Nov 18, 2007
The Limits of Self-Improvement
Although some argue he’s going mad, Chris Hitchens in still a lucid writer.
In Vanity Fair, Hitchens has written a two-part piece on the physical self-improvement industry:
There now exists a whole micro-economy dedicated to the proposition that a makeover is feasible, or in other words to disprove Scott Fitzgerald’s dictum that there are no second acts in American lives. Objectives: to drop down from the current 185 pounds, to improve the “tone” of the skin and muscles, to wheeze less, to enhance the hunched and round-shouldered posture, to give some thought to the hair and fur questions (more emphasis perhaps in the right places and less in the wrong ones), to sharpen up the tailoring, to lessen the booze intake, and to make the smile, which currently looks like a handful of mixed nuts, a little less scary to children.
Read the full article at Vanity Fair .
