Christopher Hitchens was granted the Richard Dawkins Award tonight at the Texas Freethought Convention. He was looking frail and thin, his voice was husky, but he was amazingly strong. He gave a wonderful, fiery, eloquent acceptance speech, and then he took questions for almost an hour — and he was willing to go on longer and seemed grateful for an opportunity to talk to the public again. He was fierce, courageous, and well-spoken as always, and kept the audience awed and inspired the whole time.
I’m actually optimistic that we’ll see him again in Melbourne for the Global Atheist Convention. I’ll put his talk up as soon as I see it appear on youtube, as I’m sure it will soon enough.
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zyxek
9 October 2011 at 4:43 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
That’s wonderful news. I had no idea he was healthy enough to travel again.
DLC
9 October 2011 at 4:44 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Good to hear! I like Hitch, even if I don’t always agree with him. He’s a good bloke.
James
9 October 2011 at 4:53 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Wonderful news. I am really looking forward to the uploaded video. Thank you, PZ.
shreddakj
9 October 2011 at 4:58 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
That is so awesome to hear. Cancer is horrible.
Jack LesCamela
9 October 2011 at 5:00 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Great news, PZ! I look forward to watching the video. Three cheers for Hitch!
Jason
9 October 2011 at 5:17 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I pity the fool who picks a fight with the Hitch… yeah I’m talking to YOU cancer!
One of my favourite men on Earth is Christopher Hitchens.
I am looking forward to seeing the speech.
Thanks for the update PZ.
Rorschach
9 October 2011 at 5:48 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Thanks for the update PZ ! I’m hopeful for Melbourne.
San Ban
9 October 2011 at 6:07 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
This is excellent news! I know it doesn’t mean he’s out of the woods, but I’m really glad to hear he’s back in fighting form again. Looking forward to the video. Thanks.
Jokester
9 October 2011 at 6:08 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Great news. Been a fan of Hitch for years now.
Patricia, OM
9 October 2011 at 6:25 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
May he live long, and be the gadfly for the ages.
sick_of_baboons
9 October 2011 at 7:19 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Your hypocrisy simply has no limits does it? You are the very *antithesis* of Hitchens – an unprinciple, expedient, self-serving prostitute that’s for sale to whatever pop cause will generate traffic for you. And you want to praise Hitch so soon after pissing all over Dawkins? Only you are capable of this PZ. Only you.
S
9 October 2011 at 7:24 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@ #12:
When did PZ piss all over Dawkins? Or was this a sarcastic comment?
Rorschach
9 October 2011 at 7:26 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Are you trying to break some kind of non sequitur record here, asshole ?
Der Zed
9 October 2011 at 7:30 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’ll gets them atheists a’fightin’ amongst themselves with some of that clever provocatin’ I done heard tell of.
Rahul D'souza
9 October 2011 at 7:37 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I read about this elsewhere too. I really found it amazing that he took 15 minutes to tell that little girl what to read and what a lovely reading list he gave her too! Especially Dickens’ A tale of two cities.
elronxenu
9 October 2011 at 7:50 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I’m very pleased to hear Hitch is well enough to travel, after his inability to speak at the Think Inc conference, even though via video link.
I hope he can get to the 2012 Global Atheist Convention too, but Victoria’s a lot further away than Texas and I understand he may not be up to the long flight(s).
Paul Havlak
9 October 2011 at 8:52 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I don’t think Hitch is actually well enough to travel. He said something about receiving treatment here in Houston, and that he was very happy to attend, having been unable to fulfill many other speaking engagements recently.
Hitchins was amazingly powerful and moving. I won’t hold high hopes that he will get better… but still, I’ll hope.
David B
9 October 2011 at 9:19 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@13
I’m guessing that he’s referring to PZ and Dawkins’ differing responses to the elevatorgate thing.
Mature people, like Dawkins, PZ and S J Gould are capable of having differences of opinion about one area of discussion, like non-overlapping magesteria, Iraq, and elevatorgate, while at the same time continuing to respect and admire the strengths of the other in other areas of life.
Having said that I have yet to see any strengths in the character or wisdom of the writer of post 12, and hence see nothing to change my initial view if him (or her) as a total dickhead.
Kylie Sturgess
9 October 2011 at 9:28 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
YAY!!! :D :D
Michel
9 October 2011 at 9:35 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hitch didn’t create an empire, he doesn’t have billions of dollars and more crucially he doesn’t believe in alternative medicine. Oh, and Hitch is still alive! No offense to Jobs, but there is a bit of irony here… Anyway, fuck cancer.
maureen.brian
9 October 2011 at 9:39 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Five essays from CH’s new book Arguably are BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week, starting tomorrow.
Details are here -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b015mzkt
- but you’ll have to work out your own timezones if that’s OK with you.
Michael Kingsford Gray
9 October 2011 at 9:53 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
This is extremely GOOD news!
