Anti-Climacus

LINK: Magnificent review of Martin Amis' new book, on Stalin and the left. First, the quote:

" You could fill books with the literary friendships that have broken up over arguments about communism. It may be that Amis' friendship with Christopher "Lenin was ... a great man" Hitchens is one of them. Toward the end of the book is a long open letter to "Comrade Hitchens" in which Amis writes, "So it is still obscure to me why you wouldn't want to put more distance between yourself and these events than you do, with your reverence for Lenin and your unregretted discipleship of Trotsky ... Why? An admiration for Lenin and Trotsky is meaningless without an admiration for terror. They would not want your admiration if it failed to include an admiration for terror. Do you admire terror? I know you admire freedom."

The letter is not without affection. But it is also very sly, Amis having chosen to air this disagreement with his friend in public. No doubt Hitchens' hatchet job lamenting his friend's inadequate grasp of history, theory, the horrors of capitalism, ad nauseam, is still to come. But the question Amis asks him -- "Do you admire terror?" -- is not easily ducked. And it's the question that Amis is asking of all the apologists, all the infatuated."