I recently finished it. I skipped some of the more loquacious modern pieces [for instance, I'm interested in atheism, not how fucked up the Abrahamic faiths are], and one or two of the longer Enlightenment pieces, as prose from that era makes my eyes glaze over.
On the whole, the poetry selection was excellent, and the more Hitchens himself stayed out of it, the more I liked it. There were some problems with reference, for instance, one rather long piece was entirely devoted to criticism of another work, not included. I had never heard of David Hume, and I enjoyed the piece about him (and his final days) very much.
Oh, and Marx is an incoherent joke. His use abuse of the construct "A is not B, but BisA" made me want to chuck the whole book at an oncoming train. Also his reference to current events was utterly incomprehensible to anyone who isn't a student of German history of his era (which Hitchens also neglected to elucidate). But I guess it all had to be included for the "Religion is the opiate of the masses" of the line, and it's full expansion—which was interesting.
![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
branchandroot
(no subject)
Date: 2008-07-08 03:04 pm (UTC)On the whole, the poetry selection was excellent, and the more Hitchens himself stayed out of it, the more I liked it. There were some problems with reference, for instance, one rather long piece was entirely devoted to criticism of another work, not included. I had never heard of David Hume, and I enjoyed the piece about him (and his final days) very much.
Oh, and Marx is an incoherent joke. His
useabuse of the construct "A is not B, but B is A" made me want to chuck the whole book at an oncoming train. Also his reference to current events was utterly incomprehensible to anyone who isn't a student of German history of his era (which Hitchens also neglected to elucidate). But I guess it all had to be included for the "Religion is the opiate of the masses" of the line, and it's full expansion—which was interesting.