I'll let Hitchens speak for himself. He asks some poignant questions about the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and addresses the fallacy that we can and should only fight one war at a time.
HITCHENS: The War between the Wars
You need to sit listening to the silence
2 days ago
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2 comments:
wow.
Only Christopher Hitchens takes 48 words and two logical leaps to say what other writers would in 24.
What I'm saying is, despite all indications to the contrary, the high esteem in which he is held, frequent publication of his work, wide-ranging publication of said work, his status as a public intellectual, he seems to violate the simple rule of brevity being the 100% most effective way to communicate complex ideas. In other words, he is unduly and unnecessarily verbose.
See what I mean? Too many words. Sometimes interesting, but always too many words, plus usually a big jump or two. Just my opinion.
plus, I have no idea how to punctuate phrased list that is that long. Do you use a semi colon?
I would agree about his verbosity. But I think that's one of things I like about him. Though I can see how others may be turned off a little. That being said it is his British nature. American are more to the point. We change the language more, but they love the language more. When you have a gift (and vocabulary) there is an egotistical need to use it. And I don't think there is any argument that Hitchen's has a wee-bit of an ego.
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