Letters to a Young Contrarian
Encyclopedia
Letters to a Young Contrarian is Christopher Hitchens
' contribution, released in 2001
, to the Art of Mentoring
series published
by Basic Books
.
Inspired by his students at The New School
in New York
and "a challenge that was made to me in the early months of the year 2000," the book is addressed directly to the reader
— "My Dear X" — as a series of missives exploring a range of "contrarian," radical, independent or "dissident" positions, and advocating the attitudes best suited to cultivating and to holding them. Hitchens touches on his own ideological development, the nature of debate
and humour
, the ways in which language
is slyly manipulated in apology for offensive and ridiculous positions, and how to see through this and recognise it whenever it arises in oneself.
Throughout Hitchens makes reference to those dissenters who have inspired him over the years, including Emile Zola
, Rosa Parks
, George Orwell
and Václav Havel
. The book also contains some of the critiques of religion
and religious belief which Hitchens would later develop in his polemic
God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.
, which compared Hitchens's efforts favourably with those of Alan Dershowitz
(whose Letters to a Young Lawyer opened the series alongside them), Alexander Star offered a generally friendly critique. "At his best," he wrote, "Hitchens exhibits precisely the combination of indignation and intellect that he recommends to others." That said,
The Village Voices Joy Press
, reviewing the book alongside Martin Amis
's The War Against Cliché
also tendered tempered praise:
"Hitchens," noted The Progressive
,
Christopher Hitchens
Christopher Eric Hitchens is an Anglo-American author and journalist whose books, essays, and journalistic career span more than four decades. He has been a columnist and literary critic at The Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Slate, World Affairs, The Nation, Free Inquiry, and became a media fellow at the...
' contribution, released in 2001
2001 in literature
The year 2001 in literature involved some significant events and new books.-Events:* The film version of J. R. R. Tolkien's classic book, The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, is released to movie theaters...
, to the Art of Mentoring
Art of Mentoring
The Art of Mentoring series was a series of books published by Basic Books from 2001 to 2008, beginning with Alan Dershowitz's Letters to a Young Lawyer and Christopher Hitchens' Letters to a Young Contrarian. The books were all titled in the form "Letters to a Young ____", in the spirit of Rainer...
series published
Publishing
Publishing is the process of production and dissemination of literature or information—the activity of making information available to the general public...
by Basic Books
Basic Books
Basic Books is a book publisher founded in 1952 and located in New York. It publishes books in the fields of psychology, philosophy, economics, science, politics, sociology, current affairs, and history.-History:...
.
Inspired by his students at The New School
The New School
The New School is a university in New York City, located mostly in Greenwich Village. From its founding in 1919 by progressive New York academics, and for most of its history, the university was known as the New School for Social Research. Between 1997 and 2005 it was known as New School University...
in New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
and "a challenge that was made to me in the early months of the year 2000," the book is addressed directly to the reader
Reading (process)
Reading is a complex cognitive process of decoding symbols for the intention of constructing or deriving meaning . It is a means of language acquisition, of communication, and of sharing information and ideas...
— "My Dear X" — as a series of missives exploring a range of "contrarian," radical, independent or "dissident" positions, and advocating the attitudes best suited to cultivating and to holding them. Hitchens touches on his own ideological development, the nature of debate
Debate
Debate or debating is a method of interactive and representational argument. Debate is a broader form of argument than logical argument, which only examines consistency from axiom, and factual argument, which only examines what is or isn't the case or rhetoric which is a technique of persuasion...
and humour
Humour
Humour or humor is the tendency of particular cognitive experiences to provoke laughter and provide amusement...
, the ways in which language
Language
Language may refer either to the specifically human capacity for acquiring and using complex systems of communication, or to a specific instance of such a system of complex communication...
is slyly manipulated in apology for offensive and ridiculous positions, and how to see through this and recognise it whenever it arises in oneself.
Throughout Hitchens makes reference to those dissenters who have inspired him over the years, including Emile Zola
Émile Zola
Émile François Zola was a French writer, the most important exemplar of the literary school of naturalism and an important contributor to the development of theatrical naturalism...
