In the book that he was born to write, provocateur and best-selling author Christopher Hitchens inspires future generations of radicals, gadflies, ...
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Jul 16, 2007
Zach
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I loved Hitch before Iraq 2. I'm coming back around to him, but I just pretend he has no opinion on the occupation.
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Jan 03, 2008
Mr. Brammer
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Christopher Hitchens professes a great admiration for Oscar Wilde in this book - mainly for Wilde's wit, but you can see that Hitchens is also influenced by Wilde's public facade. Like Morrissey, it's hard to tell what about Hitchens is real and what is adopted persona - in "Letters to a Young Contrarian" he writes in earnest about the necessity of noconformity to the survival of modern liberal society, but he also likes to show off his breadth of knowledge, his acidity and mercilessn
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Nov 28, 2011
Travis
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This was a really inishgtful and engaging book. Despite its short length (141 pages) I found myself constantly going back over passages (this book has a ton of great quotes). Some of the advice that Hitchens gives his mock student may seem a little cliche in parts, but even there he presents it in such a witty and honest way as to still make it insightful. What I also like about Hitchens is that he uses just the right balance of high mindedness and modesty/self deprication. This book would be us
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Jan 28, 2012
Rick
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This was my third Hitchens in a short span during the fall of 2011. Surprisingly, I didn’t get tired of the journalist’s prose or arguments during this impulsive reading binge, despite the 1000 plus pages in a few weeks span. After his passing, I was even glad to know that there is more Hitchens to be read. Unlike Arguably but like god is not great, Letters to a Young Contrarian is a full-length book, not a collection of independent essays, albeit one that is comprised of short thematic chapters
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Jan 28, 2012
Mangoo
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Not only a witty, intrusive and bright mind, but one of the best English writers as far as elegance, humor, sapidity and lack of redundance are concerned.
That was Hitchens, as unfair as it is to write this just a few days after he was lost. Unfair was the loss, be sure.
He invites the reader here to come with him and his noble cohorts of gentlemen to become a contrarian - not a rebel, as Sartre may have pointed out.
Being a contrarian has its stern discipline, which requires being a More...
That was Hitchens, as unfair as it is to write this just a few days after he was lost. Unfair was the loss, be sure.
He invites the reader here to come with him and his noble cohorts of gentlemen to become a contrarian - not a rebel, as Sartre may have pointed out.
Being a contrarian has its stern discipline, which requires being a More...
Dec 29, 2011
Lisa
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I'm going through a Christopher Hitchens phase right now, saddened by his recent death, although this is probably the last title I will read. This book takes of the form of letters that he writes to the young person who aspires to be an independent thinker, primarily someone who aspires to be a professional writer on politics and religion, or someone who aspires to hold public office or be an activist in the public sphere. Although I like to think of myself as an independent thinker, I found i
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Nov 15, 2010
Scott
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Good advice for anyone living in, what Salman Rushdie calls “a world of timidity” where everyone is trying to be politically correct and where identities are constructed around one’s “offendedness”. Hitchens, in a long tradition of naysayers, dissenters, tell-it-as-it-is contrarians, points out that postulating a special connection between one group of people and their supposed intrinsic traits can run the risk of perpetuating received essentialist concepts of their culture, concepts, for instan
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Feb 04, 2011
Shinynickel
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This is the first thing of Hitchens' that I've read, and it doesn't make a good impression. He's certainly well-educated, and some of the connections and references he make are a pleasure to read, but the book doesn't amount to much beyond that. The conceit of the book (and the larger series of which it is a part) is to use Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet as a model. But Hitchens doesn't present any real guidance, just contradictory assertions and unsupported dismissals of people who don't agree
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Jan 02, 2012
Todd
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To be a contrarian you have to be prepared to:
"Shun the “transcendent” and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don’t be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do More...
"Shun the “transcendent” and all who invite you to subordinate or annihilate yourself. Distrust compassion; prefer dignity for yourself and others. Don’t be afraid to be thought arrogant or selfish. Picture all experts as if they were mammals. Never be a spectator of unfairness or stupidity. Seek out argument and disputation for their own sake; the grave will supply plenty of time for silence. Suspect your own motives, and all excuses. Do More...
