Death
POETRY FORMAT, 14 Aug 2017
Harold Pinter, Nobel Literature Laureate – TRANSCEND Media Service
Where was the dead body found?
Who found the dead body?
Was the dead body dead when found?
How was the dead body found?
Who was the dead body?
Who was the father or daughter or brother
Or uncle or sister or mother or son
Of the dead and abandoned body?
Was the body dead when abandoned?
Was the body abandoned?
By whom had it been abandoned?
Was the dead body naked or dressed for a journey?
What made you declare the dead body dead?
Did you declare the dead body dead?
How well did you know the dead body?
How did you know the dead body was dead?
Did you wash the dead body
Did you close both its eyes
Did you bury the body
Did you leave it abandoned
Did you kiss the dead body
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Harold Pinter (10 Oct 1930 – 24 Dec 2008) was a Literature Nobel Prize (2005)-winning English playwright, screenwriter, director and actor. One of the most influential modern British dramatists, his writing career spanned more than 50 years. His best-known plays include The Birthday Party (1957), The Homecoming (1964), and Betrayal (1978), each of which he adapted for the screen. His screenplay adaptations of others’ works include The Servant (1963), The Go-Between (1970), The French Lieutenant’s Woman (1981), The Trial (1993), and Sleuth (2007). He also directed or acted in radio, stage, television, and film productions of his own and others’ works.
This article originally appeared on Transcend Media Service (TMS) on 14 Aug 2017.
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Yow! No exit here, no easy way out! One is “hooked” from the first line. It’s all about dead, dead, dead. Focus on the reality of the dead body. What to do with it? How to treat it. What does a life amount to? Pinter is relentless here–as he should be!
I knew Pinter was one of the 20th Century’s greatest playwrights. (BTW, his powerful, timely, politically-charged Nobel Prize acceptance speech probably merits reprinting at TMS.) I did not know of his poetic talents. Thanks for informing us!
Dear Gary, here it is (from NOBEL LAUREATES, 5 October 2015):
https://www.transcend.org/tms/2015/10/nobel-acceptance-speech-art-truth-politics/
Yes, I will repost the piece.
Greetings.
Antonio
Thanks for posting this important Nobel Prize speech by Pinter, Antonio. In the past, I read excerpts here and there. Now I have saved the speech in its entirety to my files and can read it, digest it, contemplate it. Pinter makes great statements about the role of the artist–the political importance of the artist. Too few modern academics–or artists!–acknowledge that role! And we are all poorer because of that failure to acknowledge.