Thursday, August 05, 2010

Sad News

In his Daily Telegraph blog, Damian Thompson has revealed that Christopher Hitchens' throat cancer is terminal and that he does not expect to live long. The Hitch has written at length about his illness in the next issue of Vanity Fair. By all accounts, the approach of death has not mellowed him.

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11 comments:

Anonymous said...

I find it difficult to feel any sympathy for the man.

James said...

That, Anon, is part of the reason that Christianity is a hard school. The Hitch can indulge in his hatreds. Christians should not.

Humphrey said...

Well this is terrible news. He is always a roliking good read. Hope there is some kind of remission and we get many more years of him. After all Dan Dennett was nearly dead back in 2006 but he came back and is still keeping us entertained to this day.

Humphrey said...

Here is the Vanity Fair piece:

http://www.vanityfair.com/culture/features/2010/09/hitchens-201009

James said...

Well reading the article, things don't look quite bad. The cancer has spread but he is undergoing treatment. It certainly does not look like the end of the road as yet.

Humphrey said...

The prognosis isn't good for this type of cancer and it seems to have spread to one of his lungs and the lymph nodes. It sounds pretty bad but you wouldn't write the guy off.

Unknown said...

Well, we all have to go sometime. Still, Hitchens ain't dead yet, so he still has some hope.

Joshua said...

I do hope Mr Hitchens pulls through and has more years to come. He is an interesting character and has provided and provoked some interesting dialogues in the public square. Although many times conspicuous in his contempt for religious belief he is often gracious and charitable and i'm sure delightful in person.

my prayers are with him.

jamierobertson said...

As someone who has worked in Oncology for a bit, a tumour which relapses and spreads to both nodes and distant sites (lungs in this case) does not have a good outlook. Much as I do wish to give the man a good slap, I still feel sympathy for him as he's in for an uncomfortable ride.

Wildrow12 said...

As much as I disagree with Hitchens (both politically and philosophically, I am saddened by this news.

He was an interesting writer, and as I have lost family to cancer before, I also sympathize with his pain.

He is in my prayers.

Anonymous said...

This is truly grieving. I wish that Hitchens defeats his cancer, at least to see his children get married.

If he survives, I hope this will soften his view on religion and cause him to think more about existential questions, which seculars always put under their mental carpet.