Kafka Cliches

In the 1980's, journalist Christopher Hitchens visited the then Soviet stronghold of Czechoslovakia, now two seperate democratic states. Here is an excerpt from a 2005 interview with the Hoover Institution in which Hitchens recounts his time behind the iron curtain:

[As a reporter,] one tries to avoid cliché. I remember I went to Prague during the old days, the bad old days of the communist regime to attend a dissident meeting. I thought whatever happens to me, I'm not going to mention the name Kafka in what I write. I'm going to be the first reporter who doesn't--who goes to Prague and doesn't bring up Kafka... Anyway the policemen came in--the secret police broke into the meeting I was at and slammed me up against the wall and said you're under arrest. And I said what for? And they said we're not telling you what for. And I thought damn, now I have to mention Kafka.

Christopher Hitchens is an Oxford born journalist who has contributed to publications including Vanity Fair, Rolling Stone, and the Wall Street journal. In addition to boasting an impressive body of published works on a wide range of subjects, Hitchens is also a prominent speaker on atheist philosophy and a Thomas Jefferson biographer. "The Hitch," as his avid readers know him, holds the distinguished honor of being the only reporter to have visited all three "Axis of Evil" countries. Always bold, armed with a sharp with and biting sarcasm, and never above personal attacks, Hitchens is both revered and beguiled by his contemporaries. His fundamental support of the principles of American democracy along with strong reservations about the British crown led him to became a US citizen last year, taking his oath on the steps of the Jefferson memorial in Washington DC.

Full Hoover Institution Interview
http://www.hoover.org/multimedia/uk/2939056.html

Read more about Hitchens
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Hitchens

Hitchens discusses North Korea
http://www.slate.com/id/2117846