Posted on 10/14/2005 5:31:49 AM PDT by OESY
Edited on 10/14/2005 9:08:46 AM PDT by Sidebar Moderator. [history]
In selecting British playwright Harold Pinter for this year's Nobel Prize for Literature, the Swedish Academy did something unusual
(Excerpt) Read more at nypost.com ...
Handing out awards as a political statement is such a fraud.
Why don't they stop being hypocritical and just open up an award class for best American bashing of the year and be honest about it?
Like, uhm, dudes, who cares?
Ya ever tried to read any of Pinter's stuff? It's the modern art of modern literature... Sort of "Piss-Christ" on paper, if you get my drift.
With Pinter, the Academy gets a "twofer" -- he's a Communist AND gay.
Not to mention the Israeli.
"They say that a prophet is not without honour, save in his own country. The same is often true of writers.
This weekend the 75th birthday of Britain's most famous living dramatist, Harold Pinter, is being marked by a star-studded, three-day celebration ... not in London, but at the Gate theatre, Dublin. "A man of 75," says Pinter ruefully, "needs a bit of affection and it's nice it's coming from Dublin."
Meanwhile in his native land the only visible - or audible - mark of the birthday is the premiere on BBC Radio 3 on Monday night of a stunning new work, Voices: a collaborative venture between Pinter and composer James Clarke that deals with man's inhumanity to man.
For the rest the British theatre seems to have adopted Alan Bennett's cheeky suggestion, on the occasion of Pinter's 50th birthday, that the best way to commemorate it would be with a two-minute silence.
"Who shall we give Literature to?"
"How about that British chap, Pinter?"
"Why do say that?"
"He's stupendously anti-American, you know."
"Very well, we give it to Pointer."
"Pinter. But we need a reason."
"Hmmmmm"
"Hmmmmmmmm. How about, we say it's because of his plays?"
"He writes plays?"
"So I've heard."
"All right then. Literature is done. How about Physics? Who for Physics?"
That would be the "Peace Prize."
From the Literary Encyclopedia's article on "The Caretaker," by Pinter:
"However, Davies is eventually invited to take up the position of caretaker, but his selfish and inconsiderate behaviour towards Aston leads to his being told by him to go."
Strike "to take up the position of," and replaced with "become." Strike "his being told by him to go." and replace with "his dismissal by Aston." At least I think that's who "by him" refers to; the article mixes up pronouns, also.
It's so poorly written, I would believe the author simply typed his own stream of consciousness. And this is a review of literature!
... more to the point, it's a review of literature from a lingustic perspective. The article is chiefly an explanation of the main charaters' apparent "bumbling inarticulacy."
(How bad is the article? It uses the mouthful, "discontinuities of register" in four consectuive sentences. By that phrase, the author means an abrupt shift in speaking styles, particularly between very formal and very coarse; apparently, this is the play's primary source of humor. Yet the reviewer cannot detect his own discontinuity, or redundancy, in the very phrase, "bumbling inarticulacy." "Bumbling" is such a basal word that it comes either from onomatopoeia or a blending of "bungle" and "stumble." On the other hand, "inarticulacy" is a combination of no less than five Latin roots; Even choosing the word "articulateness" could have introduced the slighest pastoral register.)
I see a LOT of live theater (I live in a major city and am a judge for our local theater awards), and I must confess, I've never understood the accolades for Pinter. He reminds me of John Cleese's classic description of the difference between an American and an Englishman: at dinner, the American says, "Pass the salt," while the Englishman says, "Uh...pardon me, but...ah...if it wouldn't too much bother...could you, uh...perhaps...consider...taking a moment to, ah...pass the, uh...salt...this general direction. Thank you so much!" Sometimes I just want to yell at Pinter's characters, "Oh for God's sake, if you actually have anything interesting to say, would you please spit it out?! I could watch two George Kaufman plays in the time it takes you to say 'Hello!'"
Enjoyed your characterization. My wife and I have also seen several Pinter plays, but I must confess to not knowing his dark side -- that is, what attracted the prize committee.
Gee, why not Saddam Hussein? He did write a romance novel and, unlike Pinter, he needs the dough.
Pinter is a hate-mongering polemicist and a bigot, pure and simple. This award is an insult and an endorsement of terrorist violence from the Swedish academy.
They don't have a Nobel Prize in my field. If they did, however, and I happened to win, I would go to the ceremony, approach the dais at the proper time, take the microphone and tell the Academy to shove it where the sun doesn't shine. I would then go up to Pinter and spit in his lying face. It would be worth a million bucks to see the reaction. What would they do? Put me in jail? In Sweden?
The play "My Bunion" by Pinter deserve to the Nobel Peace Prize. It was painful and was touted as "the corn on the heel of capitalism."
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