Samuel Beckett looks depressed so quite naturally he writes depressed stuff about how life is negative, absurd and existential. And there is no God.
Posted on 10/13/2005 7:27:35 AM PDT by Borges
STOCKHOLM (Reuters) - British playwright Harold Pinter, a master of sparse dialogue and menacing silences who has been an outspoken critic of the U.S.-led war in Iraq, was the surprise winner of the Nobel literature prize on Thursday.
The 75-year-old Londoner, son of a Jewish dressmaker, is one of Britain's best-known dramatists for plays like "The Birthday Party" and "The Caretaker," whose mundane dialogue with sinister undercurrents gave rise to the adjective "Pinteresque."
An intimidating presence with bushy eyebrows and a rich voice, he was described by Swedish Academy head Horace Engdahl, who announced the prize, as "the towering figure" in English drama in the second half of the 20th century.
Pinter told Reuters Television he was "overwhelmed" by the news: "I haven't had time to think about it but I am very, very moved. It was something I did not expect at all at any time."
Asked why he had won, Pinter mused: "I wonder, I wonder."
Critics called him an unexpected but deserving choice for the 10 million crown prize -- the second Nobel this month with an anti-U.S. flavor, after the Peace Prize for the U.N. nuclear watchdog which is criticized by Washington.
An active human rights campaigner, Pinter has likened U.S. President George W. Bush's administration to the Nazis and called British Prime Minister Tony Blair a "mass murderer" for invading Iraq.
The world of theater hailed the new Nobel laureate.
"It's wholly deserved and I am completely thrilled. As a writer he has been unswerving for 50 years," said Tom Stoppard, another of Britain's greatest post-war dramatists. Playwright Alan Ayckbourn called it "a most fitting award."
"This is a writer of the highest integrity. I think the Nobel committee got it right," Michael Colgan, director of the celebrated Gate Theater in Dublin which is currently staging a celebration of Pinter plays and readings, told Reuters.
"A NUISANCE"
Pinter was not always so popular. "The Birthday Party" played for just six days in its inaugural run in London in 1958 and had an audience of only half a dozen people in one matinee.
But he soon overcame what Stoppard called "the bewilderment and incomprehension of critics and audience."
His second play, "The Caretaker," was acclaimed two years later and went to Broadway. He has gained a reputation as an actor, director and screenwriter, with film credits like "The French Lieutenant's Woman" in 1981, based on John Fowles' novel.
Always outspoken on politics and human rights, Pinter was described by one biographer as "a permanent public nuisance, a questioner of accepted truths, both in life and art."
In 2003 he wrote a poem on the U.S. invasion of Iraq saying: "Here they go again,/The Yanks in their armored parade."
"Harold Pinter has positions about the Western world that are extremely pronounced. In 2003 he was very openly opposed to the war in Iraq," French literary critic Raphaelle Rerolle of Le Monde newspaper told Reuters.
"His plays have an indirect political content as well," said Rerolle, who believes the choice of Nobel laureates is becoming "more radical." Last year's winner Elfriede Jelinek of Austria is a hard-line left-winger and feminist.
Pinter's agent Judy Daish told Reuters it was "the most wonderful news. It is a complete surprise and I feel it is richly deserved. I was overjoyed for him."
(Additional reporting by Simon Johnson in Stockholm, Caroline Brothers in Paris, Paul Majendie in London and Jodie Ginsberg in Dublin)
IT'S BECAUSE HE'S A LEFTIST!
But seriously, he does have stature, so it's not a complete abomination. Giving the award to Cherubu Nkembo the Ghanian poet would be an abomination.
Asked why he had won, Pinter mused: "I wonder, I wonder...
Given the organization awarding the prize, I don't.
"This play caused a great controversial stir when it was first performed in 1965. This is supposed to be a classic example of an existentialist and absurdist play."
Has he once criticized Saddam Hussein for his human rights' abuses?
Oh well...I guess Bob is way to "conservative" for these lefty lunatics....
Harold Pinter does have stature, however questionable. The fact that he is virulently anti-American probably had nothing to do with his selection. /sarcasm
A remarkable moment of lucidity from Yahoo-Reuters.
He was one of the first to bring the influence of Beckett into English speaking theater I think. Him and Albee anyway (who I hope wins eventually). Anyway Beckett is the epitome of Godless and negative.
Is this the category that made one of the Nobel Committee chairs resigned last week?
That's for sure!
Samuel Beckett looks depressed so quite naturally he writes depressed stuff about how life is negative, absurd and existential. And there is no God.
I was kind of hoping that Bob would win, but now that I think about it, being awarded or recognized by these lunatics would actually be an insult, not an honor.
The mark of a man not being paid by the word.
I'd say that the real nugget of this article is right here: "the second Nobel this month with an anti-U.S. flavor." What a coincidink!
I'm sure Bob Dylan has met Harold Pinter and most major artists.... likely a few decades ago.
Since his plays claim life is absurd, without meaning, does this mean Harold Pinter will donate his one million dollar Nobel prize to charity?
You're right, obscure he is not - however, boring he is.
What was the name of that Central American woman who won for a made-up autobiography (kinda like Joe Biden)?
Now I Remember. Rigoberta Menchu.
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