The outpouring of sentiment from the in-tray has been immense and ongoing, so it's only fitting that we give readers the final say for today. Hitch would love that. One writes:
I don't cry. Without fail I sleep interrupted, but for some reason tonight I awoke and got online for a bit after a drink of water. I read the very sad news and immediately went the Dish. Thank you for sharing what you wrote. I've been sitting here in the dark softly weeping.
Another writes:
Sorry if this topic is too personal, Andrew. I do not want to be intrusive. I have lost friends and cannot quite put in words or even hold consistent thoughts about it. I just wanted to send you a huge teary hug. I started to read Arguably yesterday. I had already read many of the essays there, but I had to keep reading him. Today I woke up to this news, went directly to the Dish to read it only in your words, and cried for the best bastard damn writer who made me nod in agreement as much as shake my head in exasperation. This one goes to him, to you, to your friendship, and to all the writings, passions, ideals, debates, disagreements, infuriating facts, pet peeves, anger, love, wonder and humanity that each of you shared with all of us.
Another:
I am truly sorry for the loss of your friend. I came to know about him through you and how deeply you cared for each other. I can only hope that his passing was peaceful and that he had his own version of "Oh, wow! ..."
Another:
The concept of death bothers me most when we lose people of Hitchens' intellect. In him we had a mind of such depth and vibrance and complexity, and now he is - as a friend of mine put it upon the death of his father - "nowhere to be found". What writings and broadcasts he contributed are still there, sure. But the wellspring of knowledge that he was constantly refreshing has ceased to exist. I know this is an obvious statement, but that just doesn't seem fair - to build all that up, only to have it extinguished. Fuck death.
Another:
To use Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s phrase, "And so it goes". Lives were enriched, the good fight was fought, and if there IS an anthropocentric Heaven, you know he is there, kicking up dust and arguing with God.
Another:
I emailed yesterday about your recent thread on Hitchens, I hope it did not come off as rude. It is difficult to always remember that public figures are friends and colleagues firstly, and public symbols only after that.
Upon hearing the news I thought of something Vonnegut reported having said before a humanist organization when Asimov died: "Isaac is in heaven now," by way of honoring him through dark humor (both, of course, did not believe in an afterlife). While I, too, have no faith in an afterlife, I can imagine the spirit of Christopher Hitchens saying, "Rumors of my deathbed conversion have been greatly exaggerated."
Another:
I've spent the couples hours crying over a man I never met and only knew through his writings. This probably says something about my propensity towards sentimentality, but I would like to think that it says more about Hitch's prose. I came to find Hitch while looking for religious debates online and was so captivated by his charisma and eloquence that I made it a point to read as much of his work as possible. One could say that I came for the atheism, but stayed for the whole package. His weekly Slate column was a ritual, which was often the best part of my otherwise mundane Mondays. It is truly a marvel how the written word - when used masterfully - can make a stranger appear like an old acquaintance. I will truly miss him. If there is to be a public memorial, please keep us updated.
Another:
As a straight man, I'm not going to pretend to know what it's like to be gay, and to have to deal with all the difficulties arising from a society that still can't fully tolerate homosexuals in its midst. That being said, I am part of a small, distrusted minority myself, being an atheist. Consistent polling shows atheists are even less trusted than Muslims in this country, and while no one will ever try to pass a Constitutional amendment banning me from marrying the person I love, I learned to keep my thoughts on God under wraps with the women I've dated until we were well enough into our relationships.
Hitchens' greatest effect on me was to get me to be more proud of myself as an atheist, and come out of that "closet". He made me realize that those of us who subscribe to no religious beliefs (some 16% of the US population) need to be out there and vocal about it in a time when one major political party in this country has been overtaken by a deranged religious fundamentalism. We atheists can no longer hide from view in a time when an alliance of end-times Christian fanatics in Washington and messianic Jews in the West Bank and Jerusalem seem bent on bringing holy war to the all-too willing apocalyptic mullahs in Tehran.
