Peter Hitchens and Hugh Hewitt talk about cultural revolution and God
We've been working so hard we've hardly had time to post, but we were delighted to run into a Peter Hitchens interview on the Hugh Hewitt Show, and very glad to learn that Peter Hitchens has received the George Orwell Prize. Here is part of that interview with Hugh -
HH: For the benefit of our American audience, the Orwell prize is regarded as the preeminent British prize for political writing. Three are given a year, one for a book, one for journalism, and one for blogging. It is supposed to honor writing that comes closest to Orwell’s ambition to “make political writing into an art.” Had you thought of yourself as doing that, Peter Hitchens?PH: I don’t know about an art, but I think the idea that Orwell set out making your prose as like as possible to a window pane through which people could simply see what was behind it, has been in my mind every since I encountered his writing many, many years ago. It was certainly a huge delight for me to have any kind of an association with that, that was endorsed by other people, not my own claim, but endorsed by other people, particularly given that by his nature as a hero of the left, his, the prize in his name tends to be awarded to the left by the left. And on this occasion, it went to me, a conservative. So I have to say that it was one of the more pleasing moments of my life. . .
Hitchens is especially interested in the cultural revolution in Britain, which he thinks is a horror. We don't think Peter is always right, but he has fascinating things to say about Dickens and CS Lewis and science and, yes, God and 'the people who don't want there to be a God'. Why do they want that so badly? Note that the transcript reads Thomas Cromwell when it should read Thomas Cranmer, and read the whole thing.
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Comments (3)
Finally, some ink for the intelligent Hitchens!
Death Bredon | August 27, 2010 06:00 PM
Posted on August 27, 2010 18:00
And intelligent interview, and thereby a pleasure to read. Thank you for bringing it to my attention.
Miranda | August 30, 2010 03:51 AM
Posted on August 30, 2010 03:51
It is the lot of the truly great pamphleteer, which PH manifestly is, to be adored and loathed in equal measure.
Long may he continue to tell it how it is.
He's Spartacus | August 31, 2010 08:09 PM
Posted on August 31, 2010 20:09