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| Harold Pinter wins Nobel Prize in Literature http://www.bbfans.co.uk/viewtopic.php?f=49&t=22667 |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 13 Oct 05, 14:34 ] |
| Post subject: | Harold Pinter wins Nobel Prize in Literature |
HAROLD PINTER WINS PRIZE British playwright Harold Pinter has won the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature. The 75-year-old beat the favourites, a Syrian poet and a Turkish writer, to take the top literary honour. His win was announced by the Swedish Academy. A spokesman described Pinter as an author "who in his plays uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression's closed rooms." He has written more than 30 plays, including The Room, The Birthday Party, The Dumb Waiter and The Caretaker. They are known for their cool menacing pauses and have earned him numerous awards. He has also written poetry, prose and screen adaptations, as well as turning his hand to directing and even acting in films and plays. But he is almost as well known for his uncompromising political beliefs. He turned down then Prime Minister John Major's offer of a knighthood and has been an outspoken critic of the war in Iraq, calling Prime Minister Tony Blair a "deluded idiot" and President Bush a "mass murderer". The favourite to win had been Syrian poet Adonis, real name Ali Ahmad Said, who fled Lebanon in the 1980s. Other contenders included Turkish writer Orhan Pamuk, South Korean poet Ko Un, Canadian author Margaret Atwood, the Czech Republic's Milan Kundera, Belgian poet Hugo Claus, Italian poet Claudio Magris and Indonesian novelist Pramoedya Ananta Toer. The academy was founded in 1786 by King Gustav III and has handed out the literature prize since 1901. Skynews |
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| Author: | Madeline [ 14 Oct 05, 14:54 ] |
| Post subject: | |
Pinter: Torture and misery in name of freedom The great poet Wilfred Owen articulated the tragedy, the horror - and indeed the pity - of war in a way no other poet has. Yet we have learnt nothing. Nearly 100 years after his death the world has become more savage, more brutal, more pitiless. But the "free world" we are told, as embodied in the United States and Great Britain, is different to the rest of the world since our actions are dictated and sanctioned by a moral authority and a moral passion condoned by someone called God. Some people may find this difficult to comprehend but Osama Bin Laden finds it easy. What would Wilfred Owen make of the invasion of Iraq? A bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of International Law. An arbitrary military action inspired by a series of lies upon lies and gross manipulation of the media and therefore of the public. An act intended to consolidate American military and economic control of the Middle East masquerading - as a last resort (all other justifications having failed to justify themselves) - as liberation. A formidable assertion of military force responsible for the death and mutilation of thousands upon thousands of innocent people. An independent and totally objective account of the Iraqi civilian dead in the medical magazine The Lancet estimates that the figure approaches 100,000. But neither the US or the UK bother to count the Iraqi dead. As General Tommy Franks of US Central Command memorably said: "We don't do body counts". We have brought torture, cluster bombs, depleted uranium, innumerable acts of random murder, misery and degradation to the Iraqi people and call it " bringing freedom and democracy to the Middle East". But, as we all know, we have not been welcomed with the predicted flowers. What we have unleashed is a ferocious and unremitting resistance, mayhem and chaos. You may say at this point: what about the Iraqi elections? Well, President Bush himself answered this question when he said: "We cannot accept that there can be free democratic elections in a country under foreign military occupation". I had to read that statement twice before I realised that he was talking about Lebanon and Syria. What do Bush and Blair actually see when they look at themselves in the mirror? I believe Wilfred Owen would share our contempt, our revulsion, our nausea and our shame at both the language and the actions of the American and British governments. Adapted by Harold Pinter from a speech he delivered on winning the Wilfred Owen Award earlier this year 'A colossal figure' "You have no idea how I happy I am that you have won the Nobel Prize for Literature. I think you absolutely deserve it." Vaclav Havel, PLAYWRIGHT AND FORMER CZECH PRESIDENT (BY TELEGRAM TO PINTER) "As a writer, Harold has been unswerving for 50 years. With his earliest work he stood alone in British theatre up against the bewilderment and incomprehension of critics, the audience and writers too." Sir Tom Stoppard, PLAYWRIGHT "It couldn't have happened to a nicer person and it's a most fitting award." Sir Alan Ayckbourn, ACTOR, WRITER AND DIRECTOR "He has blown fresh air into the musty attic of conventional English literature by insisting that everything he does has a public and political dimension." David Hare, PLAYWRIGHT "Harold Pinter has been a colossal figure in British literature for nearly 50 years ... I'm delighted that he's now been further recognised with the Nobel Prize." Tessa Jowell, CULTURE SECRETARY Independent |
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