Christopher Hitchens on everything - and I still maintain that there isn't a sentence in that religion book of his that wouldn't make just as much sense if you subsituted for "religion" the phrase "human nature." I think he is too intransigent on the subject. But he's a Marxist. I admire him deeply. He's a very sentient man with a better brain than most two people put together; and a very highly principled one, and that's really what counts.

This interview is hard watching, the way he looks right now, the weight loss - there's a terrible heaviness about the interview, an unspokenness even among all the pointblank questions, and it is terribly poignant. I wouldn't worry about Paxman's questions; they're perfect foils to give Hitchens a chance to state his case, and come in with some beautiful clinchers; more worrying is the Final Curtain aspect of it all, with Paxman practically talking about him to his face in the past tense... Still, an interview like this will have been agreed between them before the conversation, and as Hitchens says, he is aiming to de-mystify the thing. He is astonishing. I wish I could afford his book.

It's just very sad. We need his razor-sharp intelligence, his energy, his trenchancy. There isn't anyone else around like that.

I want to say a version of what Frank O'Hara writes at the end of his poem about Lana Turner collapsing at a party: We love you Lana Turner get up!

[Mick H]

Yes, I was perhaps a liitle harsh on Paxman. As you say, he gave Hitchens the space to make the points he wanted to make.