1. Mailer pseudo-kerfuffle follows a pattern: there's a type of male writer who tends to be a star when alive & then goes into reputational decline soon after death: macho, two-fisted, sometimes substance abusing: Hemingway, Hunter Thompson, Mailer, Harlan Ellison, Hitchens.
-
-
3. Hitchens is a particularly interesting case. The 10th anniversary of his death (Dec. 15, 2011) was last month and there is a flurry of attempts to reevaluate, shore up or restore, notably a
@graydoncarter piece &@BenBurgis' new book.pic.twitter.com/3F73pJawbA
Show this thread -
4. If I had to bet, I'd say that basis for a Hitchens' revival will be on the literary essays (mainly from Atlantic & LRB, best seen in his book Unacknowledged Legislators). The journalism was mostly too tied to topical &, particularly post 9/11 stuff doesn't hold up.
Show this thread -
5. Oddly, Hitchens' atheists polemics also seem time-bound: The Old Atheists (say Bertrand Russell) were philosophical & sturdy. The New Atheists were very much of a piece with era of post 9/11 Islamophobia & liberal worries about Bush's public piety.
Show this thread -
6. Hitchens was once a name to conjure with & his legacy is still unsettled. What is living and what is dead in his oeuvre?
@bellye66 & I sat down to talk some Hitchens:https://jeetheer.substack.com/p/podcast-what-happened-to-christopher?r=bh54&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email …Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
Ellison in particular, he's just *gone*
-
It's particularly striking because the other 1960s New Wave science fiction writers who were once his peer are now canonical: Ballard, Dick, Le Guin, Delany, Tiptree.
- Show replies
New conversation -
-
-
I want to stand up a little for Ellison, whose essays definitely had much of the aggressive and bombastic "penis-writing," but whose fiction was often empathetic and and nuanced. I don't think he'll get a revival like Hemingway's, but his fiction stands separate from his bombast.
-
i agree that it does, but i also think he's a vastly poorer writer (with a barer imagination) than ballard and delaney, for instance. i think they've held up over him for very good reason
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
Consider the detective/mystery novel has replaced these male writers’ allure. P.S. Le Carré will not fall out of favor, Imho, but he’s underestimated by the literati anyway.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
-
-
Hemingway was also an exceptional writer, though. The others were clever, or even good, but nowhere close to Hemingway.
Thanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.