, Rosa Parks
Rosa Parks
Rosa Louise McCauley Parks was an African-American civil rights activist, whom the U.S. Congress called "the first lady of civil rights", and "the mother of the freedom movement"....
, George Orwell
George Orwell
Eric Arthur Blair , better known by his pen name George Orwell, was an English author and journalist...
and Václav Havel
Václav Havel
Václav Havel is a Czech playwright, essayist, poet, dissident and politician. He was the tenth and last President of Czechoslovakia and the first President of the Czech Republic . He has written over twenty plays and numerous non-fiction works, translated internationally...
. The book also contains some of the critiques of religion
Religion
Religion is a collection of cultural systems, belief systems, and worldviews that establishes symbols that relate humanity to spirituality and, sometimes, to moral values. Many religions have narratives, symbols, traditions and sacred histories that are intended to give meaning to life or to...
and religious belief which Hitchens would later develop in his polemic
Polemic
A polemic is a variety of arguments or controversies made against one opinion, doctrine, or person. Other variations of argument are debate and discussion...
God is not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything.
Reception
In The New York Times Book ReviewThe New York Times Book Review
The New York Times Book Review is a weekly paper-magazine supplement to The New York Times in which current non-fiction and fiction books are reviewed. It is one of the most influential and widely read book review publications in the industry. The offices are located near Times Square in New York...
, which compared Hitchens's efforts favourably with those of Alan Dershowitz
Alan Dershowitz
Alan Morton Dershowitz is an American lawyer, jurist, and political commentator. He has spent most of his career at Harvard Law School where in 1967, at the age of 28, he became the youngest full professor of law in its history...
(whose Letters to a Young Lawyer opened the series alongside them), Alexander Star offered a generally friendly critique. "At his best," he wrote, "Hitchens exhibits precisely the combination of indignation and intellect that he recommends to others." That said,
An idea's unpopularity does not make it true. Nor is it necessarily admirable or courageous to break with one's allies. Hitchens's endorsement of Kenneth StarrKenneth StarrKenneth Winston "Ken" Starr is an American lawyer and educational administrator who has also been a federal judge. He is best known for his investigation of figures during the Clinton administration....
may have been boldly heterodox in his own circle, but it was heartily applauded in others. In the end, the romance of marginality can easily exceed its reasons. There is something awry when a well-rewarded columnistColumnistA columnist is a journalist who writes for publication in a series, creating an article that usually offers commentary and opinions. Columns appear in newspapers, magazines and other publications, including blogs....
for Vanity FairVanity Fair (magazine)Vanity Fair is a magazine of pop culture, fashion, and current affairs published by Condé Nast. The present Vanity Fair has been published since 1983 and there have been editions for four European countries as well as the U.S. edition. This revived the title which had ceased publication in 1935...
speaks of being "an exile or outcast on a remote shore." OvidOvidPublius Ovidius Naso , known as Ovid in the English-speaking world, was a Roman poet who is best known as the author of the three major collections of erotic poetry: Heroides, Amores, and Ars Amatoria...
did not have an expense account.
The Village Voices Joy Press
Joy Press
Joy Press is a writer and editor. In the late 80s she wrote music criticism for American magazines and for the English weekly music paper Melody Maker. In 1996 she became the editor of the Village Voice literary supplement, VLS. Press later became the chief book critic and TV critic for the...
, reviewing the book alongside Martin Amis
Martin Amis
Martin Louis Amis is a British novelist, the author of many novels including Money and London Fields . He is currently Professor of Creative Writing at the Centre for New Writing at the University of Manchester, but will step down at the end of the 2010/11 academic year...
