I find it hard to view Christopher Hitchens death as tragic. It is sad when any fellow human being dies before they are old and decrepit. However, he did not exactly live a healthy lifestyle. I don't think I ever saw him without a cigarette and he admitted to drinking to excess. I also think he was highly over-rated in terms of both his writing and his speaking ability. Of all the so called New Atheist he was by far the weakest intellectually. I was somewhat fascinated by him. I started reading his work in High School.
I got the impression early on that people who ended up taking a liking to him did so due to style rather than any particular talent. My own initial impression of him was that he was booze fueled windbag. Of the books, articles, and columns I read of his over the years only one impressed me, The Trial of Henry Kissinger. It was the only thing he ever wrote that was actually good from start to finish. Far too often he either went off on tangents or failed to support whatever point he was trying to make. Many atheists seemed to be awed by God Is Not Great. I was a little disappointed. I probably would have been very upset had I not already had low expectations. There was nothing in it that other had not already written about and written better.
It is sad that he died but I did not think much of him while he was alive and see no reason to pretend otherwise now that he is dead. Praise for him has already spread throughout the blogosphere and I have no doubt he be eulogized glowingly on any number of websites and podcasts over the next week or two. Having been a prominent atheist figure I understand that. I just wish people had more perspective. He stood up for atheists and I respected him for that. But he was not nearly as great as he is now being made out to be.
I have to thank PZ Meyers for at least acknowledging that Hitchens had his flaws in one of his Pharyngula posts, The dark side of Hitchens.
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