The phrase comes from King Pyrrhus of Epirus, a Molossian general during the Hellenistic era (About 290 BC). His army, strapped with wooden spears and towering elephants, defeated the Romans at the Battle of Heraclea but lost too many lives and resources to continue their military campaign. To this day, a "Pyrrhic victory" is used to describe any victory won at too great a cost. But what does this ancient warlord and his subsequently spawned phrase have to do with Christopher Hitchens?
Christopher Hitchens' prize book was given the title: "god is not Great" That's not a mistake, by the way. It's supposed to be spelled with a lowercase g. Hitchens insisted that the word "God" be written without the capital G in his title. Perhaps Hitchens wanted to emphasize the false sense of respect given to gods and religion by violating the rules of punctuation in some brazen show of defiance. Here at Hitchens Watch, we'll be referring to his book as, "God is not Great", with a capital G. Not out of respect for the divine, but out of respect for proper English. The Judeo-Christian "God" is a proper noun, which should be capitalized. Also, everything in a title except articles, conjunctions, and prepositions should be capitalized. We're just following the rules of the English language. Plus, we want to stick it to Hitchens.
"God is not Great" sold thousands of copies and was ranked as a best seller. Eventually it was made available on audio book by Hachette Book Group, a publishing company. The book was read aloud by Christopher himself! Readers could now enjoy the sparkling prose of Hitchens with the quivering, drunken voice included. Of course, like any form of digital media exposed to our world of Internet file-swapping, it leaked. Someone purchased the tape (or CD or mp3) and uploaded it to Youtube, allowing any user to hear the entire book, for free.
Seizing the opportunity, I posted the link along with the following message on my Youtube channel:
DO NOT BUY "God is Not Great" by Christopher Hitchens! You can hear it FOR FREE, as read by Christopher: Enjoy!
Don't bother following that link, though. It doesn't work. There you'll find a blank page with the text:
This video is no longer available due to a copyright claim by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
But why did this happen? It wasn't because Hachette Book Group wanted to protect their investment. It's far more sinister than that. Four days earlier, I received a private message on Youtube from the user " hitchenschannel", a Hitchens fanboy whose Youtube channel is, according to him, "supported by Christopher Hitchens." He wrote to me, "Nice job taking away Hitchen's [sic] book profits by linking to that video. Too bad I'm going to have the video taken down. Dumbass. Hitchens rules."
It wasn't Hatchette Book Group that filed the copyright claim, it was hitchenschannel! He manipulated the system by filing a claim on their behalf, falsifying his identity and insisting that their copyrighted material be protected. In fact, under the rules of the DMCA, anyone can file a copyright claim online and the video must be taken down immediately, even if the claims are later found to be bogus. Of course, a false DMCA claim is punishable by law. But it's not fines and penalties that hitchenschannel should fear - it's his own actions. By removing the video, he blocked access of Hitchens content to thousands of people. Great job, hitchenschannel. The book is no longer online. Nobody can see it. In a single act, he has negated his entire purpose for existing: the spreading of Hitchens-related content across Youtube.
So the audio book is gone. I'll remove the broken link from my profile. I'll take it down. I'll lose this battle. But like a battered Roman soldier, I crawl up from the creek at Heraclea and smile. Their forces have won this battle. But at what cost?
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