Feb 09, 2012
James
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Like many others dismayed at his stance on the Iraq War, his defence of the Bush administration and his bewildering pursuit of Bill Clinton's personal morality (a theme raised again in this book), I haven't always found it easy to like Christopher Hitchens. I'm sure he wouldn't have had it any other way, but what are we to make of a man whose diversity of public statements so deftly evades easy categorisation? What to do with a man who lambasts the manipulative pretensions of the Dalai Lama and
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Sep 18, 2011
Daniel
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As intelligent as I think myself, some areas of this book were difficult to grasp. I will read this again (and I can already say now that the second reading wont be the last) after I know more about what Hitchens was talking about. I think this is part of the point of the Letters, to widen your field of reading, and to find out about some things you didn't even know existed. A lot of the book does feel like a reading list, and of this I am glad. When I return to the Letters again, I hope to
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Nov 21, 2011
Shaun
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Current events tell of many stories where the voices ( or votes) of the people are being hijacked by the political parties. It so happens that people who don't further inquire into the political soundbytes that are spewed, are in effect disenfranchised from the political process and unwittingly conform to misinformation.
In this book of we find Christopher Hitchens engaged in a series of letters, written in earnest prose about the necessity of nonconformity for the survival of th More...
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Mar 20, 2011
Martin
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The headline is a bit simplistic, but basically this is Hitchins expanding on the thought processes of the great minds he recalls. Which I see as a good thing, since variety (in thought and belief) is the essence of learning, as long as you are open minded. Which I believe some of the reviewers were not. I disagreed with about 30% of the book, but at no point was turned off by Hitchins views since it stimulated my own thoughts on previously untapped but timeless subjects. The text sampled from a
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Dec 08, 2010
Pip
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Here the plummy voice of the erudite guides you in the hope that you will think for yourselves.There is often a elegent turn of a phrase and mild warnings to be aware of tautology. Honestly this work is a rallying cry for argument and civility and that you should organize with points of contestion and the "how to" of combativity in your arsenal to wage a unending conflict. ..."because if you are not then the 'center' will be occupied and defined without your having helped to decid
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Oct 14, 2008
Also, Safety Math
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I loved reading this book. There's probably no political commentary I enjoy reading (or watching, for that matter) more than that of Christopher Hitchens. No one is quite as good at being condescending and disagreeable and intelligent and hilarious all at once. His talent for making people look stupid is enviable.
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Aug 09, 2009
A.J.
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There are two basic ways to approach this book. First, there's reading it as an inspirational tract on living a life of contrariness and dissent and all the baggage that comes with such a life. Secondly, one could read this as a treatise on several of Christopher Hitchens' favorite topics, ranging from misspent socialist youth to his journalism days to the preview of coming anti-religious attractions phase.
In both cases, the book fails. To the first option, I'm not sure anyone will w More...
In both cases, the book fails. To the first option, I'm not sure anyone will w More...
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Dec 30, 2008
Rebecca
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This book is a series of letters to a hypothetical young person who wishes to be a contrarian -- a rebel, a radical, a boat-rocker. Each letter is a brief essay on some point that Hitchens feels is essential for being a good dissident in today's society: traveling the world, discarding religion and seeking truth, speaking up against injustice, debating for the sake of keeping disagreement alive in society, distrusting Utopias and the predictable boredom of imagined Paradises, dealing with charg
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Dec 28, 2011
Ed
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I wasn't sure I'd like this when it arrived. It was thinner than I'd imagined, and its format -- letters to an imaginary correspondent -- is admittedly a little contrived. But what a great read. Agree with Hitchens or not, and on a range of issues, it is hard to argue with many of his principles. When Milosovic's policies in the Balkans led to the massacres of ethnic groups there, Hitchens was one of those calling out the abuses while the governments of many developed nations ignored these abuse
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Apr 21, 2011
Angel
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This is a brief book about what it takes to be a good contrarian. I think in an era where either people favor being loud, obnoxious, and ill-informed (or just willfully ignorant) or the intelligent people tend to just remain quiet to avoid, as Peter from the film Office Space would say, "avoid being hassled," Hitchens gives advice on how to stand up for something. Argue. Question everything. Do so well prepared. Being well read also helps. The book is written in a style very much like
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Dec 16, 2009
Scott
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This book underscores what I like about Christopher Hitchens: he confronts every ideology, pissing off both liberals and conservatives. If I don't always agree with him, I always admire his iconoclasm and his style of disputation.