Another:
Although I only once got to shake his hand (while nervously, star-struck babbling and knocking over his thankfully-empty water bottle), I can say with certainty that, in my 32 years on this dustball, no professor, friend or mentor was more important in my proper instruction on how to think (as opposed to what to think) than the writings of Christopher Hitchens. The shear force of his living, breathing example of unwavering committment to intellectual honesty has only just begun to resonate through our pinprick corner of the cosmos ...
Another:
I remember being a sophomore in High School, a little black kid on the south side of Chicago, and being reduced to tears while trying to fend off verbal attacks from my best friends, and it all stemmed from my telling them that I did not believe in god. I remember desperately thinking, "I'm not fighting well enough. I'm alone on this and I can't defend myself!" and the tears were borne out of a frustration that if I were only somehow better, then I could at least make my friends respect my point of view, if not see what I saw.
It wasn't until I went to college that I found Mr. Hitchen's work, and where I initially went to school his words were rather fortifying. He was flawed, and I don't know what argument you could make that he was the best of men, but he was the kind of fighter that I wanted, and still want, to be. He was a man so comfortable and assured in what he knew that you could tell that he didn't just want to just challenge the thought or the line of the moment, but more to dominate the entire basis of an idea that it left his opposition questioning the foundations of their own argument. I know that at least for me, and a few others I know, there was some mean-spirited satisfaction in having the tables turned, but over and above that was the elation in finally having not only a voice, but one that can and would be heard.
Another:
My all time Hitch favorite was a discussion about the existence of God with Jon Meacham. It was a joy to behold no matter how you felt about the issue - Hitch, always bunched over, defending the soft underbelly of his never seen vulnerability. (And yet he always looked so vulnerable. How did he manage that?)
Another:
I've been reading and enjoying your work for years, but I've never felt compelled to write until now. I know you'll get a million of these, but here's my Hitch story:
I once went to hear Hitchens speak in San Francisco. Afterward, he was signing books. I was broke and didn't have enough money for a book, but I got in line just to thank him for his articles denouncing Kissinger, which meant a lot to me and my parents, who were both deeply affected by the Vietnam War. I told him all this. He listened - he seemed as good at listening as speaking - and he asked me all kinds of questions. We talked for a bit, and finally he asked if he could sign something. I told him I didn't have enough money for a book. Without hesitating, he pulled one off the pile, asked for my parents' names, and inscribed the book to them. One of the best moments of my life. I loved the man. He's left the world to a bunch of fucking lightweights, but we have to try our best.
Another:
I know you'll get a lot of mail on this today, and there will be a lot of talk about Hitchens legacy for the obvious things; his atheism, his distrust of naive liberal equivocation re: Iraq and Islamic fundamentalism. But I think more needs to be said of his prose, particularly in his shorter reviews. When I was in my early twenties I first discovered Hitchens in the back of The Atlantic alongside Ben Schwartz and Sandra Tsing Loh. More so than any other writer I can think of, save perhaps Martin Amis (with whom of course he was good friends), Hitchens' work whether I agreed with it or not (his book reviews were marvelous) inspired me to want to write each and every time I read it.
It was so free of the nervous, sterile magazine writing that is too often the standard in the print publishing world. Hitch, whether from a boozy after glow or whatever, said fuck you to all that, avoided easy references or throw away cliches. The vast, joyous creativity behind it spoke to something in my head and encouraged me to forge on whenever the editor in my brain (or sometimes in real life) told me to pick up sticks and try something else. Today I work at a media company as a sports writer among other more gifted people, and I'm amazed how at all levels of the professional writing world how we can all cite various Hitchens pieces we've read, whether in Slate, The Nation, or The Atlantic. It's too often said but in Hitchens' case it applied: he was a writers' writer.
One more:
If you get hold of his new e-mail, please tell him that one fan just smoked a delicious cigarette, five years after quitting, in his honor.
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