Art, Truth and Politics
Art, Truth and Politics | |
---|---|
Video by Harold Pinter | |
Released | March 2006 |
Recorded | December 2005 |
Genre | Nobel Lecture |
Length | 46 mins. |
Label | Illuminations |
Producer | Linda Zuck Executive Producers: John Wyver and Michael Kustow |
Review scores | |
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Source | Rating |
The Guardian | [1] |
Merritt, "Harold Pinter Bibliography" | [2] |
"Art, Truth and Politics" (also referred to and published as "Art, Truth & Politics" and Art, Truth and Politics) is the Nobel Lecture delivered on video by the 2005
The 46-minute videotaped lecture was projected on three large screens in front of the audience at the
, the full text and streaming video formats were posted for the public on the Nobel Prize and Swedish Academy official websites.A privately printed limited edition, Art, Truth and Politics: The Nobel Lecture, was published by
DVD and VHS video recordings of Pinter's Nobel Lecture (without Hare's introduction) are produced and distributed by Illuminations. This video recording of the lecture was introduced by Pinter's close friend, the writer Salman Rushdie, originator and chairman of PEN World Voices, and shown publicly in the United States for the first time at the Harold Pinter Memorial Celebration: A Tribute to Harold Pinter, at the Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, of The Graduate Center of The City University of New York, on 2 May 2009, as part of the 5th annual PEN World Voices Festival.[9][10]
The lecture caused much discussion, including criticism.
"Art, Truth and Politics": The Nobel Lecture
Speaking with obvious difficulty in the lecture while seated in a wheelchair, Pinter distinguishes between the search for truth in art and the avoidance of truth in politics (5–10).[7]
He describes his own artistic process of creating The Homecoming and Old Times, following an initial line or word or image, calling "the author's position" an "odd one" as, experiencing the "strange moment … of creating characters who up to that moment have had no existence," he must "play a never-ending game with them, cat and mouse, blind man's buff, hide and seek" during which "the search for the truth … has to be faced, right there, on the spot." Distinguishing among his plays The Birthday Party, Mountain Language, and Ashes to Ashes, he segues into his transitions from "the search for truth" in art and "the entirely different set of problems" facing the artist in "Political theatre" to the avoidance of seeking "truth" in "power politics" (5–9).
He asserts:
Political language, as used by politicians, does not venture into any of this territory [of the artist] since the majority of politicians, on the evidence available to us, are interested not in truth but in power and in the maintenance of that power. To maintain that power it is essential that people remain in ignorance, that they live in ignorance of the truth, even the truth of their own lives. What surrounds us therefore is a vast tapestry of lies, upon which we feed.
As every single person here knows, the justification for the
September 11, 2001. We were assured that this was true. It was not true. We were told that Iraq threatened the security of the world. We were assured it was true. It was not true.
The truth is something entirely different. The truth is to do with how the United States understands its role in the world and how it chooses to embody it.
Charging the United States with having "
It never happened. Nothing ever happened. Even while it was happening it wasn't happening. It didn't matter. It was of no interest. The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant, vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about them. You have to hand it to America. It has exercised a quite clinical manipulation of power worldwide while masquerading as a force for universal good. It's a brilliant, even witty, highly successful act of hypnosis
I put to you that the United States is without doubt the greatest show on the road. Brutal, indifferent, scornful and ruthless it may be but it is also very clever. As a salesman it is out on its own and its most saleable commodity is self-love. It's a winner. Listen to all American presidents on television say the words, 'the American people', as in the sentence, 'I say to the American people it is time to pray and to defend the rights of the American people and I ask the American people to trust their president in the action he is about to take on behalf of the American people.' (15)
In imagery recalling his description of "speech" as "a constant stratagem to cover nakedness", Pinter adds:
It's a scintillating stratagem. Language is actually employed to keep thought at bay. The words 'the American people' provide a truly voluptuous cushion of reassurance. You don't need to think. Just lie back on the cushion. The cushion may be suffocating your intelligence and your critical faculties but it's very comfortable. This does not apply of course to the 40 million people living below the poverty line and the 2 million men and women imprisoned in the vast gulag of prisons, which extends across the US. (16)
Toward the end of the lecture, after reading two poems referring to "blood in the streets", "deaths", "dead bodies", and "death" by fellow Nobel Laureate
Critical response
Pinter's Nobel Lecture has been the source of much discussion.
In response to his videotaped Nobel Lecture broadcast on
Pinter's official, authorised biographer,
The "Harold Pinter Community" Forum hosted on HaroldPinter.org, Pinter's official Website, illustrates further critical debate about Pinter's politics.
