The simple truth
Sir: Regarding a letter in last week's Spectator accusing me of plagiarism. As in everything Hitchens writes or says, he is being less than honest in producing a sentence that has by now become extreme- ly well known and accusing me of having stolen it. Although Norman Podhoretz was the first to write about 'an age where there is ubiquitous pornography, expletive lan- guage and full frontal sex, the men that lead us are refusing to say that Aids is a disease caught by men who bugger and are buggered . . .', the phrase has since been repeated by commentators in television, radio and newspapers. Also, as neither the usage nor the idea was original when I wrote that particular sentence, it couldn't possibly be plagiarism. I am surprised he doesn't know that, as he has been using unoriginal Marxist ideas and usages all his life. (I suspect he does know it, but prefers to forget it when it suits him.) What Hitchens calls plagiarism I call the simple truth. I also suggest he and his friends take the advice I gave them in the sentence he claims I stole.
Taki
123 East 71st Street, New York 10021
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