A Sad Day for the Arts…. and for Humanity.

Photo: Harold Pinter in Samuel Beckett's Krapp's Last Tape

“I am stronger than Mensa, Miller and Mailer
I spat out Plath and Pinter”
(Manic Street Preachers – Faster/Holy Bible).

This Weblog is sad to have learnt of the passing of Harold Pinter, the esteemed British playright, author, actor and political activist, and much more besides, who died from cancer on the 24th December 2008.

Now whilst I personally did not agree with the stance Harold Pinter took to some issues, his writing as well as his dedication to many causes with which I did share an affinity were, are, and will remain an inspiration to myself and doubtless many others who have still to discover his work.

Works:

Pinter’s works are far too numerous to discuss, however their significance can be noted by the use of his name as an adjective “Pinteresque” to describe the atmosphere of threat within his plays, produced by colloquial language, carefully timed pauses, mixed with triviality. Or as the “Swedish Academy” (Nobel Prize) detailed it:

“Pinter restored theatre to its basic elements: an enclosed space and unpredictable dialogue, where people are at the mercy of each other and pretence crumbles. With a minimum of plot, drama emerges from the power struggle and hide-and-seek of interlocution. Pinter’s drama was first perceived as a variation of absurd theatre, but has later more aptly been characterised as ‘comedy of menace’, a genre where the writer allows us to eavesdrop on the play of domination and submission hidden in the most mundane of conversations. In a typical Pinter play, we meet people defending themselves against intrusion or their own impulses by entrenching themselves in a reduced and controlled existence. Another principal theme is the volatility and elusiveness of the past.”

- The Swedish Academy, The Nobel Prize in Literature 2005, The Nobel Foundation, NobelPrize.org, Oct. 2005.

Politics:

Harold Pinter was involved in a large number of political causes. His political views developed after he became a conscientious objector when he was eighteen, in 1946. In 1966 he expressed ambivalence about politicians. He was an early member of the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament in the United Kingdom and supported the British Anti-Apartheid Movement, participating in British artists’ refusal to permit professional productions of their work in South Africa in 1963 and in subsequent related campaigns.

He was active in International PEN, serving as vice-president, along with American playwright Arthur Miller. They travelled together on a mission to Turkey, in 1985, to protest against the torture of writers in prison. At an American Embassy dinner in Ankara they were asked to leave after confronting the ambassador with the realities of torture. Later commenting “Being thrown out of the US embassy in Ankara with Arthur Miller—a voluntary exile—was one of the proudest moments in my life.” He became a vocal supporter of the Kurdish cause, as well as being active in other solidarity groups such as the Cuba Solidarity Campaign, and in 2001 Pinter joined the International Committee to Defend Slobodan Milošević (ICDSM), which appealed for a fair trial for, and more controversially the freedom of, Slobodan Milošević; he signed a related “Artists’ Appeal for Milošević” in 2004.

Being a conscientious objector clearly continued to influence his political campaigning, and it is his views regarding war that are perhaps his most famous politically. He opposed the 1991 Gulf War, the 1999 NATO bombing campaign in Yugoslavia during the Kosovo War, the 2001 War in Afghanistan, and the 2003 Invasion of Iraq. In his support for the Stop the War Coalition he has spoken out against George Bush and Tony Blair and on the stage at the massive demonstrations on 15 February 2003, in Hyde Park, London, stated: “The planned attack on Iraq is an act of premeditated mass murder.”

Notably his other political causes have revolved around Jewish support for the palestinians, signing the mission statement for “Jews for Justice for Palestinians”, as well as writing articles on the website of Noam Chomsky “Letters from Pinter, Saramago, Chomsky and Berger”. And In February 2007 The Independent reported that, along with historian Eric Hobsbawm, human rights lawyer Geoffrey Bindman, fashion designer Nicole Farhi, film director Mike Leigh, and actors Stephen Fry and Zoë Wanamaker, among others, Harold Pinter launched the organization Independent Jewish Voices in the United Kingdom “to represent British Jews … in response to a perceived pro-Israeli bias in existing Jewish bodies in the UK”, and, according to Hobsbawm, “as a counter-balance to the uncritical support for Israeli policies by established bodies such as the Board of Deputies of British Jews.” He also spoke out against the New York Theatre Workshop’s decision to cancel the production of “My Name is Rachel Corrie” calling their decision an act of cowardice amounting to self censorship.

Perhaps his last public political outing was in mid June 2008 when he opposed the police ban on a Stop the War Coalition demonstration. Calling the ban an act of Totalitarianism, and making the term democracy “laughable”. Supporting the decision to defy the ban.

Prizes, Honours and Positions:

Pinter received nineteen honourary degrees, most recently from the Central School of Speech and Drama in absentia due to illness on 10 December 2008. He has also received many other honours and awards, including; the David Cohen Prize, the Laurence Olivier Special Award and becoming a BAFTA Fellow, and received the World Leaders Award for “Creative Genius”, and the Wilfred Owen Award for Poetry… not to mention of course the Nobel Prize for Literature, and the French Légion d’honneur.

He was an Honorary Associate of the National Secular Society, a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature, and an Honorary Fellow of the Modern Language Association of America. Furthermore, he was appointed CBE in 1966 and became a Companion of Honour in 2002 (having previously declined a knighthood in 1996).

For a fuller list of the many awards, and honours, see this list here.

Video:

You can watch Harold Pinter;’s Nobel Prize acceptance speech online.

Obituaries:

Here are a few words from the vast array of people who will remember Harold Pinter:
The BBC
The Guardian
CNN
The Telegraph
NPR
The Times
The New York Times
The Irish Times
The Independent
Broadway World
The Daily Beast

Harold the world is a better place for the effort you put in to make it so… for this we owe you a debt of gratitude. For your words and deeds both entertain and guide us all to greater things. But today as we remember you, we shall speak softly of the dead, who are all around us.

For further information about the life and works of Harold Pinter. A website can be found here and contains a whole host of information.