Harold Pinter 1930-2008

[MovieMogul]

Rest in Peace.

[Kythereia]

Aw, damn.

[pseudotriton_ruber_ruber]

(beat)

[GrandWino]

(another beat)

The master of the menacing silence will have his longest pause yet. RIP.

[Equipoise]

I loved his zingers toward Bush.

Pinter is an outspoken endorser of the call The World Can’t Wait, Drive Out the Bush Regime. And, when Pinter won the Nobel Prize in Literature, he used his acceptance speech on December 7 to launch a blistering attack on George Bush and the British government, and a challenge to the conscience of people to not stand by in the face of Bush’s crimes. Ill with cancer and unable to appear in person, Pinter spoke via video:

"Look at Guantánamo Bay," he demanded. "Hundreds of people detained without charge for over three years, with no legal representation or due process, technically detained forever. This totally illegitimate structure is maintained in defiance of the Geneva Convention. It is not only tolerated but hardly thought about by what’s called the ‘international community.’ This criminal outrage is being committed by a country which declares itself to be ‘the leader of the free world.’ Do we think about the inhabitants of Guantánamo Bay? What does the media say about them? They pop up occasionally--a small item on page six. They have been consigned to a no man’s land from which indeed they may never return. At present many are on hunger strike, being force-fed, including British residents. No niceties in these force-feeding procedures. No sedative or anaesthetic. Just a tube stuck up your nose and into your throat. You vomit blood. This is torture."

Pinter condemned the invasion of Iraq:

"a bandit act, an act of blatant state terrorism, demonstrating absolute contempt for the concept of international law. The invasion was 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 and thousands of innocent people."

I laughed out loud when I read this:

Employing his cutting command of irony, Pinter volunteered to write a speech for Bush:

"God is good. God is great. God is good. My God is good. Bin Laden’s God is bad. His is a bad God. Saddam’s God was bad, except he didn’t have one. He was a barbarian. We are not barbarians. We don’t chop people’s heads off. We believe in freedom. So does God. I am not a barbarian. I am the democratically elected leader of a freedom-loving democracy. We are a compassionate society. We give compassionate electrocution and compassionate lethal injection. We are a great nation. I am not a dictator. He is. I am not a barbarian. He is. And he is. They all are. I possess moral authority. You see this fist? This is my moral authority. And don’t you forget it." 

Damn, Eartha Kitt and Harold Pinter. Damn.

[Sevastopol]

@Equipoise

…
Damn, Eartha Kitt and Harold Pinter. Damn.

Perhaps they’ve arranged to hook up. Always was one for the ladies our Harold. Hmm I feel like a cheese roll.