Christopher Hitches' work on Kissinger and Mother Theresa is an eye opener and probably his best work. I thought of him contradicting himself when it came to politics, he somehow ended up being an advocate for military strikes against Iraq,Iran,Pakistan and so on and so forth. He was also quite militant in his approach to religion and that in my view is as bad as religious fundamentalism. Besides that he wrote an article on why men are funnier than women and his primary argument was because men an innate drive to make women laugh so they can get into their pants, to me that reeked of misogyny. Besides he had his head so much up his arse that the only thing he could see was himself and to prove by hook or by crook that he was right and he came up with some atrocious reasons to justify his political allegiances with the war on terror campaign.
Orwell's novels are a good read and explains why he was disillusioned by the Imperialistic agenda back in those days but you can get a better insight by reading his essays which range from how to make a good cup of tea to the difference between nationalism and patriotism.
On Hitchens, what he went through between the first Iraq-war and the second, was more of a transition than a contradiction. He changed a lot from his earlier self, in the last 15 years of his life.
As for the misogyny, I can't see why it is completely unthinkable that men have developed a superior ability to make one laugh, as a result of this being (and still is, or might be) a quality valued highly by most women. If a respected evolutionary biologist stepped forward and claimed this, would it still be misogynistic? Not saying it is true though, but it is not unthinkable.
Nor is it misogynistic in my view. Men are
generally funnier than women. That is not to say that there aren't many women who are a whole lot more funnier than many men, but I guess you got the point.
There are quite a few things I would criticize Hitchens for, but his reasons for supporting the terror-campaign, is as good as any. Not willing to dive into that pool right now, but Saddam Hussein just had to go down. For how much longer could the world really stand by and watch a grotesque totalitarian dictatorship carry on, for another decade, after unmentionable atrocities towards the Kurds, Iranis, Kuwaitis and Iraqis had been ignored?
As for Orwell, I'm reading as much of him as I can, lately. I'll give a go for his essays as well!:)
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