Mainly for Christopher, but also for me…
Ciwan
9 October 2011 at 10:29 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Do we have that event on Video ? I want to see it :(
Cowalker
9 October 2011 at 10:37 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Mike B:
How dare you malign Dawkins by suggesting that he doesn’t initiate a blood feud when publicly disputed by a fellow scientist over a social and cultural issue? Gould would have done the same if he were alive! It’s the only manly thing to do! It’s the best possible way forward for non-believers.
/sarcasm
Tim DeLaney
9 October 2011 at 11:05 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Here’s hoping that Hitch remains alive and lucid for another day, and another, and another …
Badland, delurking for a bit
9 October 2011 at 12:11 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I see the lovely Franc Hoggle (#12) has dropped by to bedazzle us with his wit. Those with strong stomachs should drop by his website for the latest litany of hatewanks, the guy has gone from creepy to obsessive, and all because a woman said she wasn’t comfortable being hit on in an elevator
Ian Scott
9 October 2011 at 12:46 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@21 Michel, what the fuck are you on about? Presumably the only reason you’re comparing Jobs to Hitchens is because Jobs HAPPENED to die recently. But what the hell does that have to do with anything, and what’s with the comparison?
If you could point out the “irony”, I’m sure we’d all be interested.
Your post, as well as being completely moronic and insensitive, isn’t even really correct in its point. [idiocy]95% of pancreatic cancer sufferers are dead within 5 years of diagnosis, and Jobs made it to 7. So “nyah nyah”![/idiocy]
Grazia Neri
9 October 2011 at 12:55 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Bravo Christopher, a fan and admirer from Italy
atheistpolitic
9 October 2011 at 2:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
If I wanted to send something to Christopher Hitchens, like a teddy bear or something, to give him a feel better/you’re awesome/keep going you’re so strong and I’m really really in awe of you present would that be possible at some sort of PO box? I remember my dad having cancer, and giving him a squeezable teddy bear to help with the muscles in his hands (he used to squeeze it to help strengthen the muscles in it so he’d get fewer cramps in them due to the medication he took). Also it’s a teddy bear. It’s cute and fluffy and nice to get one.
Anyone know where I could get a PO box for him? Cause I think he’s really awesome, and completely deserves to get something cool like a teddy bear in the mail.
Maybe I’m being stupid, but… It just seems like the right thing to do you know?
Hook
9 October 2011 at 2:27 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hitch hitch, hoorah!
Hitch hitch, hoorah!
Hitch hitch, hoorah!
ryangeiler
9 October 2011 at 2:30 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I was going to write something more eloquent but really—Fuck you cancer. Good to see Hitchens about.
Kevin
9 October 2011 at 3:47 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hitchens is doing remarkably well for someone with Stage IV esophageal cancer.
But I fear that Australia is not in his future. Just the travel alone would be much too stressful. Not safe.
Video feed will probably have to do.
MD Anderson is one of the premiere cancer facilities in the world — too bad it’s in Houston (which is as big a shithole otherwise than has ever been invented).
scarina
9 October 2011 at 4:06 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I don’t always agree with Hitch but I admire him greatly. News like this always makes me happy, ever since he got sick.
Hitch makes me want to read more, read BETTER books, be more intelligent, and not back down. Keep going, Hitch!
Flea
9 October 2011 at 5:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yes, you may disagree with the Hitch, but nobody can deny he is a force of nature.
Is the link of the vid going to be posted here, or in a new post?
Ophelia Benson
9 October 2011 at 6:08 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Don’t get too optimistic –
http://blog.chron.com/partisangridlock/2011/10/christopher-hitchens-makes-first-public-appearance-in-months/
B. J. Price
9 October 2011 at 6:10 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
He recommended books to an 8 year old girl. I can’t help smiling and betting Dawkins latest book was one of them.
PLJ
9 October 2011 at 7:10 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yay for Hitch! He’s the one speaker that keeps me listening, even tho I already heard his talk 10 times. I love that man.
@28 … take a deep breath, hold it … now slowly exhale …
Now you’re a little calmed down, re-read his post (21) and notice that altho you might have an issue with his comment, it isnt all that hard to get the gist of it, as he explains it perfectly fine.
So before calling people an idiot .. breathe and read better. Then either find it tasteless and ignore it, or find it tasteless and adress it, but STFU with talking on my behalf by telling others that the people here need an explanation to see the irony he mentioned. It’s what they call a joke. Even if you dont happen to find it funny ;)
ChasCPeterson
9 October 2011 at 7:21 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
ChasCPeterson
9 October 2011 at 7:26 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Franc @#12:
keep on hogglin’!
PZ Myers
9 October 2011 at 7:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Prostitutes and pissing? Oh, dear. Poor Franc was probably masturbating while he pecked that one out. At least he’s getting some relief.
rickpotthoff
9 October 2011 at 7:52 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Great googly moogly! Christopher Hitchens spoke in Houston last night, & now IT IS RAINING! I spit on Rick Perry & his appeal to the Christian God. Atheists brought us Rain!
R.W.
9 October 2011 at 8:58 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Statistically, Hitchens should have been gone already, except the sky daddy is scared shit over the prospect of having him around His neighborhood.
