Arguably: Essays by Christopher Hitchens

Abstract

Julian Stannard The Parrots of Villa Gruber Discover Lapis Lazuli Salmon Poetry This is the last installment in poet Stannard ’s Genoese trilogy; Rina’s War and The Red Zone were the first and second collections in the series, respectively. With a voice and subjects that are distinctly British in nature, the poems in this collection span many of the major cities of Europe, including Paris, Rome, Bucharest, and Amsterdam . Stannard’s poems were featured in WLT’s July 2011 online issue. A Polish Book of Monsters Michael Kandel, ed. PIASA Books Five contemporary Polish authors, each with a distinctive voice, are represented in this collection of newly translated stories of fantasy and science fiction. Every selection contains an “utterly convincing alien world that nonetheless refracts our own,” with fantastical characters and themes of power, violence, and possession (Helena Goscilo). Through these themes, each author has penned a tale that predicts a sinister future. Nota Bene American sf. Its compass is fiction from Argentina, Brazil, and Mexico written between 1850 and 1920—nationally formative years during which Latin America contributed distinctive “local appropriations and local adaptations” to the “global genre” of sf. After steering us through a first chapter on utopian proto-sf, Rachel Haywood Ferreira guides us into darker territory: stories that vivify the raging conflict between Darwinian and Lamarckian evolution; that prophesy the end of the world; that pit canonical science against spiritualism , theosophy, occultism, and the like; that consider (seriously!) eugenics as a tool to counter threats to national identity ; and much more. In lucid, jargonfree prose, she layers this complex story onto a meticulously constructed skeleton that is simultaneously thematic and chronological. Wediscoverhowauthorsusedthe distancing in time and space allowed by sf to address the burning issues of national identity and its attendant political baggage of “nationality, race, and social class or profession.” Complicating this issue were postcolonial relations with first-world countries of the Northern Hemisphere. This uneasy dynamic was further muddled by the investiture by Latin America in science as “the supreme guarantor of truth” and in technological advancement as the means to progress —science and technology then being localized in the United States and northern Europe. Furthermore, individual works typically addressed geographically and temporally specific political agendas of the authors, many of whom actively participated in nation-building. Haywood Ferreira recounts this intellectually exciting literary adventure with skill and verve. Crucially, she does not assume we know anything about these authors or their political and cultural contexts. Rather, she regularly injects into accounts of their fiction doses of background that keep us on track. She thereby builds a persuasive case that viewing these works “through a lens of science fiction ” illuminates “Latin American attitudes toward science, literature, national identity, and other [social and cultural] issues of their times.” Anyone with even a passing interest in Latin American literature will want Emergence and Cosmos Latinos . Both belong on your shelf next to Thomas Colchie’s A Hammock beneath the Mangoes (1991), an anthology of late-twentieth-century stories, mostly in the fantastic mode, and the endlessly delightful Antología de la literatura fantástica, edited by Jorge Luis Borges, Adolfo Bioy Casares, and Silvina Ocampo (2nd ed., 1965; Eng. The Book of Fantasy, 1988). Optimists will leave room for future anthologies by Bell and Molina Gavilán and literary histories by Haywood Ferreira. Both of their books cry out for successors . Wesleyan, are you listening? Michael A. Morrison University of Oklahoma Christopher Hitchens. Arguably: Essays. New York. Twelve / Hachette. 2011. isbn 9781455502776 Ordinary book reviewers have three tasks: to determine what the author set out to do; how well that task was accomplished; and whether it was worth undertaking. Here the reviewer is in a way subordinate to the book. Not so reviewers given the space to show their credentials as public intellectuals. January–February 2012 | 75 In their work, readers often find it difficult to discover just what book is being discussed because the reviewer subsumes the discussion in a wider consideration of the topic. Christopher Hitchens is preeminently in the second group. He seems to be as widely read and traveled as he is prolific—the publicity sheet for the book notes that...