A Slug Asks Stephen Fry ' Is it witty to call someone a slug?'

Mr Stephen Fry, whose activities I do not admire, has called me a slug. He recently published the following article on the internet: http://www.stephenfry.uk/2014/09/24/writing-selfie/

 

It contains the following passage:

 

‘I have a feeling that the honesty of some parts of the book will attract the unwelcome attention of certain columnists and commentators. I do not read newspapers as I think is pretty well known, but I expect that Peter Hitchens or Judy Burchill or some other slug will be tweezered out of the little crack of rock they inhabit and told to slime over me, which is a thing they apparently like to do. Well, whatever keeps the little darlings happy. To be hated by the hateful is one of the great achievements in life. What the eye doesn’t see the stomach doesn’t heave over.’

 

I don’t know who this ‘Judy Burchill’ is. I hesitate to suggest an alternative, similar name, in case she isn’t his target. But it’s nice that he gets my name right.

 

Of course, Mr Fry and I have some history of disagreement, though we have met only once, at a memorial event to commemorate my late brother’s life. The meeting led to some controversies, described here  http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2012/04/a-clod-writes-.html and here http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2013/09/that-stephen-fry-moment-revisited.html

 

I confess that there was some provocation. I have striven to popularize the description of Mr Fry (which I found in the ‘Dictionary of National Celebrity’), that he is ‘A stupid person’s idea of what an intelligent person is like’.

 

This has always seemed to me to be a criticism of those who admire Mr Fry and follow him in their millions on Twitter, etc, rather than an attack on Mr Fry himself. Most particularly, it has been my revolt against the BBC, which uses my money and yours (as licence-payers) to give Mr Fry incessant broadcasting opportunities, especially on Radio 4. Radio 4 is one of the few bits of the BBC which still retains a reasonable level of literacy, and it seems to me to inflict more Stephen Fry on its listeners than they can really be said to deserve. Plainly there are some people who like and admire Mr Fry’s work, or (just as importantly) think that they do. And they must be catered for. But it often seems to those who do not love Mr Fry’s work that there is a bit much of him on BBC Radio 4.

 

Mr Fry also took part in what I regard as a tin-eared TV version of P.G.Wodehouse’s stories of Jeeves and Bertie Wooster, which I think any true lover of these stories would surely find painful.  It was also in protest at this, and against what I saw as Mr Fry’s virulent attacks upon Christianity,  that I began quoting the ‘Stupid person’s idea’ quotation.

 

Mr Fry says he does not read the newspapers, so I am not sure how he has become aware of my view, but he plainly has. He was worryingly anxious to meet me at that occasion in Manhattan. He has in the past called me a ‘clod’. Now he calls me a ‘slug’.  I really don’t mind such things.  As I’ve said before, I’ve been insulted by experts, both at my long-ago boarding schools and in modern politics. 'Slug' doesn't really qualify.  My main problem with the epithets ‘clod’ and ‘slug’  is that they aren’t particularly witty – surely it is his effervescent repartee and quick wit which supposedly causes his fans to love him so.

He's quite entitled to say rude things about me, and his freedom to do so is one of the joys of our liberty.   

But I do want to record mild objections to three parts of what Mr Fry has written. The first is the suggestion that I ‘hate’ him. Absolutely not. I am not permitted to do so by my faith, wish him no personal ill and live in hope that he will find peace of mind and contentment, which seem to me to elude him much of the time, and perhaps even better things. The second is the idea that I would ever attack anyone for being honest. The third is the suggestion that I need to be told by anybody to criticise Mr Fry’s words or behaviour, or that anyone has ever instructed me to do so.  

 

Believe me, I do it of my own free will. As for the book, I will wait and see what sort of reception it gets. If it is widely praised, I may compel myself to read it, and publish my thoughts on it here or elsewhere.  If not, well, I would be only too happy if others began to view Mr Fry’s works and actions a bit more critically, and I’d be pleased to leave it to them if possible.