Pinter Wins Nobel Prize in Literature

[obnoxiousdrunk]

STOCKHOLM, Sweden - British playwright Harold Pinter, who juxtaposed the brutal and the banal in such works as "The Caretaker" and "The Birthday Party" and made an art form out of spare language and unbearable silence, won the 2005 Nobel Prize in literature Thursday.
Pinter "in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms," the Swedish Academy said. The chilling, understated style of his work even inspired an adjective all his own: Pinteresque.

"I feel quite overwhelmed," Pinter, 75, said outside his London home. "I had absolutely no idea."

He said he was "speechless" when told he had won, but added: "I have to stop being speechless when I get to Stockholm."

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051013/ap_on_en_ot/nobel_literature

[Burma Jones]

1. All I can Say is...

It's





-pause-








About








-pause-









Time

[peekaloo]

2. Well deserved and about time!

:toast:

[xchrom]

3. excellent!

and past time -- love harold pinter.

[HuckleB]

4. Sweet.

[nodehopper]

5. so well-deserved!

[Shakespeare]

6. EXCELLENT choice.

And the timing is just about right. Well done, committee.

[mallard]

7. Re: a little good news...

... can go a long way lately.

[Monkey see Monkey Do]

8. Excellent! -- Listen to his latest work "Voices"

here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio3/speechanddrama/voices_pinter.shtml

[flowomo]

9. that's such a trivial prize, though! Here's the real deal:

www.cumberlink.com/articles/2005/10/13/editorial/rich_lewis/lewis01.txt

[msanthrope]

10. Wonderful!!! Congratulations Mr. Pinter! n/t

[drmom]

11. I love his work...

...this is well deserved!

[mitchum]

12. YESSSS!!!!!!!!!

well deserved and long overdue

[Orsino]

13. But for what, exactly?

The story gives no hint. Is this a sort of lifetime achievement award, or was a particular work cited?

I loved The Birthday Party and the one-act The Dumb Waiter (worked on college productions), and thought the movie of Betrayal was cool.

[muriel_volestrangler]

14. The Nobel Literature prize is normally for a lifetime

I think occasionally they may pick out a particular work, but normally it's for al lthe author has done.

[Stockholm]

15. LOL great choice!

Will be interesting to see what Bliar has to say about this honour to the UK.

"Over time, his attention turned to the world at large. A vocal critic of the market economics of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s — he said his vote for her in 1979 was "idiotic, infantile" — his work became more overtly political.

"The New World Order," billed as "a short satiric response to the Gulf War," was a 10-minute play whose title derives from a phrase used by then-President George Bush. In 2003, Pinter published a volume of anti-war poetry about the current Iraq conflict. He later joined a group of celebrities calling for the impeachment of Blair, who sent British troops to Iraq."

http://wire.jacksonville.com/pstories/entertainment/20051013/3358170.shtml

[Judi Lynn]

16. Pinter wonders if anti-Iraq war cry helped him to Nobel glory

Pinter wonders if anti-Iraq war cry helped him to Nobel glory
By AFP, London
Fri, 14 Oct 2005, 11:15:00


Harold Pinter, Britain's greatest living playwright, is unsure whether the Nobel committee gave him its esteemed prize for literature in part because of his fierce opposition to the US-led war in Iraq.

The Times newspaper also speculated Friday on whether the Swedish Academy had seen Pinter, who wrote his signature works almost half a century ago, as the sharpest stick with which to "poke America in the eye" this year.

Other newspapers merely celebrated the news that the 75-year-old master of the heavy pause had received the 2005 Nobel Prize for literature.

Pinter, who is also well known as an outspoken political campaigner, revealed he only found out he had won the 1.3-million-dollar award about 20 minutes before the official announcement on Thursday.

"They called me and said you're going to receive a call from the chairman of the Nobel committee and I think I said 'why'," he told the Guardian newspaper.
(snip/...)

http://nation.ittefaq.com/artman/publish/article_22471.shtml

[malaise]

17. Check out his comments

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/article319540.ece

[yellowcanine]

18. Check out Pinter's poems about Iraq

God Bless America

Here they go again,
The Yanks in their armoured parade
Chanting their ballads of joy
As they gallop across the big world
Praising America's God.

The gutters are clogged with the dead
The ones who couldn't join in
The others refusing to sing
The ones who are losing their voice
The ones who've forgotten the tune.

The riders have whips which cut.
Your head rolls onto the sand
Your head is a pool in the dirt
Your head is a stain in the dust
Your eyes have gone out and your nose
Sniffs only the pong of the dead
And all the dead air is alive
With the smell of America's God.
Harold Pinter January 2003


Democracy

There's no escape.
The big pricks are out.
They'll fuck everything in sight.
Watch your back.

Harold Pinter Februrary 2003