Damn the man. Back when we were floundering through our post-dissertation period, trying to figure out what in the name of Urizen we'd actually want to, you know, publish, one of the many ideas we batted around and talked about in lieu of actually getting any work done was the impact of the underrated George Orwell novel Keep the Aspidistra Flying; we gave a couple of papers on Orwell in the process, but one of the things we never got around to was writing up something about how close in spirit it seemed to Kingsley Amis's more memorably venomous Lucky Jim; but really, it was next on our list.

Damn you, Hitchens.