Blaine
9 October 2011 at 9:38 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Yeah, @12; franc, The League of Obsessed Internet Loonies called, they want their crazy back.
Ichthyic
9 October 2011 at 9:56 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
…at the end of that, he took 15 minutes out to speak to an 8 year old girl who asked him what books she should read.
The mother of that little girl is sending the list to Jerry Coyne.
just picturing Hitch patiently explaining to an 8 year old which books she might like to add to her list of things to read…
poignant just doesn’t cover it.
Ichthyic
9 October 2011 at 10:03 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
@21 Michel, what the fuck are you on about? Presumably the only reason you’re comparing Jobs to Hitchens is because Jobs HAPPENED to die recently. But what the hell does that have to do with anything, and what’s with the comparison?
I’m guessing it’s a poke at what is LIKELY to happen.
since Hitch isn’t rich, or a major political figure, or a movie star, likely the media tributes to him will not be nearly as grand or ubiquitous as they were for Jobs.
Again, just a guess, but I’d say he was criticizing the media.
E Davis
9 October 2011 at 10:54 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Good to see him up and about but I was really saddened to read this..
“He was emphatic that though his “time” is rapidly approaching, he wouldn’t stop doing his best to shed light on the fraudulent claims made by religion, a line that brought the crowd to its feet.”
http://blog.chron.com/partisangridlock/2011/10/christopher-hitchens-makes-first-public-appearance-in-months/
James Thompson
9 October 2011 at 11:32 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I was at the conference. I talked with three people who had flown in just to get a book signed and hear his acceptance speech.
His writings and courage have been an inspiration for many.
Damian Wegner
10 October 2011 at 12:13 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
You know what?…I reckon Hitch is going to beat his illness. I think his mental determination and the best science available will get him through this. We need champions like him.
Antiochus Epiphanes
10 October 2011 at 1:19 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Hitch’s reply to the little girl was priceless. She asked if there were any famous authors that she should read. He paused momentarily and replied, “Yes, there are.”
And then he offered to give her a reading list after the horse and pony show. I passed the Kolinahr and I still experienced the atavistic twinge of emotion that I experienced as a young boy.
Animal Liberation
10 October 2011 at 2:39 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Take it down your throat , PZ and your Pseudo atheist animal haters.
http://www.greatapeproject.de/
williambateson
10 October 2011 at 2:46 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
You people are daft. It’s too bad that Hitchens is sick and suffering, as it would be for anyone. But he has spent the last decade endorsing the most destructive impulses and activities of the American empire, propounding lies and half truths in support of his views, standing his ground each time they were disconfirmed, being supercilious and pissy toward those who were actually correct about these issues (not negligible ones – war, foreign invasion and occupation, torture, suppression of dissenters). This is scientific? A positive social force?
The atheism question was settled in intellectual circles at least since the beginning of the 20th century. Not such a courageous stance, though obvious one that attracts cheap adulation among this site’s fanboys and girls.
ACN
10 October 2011 at 3:16 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
The problem with this sentiment is that “beating” cancer isn’t really the same as beating the flu, Randall has a very poignant visual of this:
http://xkcd.com/931/
I think there is something true to what you say about his mental determination though. I would bet my car on him beating the 5-year survival figures for his diagnosis.
ACN
10 October 2011 at 3:22 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Seconded. I’d really like to send him a support letter, but I’m not sure how/where to mail it so that he’d get it. The MD Anderson Cancer Facility has a “message a patient” feature:
https://www2.mdanderson.org/sapp/contact/message/index.cfm
If we’d like to handwrite a letter, maybe try sending it to:
Mr. Christopher Hitchens
The University of Texas MD Anderson Cancer Center
1515 Holcombe Blvd
Houston, TX 77030
Although that seems like it’s the center’s business address and patient mail might get bottlenecked…
Patrick
10 October 2011 at 4:53 am (UTC -5) Link to this comment
I wish Hitch the best, would be awesome to see him in Melbourne in April.
1984
10 October 2011 at 12:07 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
http://blog.chron.com/partisangridlock/2011/10/christopher-hitchens-makes-first-public-appearance-in-months
andyo
10 October 2011 at 1:11 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
Well, it took 54 posts. Gotta be some kind of record.
Janet Goelzer
10 October 2011 at 2:45 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
These are the links to my videos. It was awesome! I shook PZ’s hand! Thank you PZ!
Acceptance:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xEsm4fFeoec
Answering a question:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VITtUqqtPkk
Dawkins:
claimthehighground
10 October 2011 at 11:23 pm (UTC -5) Link to this comment
If I ever (and don’t hold your breath) run for office and some inane questioner asks, “Who is your hero?” I would surely have to answer, “Christopher Hitchens.” I have followed him for years and respect (but do not always agree with) his enormously well thought out and crisp commentary. I am truly glad to have shared the planet with him. Given enough time, I would surely would have tried to introduce him to the magic of Bourbon in place of his preference for Scotch, but then I’m sure he would have been just as grateful to return the favor. He is one of the giant intellects of our time.