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As to John Grisham who sells a lot more novels than I or most likely you and sells one of each to me: De gustibus, non disputandem est. I like him a lot more than I should like James Baldwin or other leftist trash.

I used Allen Ginsberg as an example of Beats. I trust you are not going to call him pro-American."

I wasted time and money on a Pinter Play or two (one of them with actors popping out of garbage cans: Waiting for Godot???). That will do for a lifetime. I have but one life to live and I am determined not to waste it watching Theater of the Absurd now that I have grown up.

As to the "arts community" in general, Pinter's "dramas" were "hugely important and influential" to whom???? The usual crowd of arts arbiters and college professors and pseudo-intellects whose politics may be found well to the left of Mao-Tse Tung???? I am soooo impressed!!!! Oh, and I forgot the English Profs who make a living telling you what authors MEANT to say when they said the precise opposite. I also do not listen to NPR or watch "public" television programming except on an extremely selective basis. I can think for myself and I do.

Kerouac stood out as an exception but not enough of one to cleanse the reputation of the beats.

Also, Grisham entertains which is more than Pinter could say and a good explanation ofd why he was so much more successful without his works being required by the leftist professoriate.

Finally to cement my reputation as a hopeless philistine, wasn't Whitman a lavender queen????

Whitman was probably gay. Does that negate his standing as a poet? Baldwin was gay too btw and is one of those writers who croses political boundaries. Even people who disagree with his ideas think so. As opposed to say Richard Wright who was more of an literary political activist than a great writer.

And 'Waiting for Godot' is Beckett not Pinter. What the author 'meant' to say is irelevant. What matters is what's on the page and what could be derived from there. I don't care what Shakespeare 'meant'. I care about the text of Hamlet.