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Dec 01, 2011
Upom
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The book seems rather odd as an advice book, as it really doesn't deal with a profession, but a state of mind. However, the need for a contrarian state of mind seems important in all free-inquiry societies, no matter how seemingly innocuous an issue is. And in some sense, this is where Hitchens shines as a person. Providing historical examples of men like Emile Zola, Alexsandr Solzhenitsyn, and Oscar Wilde, Hitchens shows not only why contrarianism is important, but how to stay a strong contrari
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Jan 06, 2012
Corey
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Throughout the book, he makes a handful of oblique references to major political events he was directly involved in, such as the struggle against Apartheid and the canonisation of Mother Theresa. It makes for a thrilling read. As soon as possible, I would like to read his memoir Hitch-22. The thing I would like to point out is that, even if Christopher Hitchens had never ventured beyond his front door, on the strength of his writing alone he could be considered one of the great minds of his gene
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Oct 27, 2010
Phil
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Sharp and erudite, Hitchens discusses the real challenges faced by someone who decides to become a radical. The book's timing (early 2001) makes the book difficult to level with Hitchens' later decision to be one of the most vocal cheerleaders of the War on Terror and especially the Iraq War. I don't know how this book would look if it was released later, and I wish the library had a newer copy hopefully with some of Hitchens' justifications for his apparent reversal of position. Worth a read
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Jul 28, 2011
This was a fast and easy read. If you have read any of his other works, especially his more recent religious polemics, it is clear that this book formed the foundation for those books. Hitchens takes up the cause for rational argument and dispute for their own sake, and for the importance of the dissenter to the course of history, citing examples from many of the worst chapters of humanity.
Stylistically, fans of Hitchens classic fire spitting wit will not be disappointed.
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Stylistically, fans of Hitchens classic fire spitting wit will not be disappointed.
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Jul 12, 2011
Chris
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I really liked this book, the title of which is a satirical nod to the more pure and poetic Letters To a Young Poet by Rainer Rilke (which I read right before this book). I found it to be fun, challenging, intelligent, and revealing. It was an interesting study into who Hitchens’ really is, trappings aside (mostly). A lot of speakers cloak their elitism and disdain for their opponents behind a flimsy façade of tolerance or courtesy, but Hitchens’ quiddity is that he says what he really means—and
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Oct 31, 2011
Evan
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Every once in awhile one's brain gets a kick-start and sometimes the resulting vibration opens a stubbornly closed door. Revelations ensue.
It happened many years ago when I was a college freshman, under the tutelage of philosophy 101 professor, Gary Boelkins, at Marquette University in Milwaukee, as I began to grasp the concepts of Plato. One minute I was baffled, the next minute a light bulb (or fire, so as not to be anachronistic) went on and the cave was illuminated.
Hitche More...
It happened many years ago when I was a college freshman, under the tutelage of philosophy 101 professor, Gary Boelkins, at Marquette University in Milwaukee, as I began to grasp the concepts of Plato. One minute I was baffled, the next minute a light bulb (or fire, so as not to be anachronistic) went on and the cave was illuminated.
Hitche More...
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Dec 29, 2010
Martin
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This book has what you always wanted: to have Christopher Hitchens as your own personal epistolarian, the king of pen pals. There is also the added bonus of not having to expend effort writing replies as these are already presumed by Hitch.
A contrarian is perhaps what Hitchens would describe himself as, essentially someone who argues against a majority, established opinion. What is contained in this book is a series of letters from Hitchens giving his advice and experience from a lif More...
A contrarian is perhaps what Hitchens would describe himself as, essentially someone who argues against a majority, established opinion. What is contained in this book is a series of letters from Hitchens giving his advice and experience from a lif More...
Mar 31, 2008
Andy
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Ashamedly my introduction to Christopher Hitchens was watching C-SPAN on weekends at the beginning of the Iraq war. Hitchens was an irascible supporter of the war with arguments that left opponents baffled and myself writhing with pleasure. Admittedly I have not, until now, read any of his work. I came to this polemic tome by way of "Letters to a Young Conservative".
Lest you be off-put by this introduction, Hitchens was also a Socialist--though he acknowledges its utter dea More...
Lest you be off-put by this introduction, Hitchens was also a Socialist--though he acknowledges its utter dea More...
Feb 11, 2008
matt
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Brilliant!
The book I've read more times than any other. I consistently go back to it when in times of crisis or when I need a mental recharging.
The thing I love about Hitchens is the fact that no matter what you think about him, he has lived a full life. There's no stone unturned intellectually, verbally, hell- geographically. He truly has read and seen and pretty much done it all.
Nobody's going to agree with him 100%- I don't, and I'm one of his b More...
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Aug 10, 2011
What do I think?! I think I just got this in the mail today from AMAZING Amazon. As President Lincoln declared before reading the Emancipation Proclamation: "I'm, like, totally super-stoked to read it!"
Review to follow...knowing me, that mean by tomorrow sometime.
Oh...what I would give to actually have a life; anyone know of any companies that'd pay me for poorly written, insipid, highly biased book-reviews? If so, letta brudda know!
Aforementioned lameness More...
Review to follow...knowing me, that mean by tomorrow sometime.
Oh...what I would give to actually have a life; anyone know of any companies that'd pay me for poorly written, insipid, highly biased book-reviews? If so, letta brudda know!
Aforementioned lameness More...