's The War Against Cliché
The War Against Cliché
The War Against Cliché is an anthology of essays, book reviews and literary criticism from the British author Martin Amis. The collection received the National Book Critics Circle award in 2001.-Title:...
also tendered tempered praise:
Letters shows Hitchens's best and worst sides. A born contrarian, he makes entertaining mincemeat of self-satisfied politicians, and shreds received ideas and media-spun consensus with a fearlessness that is invaluable in our mealymouthed punditocracy. But there are times when that innate oppositional streak seems purely knee-jerk [...]. Hitchens's stridency and certainty will always be politically potent, but Amis's willingness to commit his vulnerability and confusion to the page ultimately makes him the more subtle and resonant writer. Letters is a primer on How to Be Christopher Hitchens. The War Against Cliché is a motley heap of literary judgments that nevertheless offers us a peek at the evolution of Martin Amis.
"Hitchens," noted The Progressive
The Progressive
The Progressive is an American monthly magazine of politics, culture and progressivism with a pronounced liberal perspective on some issues. Known for its pacifism, it has strongly opposed military interventions, such as the US-led invasion of Iraq in 2003. The magazine also devotes much coverage...
,
published his usual stack of important books during the course of 2001. Most noted was his caseThe Trial of Henry KissingerThe Trial of Henry Kissinger is Christopher Hitchens' examination of the alleged war crimes of Henry Kissinger, the National Security Advisor and later Secretary of State for President Nixon and President Ford...
for the prosecution of Henry KissingerHenry KissingerHeinz Alfred "Henry" Kissinger is a German-born American academic, political scientist, diplomat, and businessman. He is a recipient of the Nobel Peace Prize. He served as National Security Advisor and later concurrently as Secretary of State in the administrations of Presidents Richard Nixon and...
for war crimes. History's least deserving Nobel Peace PrizeNobel Peace PrizeThe Nobel Peace Prize is one of the five Nobel Prizes bequeathed by the Swedish industrialist and inventor Alfred Nobel.-Background:According to Nobel's will, the Peace Prize shall be awarded to the person who...
recipient was forced to respond to Hitchens's proposal, and that alone could have made The Trial of Henry Kissinger the standout Hitchens text of the year. Yet, it is not. The finest book by Hitchens, and possibly the finest book of the year, is a short tome on how to assault contemporary hypocrisiesHypocrisyHypocrisy is the state of pretending to have virtues, moral or religious beliefs, principles, etc., that one does not actually have. Hypocrisy involves the deception of others and is thus a kind of lie....
by the man who has taken on every deity from Mother TeresaMother TeresaMother Teresa , born Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu , was a Roman Catholic nun of Albanian ethnicity and Indian citizenship, who founded the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta, India, in 1950...
to Princess Di. Letters to a Young Contrarian [...] is a rough mix of autobiographyAutobiographyAn autobiography is a book about the life of a person, written by that person.-Origin of the term:...
and intellectual self-helpSelf-helpSelf-help, or self-improvement, is a self-guided improvement—economically, intellectually, or emotionally—often with a substantial psychological basis. There are many different self-help movements and each has its own focus, techniques, associated beliefs, proponents and in some cases, leaders...
adviceAdvice (opinion)Advice is a form of relating personal or institutional opinions, belief systems, values, recommendations or guidance about certain situations relayed in some context to another person, group or party often offered as a guide to action and/or conduct...
. It is delicious because it showcases Hitchens at his most savage and wise (he reveals a warm spot for the under-appreciated utopian radicalismPolitical radicalismThe term political radicalism denotes political principles focused on altering social structures through revolutionary means and changing value systems in fundamental ways...
of William MorrisWilliam MorrisWilliam Morris 24 March 18343 October 1896 was an English textile designer, artist, writer, and socialist associated with the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood and the English Arts and Crafts Movement...
and his circle). Above all, Letters to a Young Contrarian is necessary for its exploration of the role of the dissenter in a time of too much politenessPolitenessPoliteness is best expressed as the practical application of good manners or etiquette. It is a culturally-defined phenomenon, and therefore what is considered polite in one culture can sometimes be quite rude or simply eccentric in another cultural context....
. "Seek out argument and disputation for its own sake," Hitchens urges. "The grave will provide plenty of time for silence."