Christopher Hitchens: Talks & Debates
Oct 29, 2026 · 1 hr 1 min · 10 segments
At the new york public library
I have to ask the next question rather carefully because it can be maddening if two English people talk about Americans as if they weren't there.
And Tom Wolfe always sort of is eavesdropping when you do that anyway.
But it strikes me that a theme in what you've written has been what you might describe as American credulity.
I mean, gullibility is self-putted.
I mean, just as it might be said that the English national vice is hypocrisy or snobbery, is there a propensity to fall for snake oil in this country, do
You know, when the American Way of Death came out, a lot of the reviewers and a lot of the people who, well, sort of discussed the subject said, well, that just shows how gullible Americans are.
I'm not sure whether, and then the undertakers all said, we're only furnishing what the public wants.
I mean, I don't think people are in much of a position to make decisions at that sort of time.
They go in there in a fog of grief, usually, and so they don't quite know what they're up to, and they don't know what the correct...
And who knows what the correct thing is? Well, the expert, and that's the undertaker.
A friend of mine who later, in fact I didn't know him at the time, it was a fan letter out of the blue from Howard Gossage, a fascinating advertising man in San Francisco who I later got to know.
Anyhow, he wrote and said that he'd gone to arrange his mother's funeral and that he was sort of in total confusion very unhappy and that sort of thing and so he chose the casket and then the undertaker said well now you have to choose the lining material and showed him two swatches of what appeared to be identical material so Howard said well what's the difference answer was well this is rayon and it's considerably cheaper this is silk and it's a lot more expensive but we do find that rayon is a lot more irritating to the skin That's all I'm saying.
I was wondering if my question, after all people take their piles to Jimmy Swaggart and this kind of thing, who isn't an expert.
I was wondering actually if my question would have led you to pass a comment on the leader of the free world, or perhaps you'd rather not mention him.
evening without, but I thought I'd ask.
I have to ask the next question rather carefully because it can be maddening if two English people talk about Americans as if they weren't there.
And Tom Wolfe always sort of is eavesdropping when you do that anyway.
But it strikes me that a theme in what you've written has been what you might describe as American credulity.
I mean, gullibility is self-putted.
I mean, just as it might be said that the English national vice is hypocrisy or snobbery, is there a propensity to fall for snake oil in this country, do
You know, when the American Way of Death came out, a lot of the reviewers and a lot of the people who, well, sort of discussed the subject said, well, that just shows how gullible Americans are.
I'm not sure whether, and then the undertakers all said, we're only furnishing what the public wants.
I mean, I don't think people are in much of a position to make decisions at that sort of time.
They go in there in a fog of grief, usually, and so they don't quite know what they're up to, and they don't know what the correct...
And who knows what the correct thing is? Well, the expert, and that's the undertaker.
A friend of mine who later, in fact I didn't know him at the time, it was a fan letter out of the blue from Howard Gossage, a fascinating advertising man in San Francisco who I later got to know.
Anyhow, he wrote and said that he'd gone to arrange his mother's funeral and that he was sort of in total confusion very unhappy and that sort of thing and so he chose the casket and then the undertaker said well now you have to choose the lining material and showed him two swatches of what appeared to be identical material so Howard said well what's the difference answer was well this is rayon and it's considerably cheaper this is silk and it's a lot more expensive but we do find that rayon is a lot more irritating to the skin That's all I'm saying.
I was wondering if my question, after all people take their piles to Jimmy Swaggart and this kind of thing, who isn't an expert.
I was wondering actually if my question would have led you to pass a comment on the leader of the free world, or perhaps you'd rather not mention him.
evening without, but I thought I'd ask.
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