It strikes me only now that I wasn't writing at the time and so never took the time to note my sorrow properly. I still visit the sites every day for news on the Hitch. Long ago I realized that, no, what was written has been written and what was broadcast on YouTube is multiplying no more. But it's a ritual, a mourning, an homage.
So prolific was the Hitch, writing constantly for Slate, the Atlantic, Vanity Fair, Free Inquiry, his next book, his latest exchange, speaking publicly at debates, on television, at signings and in interviews. December 16th 2011 was a doorstop. I honoured him in my own way, a gesture undoubtedly shared by many, by reading and toasting a glass of Johnnie Walker Black with friends, "the greatest blended Scotch in the history of the world...breakfast of champions".
More than once I heard the Hitch talk about the pillars of free thought: logic, reason, and irony. I struggled with this last one. Certainly a good trait to cultivate, but a pillar of one's life? Those close to the Hitch have surfaced a selection of his notes that will appear in his final book, Mortality, which has been on pre-order since the morning of its announcement. Perhaps my favourite is the following:
Misery of seeing oneself on old videos or YouTubes…Here it is, Hitch yearning for forgotten pride; the constant assessment and reassessment of the self, his indefatigable attack on hypocrisy, his pursuit of self-awareness and irony. And pluralising YouTube, pre-empting all of us, something melts inside me.
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