Herr Hitchens und Herr Grass
The GG SS affair continues to gather momentum. Which is not surprising as it's not very often, after all, that a foot-soldier of fascism is awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature. The latest to join the fray is Christopher Hitchens. Seeing that he's being paid handsomely to write a regular column called "Fighing Words", readers have come to expect rapier work of the most incisive kind and the über-contrarian does not disappoint with his latest piece titled, tellingly, "Snake in the Grass". The subhead, "The pompous, hypocritical hucksterism of Günter Grass", confirms that a deconstruction job has been readied. Here's a taste:
"Let those who want to judge, pass judgment," Grass said last week in a typically sententious utterance. Very well, then, mein lieber Herr. The first judgment is that you kept quiet about your past until you could win the Nobel Prize for literature. The second judgment is that you are not as important to German or to literary history as you think you are. The third judgment is that you will be remembered neither as a war criminal nor as an anti-Nazi hero, but more as a bit of a bloody fool.
The verdict is, as they say in German, vernichtend.