Being Harold Pinter
Pinter's Nobel Lecture is excerpted in a dramatic work developed and performed by the politically dissident
See also
References
- ^ David Hare, John Pilger, Tom Stoppard, and others have defended Pinter's views and the artistic integrity of his work against widespread critical assaults, as hyperlinked in various news reports covering responses to Pinter's Nobel Lecture in the Guardian.co.ukand other news sites.
- ^ a b c For critical responses and letters, see Merritt, "Harold Pinter Bibliography" 336–42.
- ^ "Harold Pinter Taken to Hospital", BBC News, BBC, 30 November 2005, Web, 7 May 2009.
- ^ a b For an example of an illustrated contemporaneous news account, see Lyall, "Playwright Takes a Prize and a Jab at U.S", which appeared in both New York Times and the International Herald Tribune, The New York Times Company, 8 December 2009, Web, 9 May 2009 [enlargeable photograph]; other national newspapers featured similar photographs of the audience watching these screens.
- More 4, Channel 4 (UK), 7 December 2005, Google Video, (posted) 16 November 2008. Web. Television. [Video clip posted by "Skylight Pictures" ("49:35 – Nov 16, 2008").]
- More 4 was launched by Channel Four Television Corporation on Pinter's 75th birthday, 10 October 2005, 3 days before the announcement of his winning the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature.
- ^ a b Pinter's "Nobel Lecture: Art, Truth & Politics" is posted online on the official website of the Nobel Prize, nobelprize.org. All in-text parenthetical references are to the Faber and Faber publication, Art, Truth & Politics.
- Faber and Faber, 7 May 2009, Web, 7 May 2009.
- ^ "Events: PEN World Voices Festival: Harold Pinter Memorial Celebration: Updated Schedule" Archived 14 June 2011 at the Wayback Machine, PEN World Voices Festival: The New York Festival of International Literature, Martin E. Segal Theatre Center, CUNY Graduate Center, 29 April 2009, Web, 7 May 2009.
- PEN American Center (pen.org), 29 April 2009, Web, 7 May 2009.
- ^ For a critical discussion of the contexts of Pinter's Nobel Lecture, see Merritt, "(Anti-)Global Pinter."
- Guardian, Arts blog – Theatre, Guardian Media Group, 16 April 2007, Web, 8 May 2009.
- ^ "Belarus Gala Evening" Archived 13 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Soho Theatre, London, Soho Theatre Company Ltd, n.d., Web, 15 January 2008.
- PEN presents Belarus Free Theatre: 11–23 February 2008," Soho Theatre, London, Soho Theatre Company Ltd, [Feb. 2008], Web, 29 January 2009. (Includes excerpts from press reviews of London premiere of Being Harold Pinter and Generation Jeans.)
- Guardian.co.uk, Culture: Stage: Theatre, Guardian Media Group, 18 February 2008, Web, 8 May 2009.
- News Corporation, 20 February 2008, Web, 30 January 2009.
- ^ "An Arresting Performance – Literally", Sydney Morning Herald, Fairfax Media, 15 December 2008, Web, 7 May 2009.
- ^ "Free Theatre's Performance Was Watched by Militia", "News from Belarus", Charter '97 Press Center, 8 November 2007, Web, 7 May 2009. (About "The Free Theatre's performance Being Harold Pinter ... shown in Minsk 7 November.")
- ^ John Del Signore, "Mark Russell, Under the Radar Festival" Archived 14 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine, interview with Mark Russell, Gothamist (Blog), Gothamist LLC, 10 January 2008, Web, 10 January 2008.
- ^ John Del Signore, "Pencil This In: Theater" Archived 14 August 2009 at the Wayback Machine, Gothamist (Blog), Gothamist LLC, 11 January 2008, Web, 12 January 2008.
Works cited
- Primary sources
–––. "Art, Truth and Politics: The Nobel Lecture".
–––. The Essential Pinter: Selections from the Work of Harold Pinter. New York:
–––. Various Voices: Sixty Years of Prose, Poetry, Politics 1948–2008. 3rd ed. 1998, 2005. London:
- Secondary sources
Allen-Mills, Tony. "This Pinter Guy Could Turn Into a Pain".
Anderson, Porter. "Harold Pinter: Theater's Angry Old Man: At the Prize of Europe, the Playwright Is All Politics." CNN.com. CNN, 17 March 2006. Web. 2 October 2007.
–––. Harold Pinter. London:
–––. "The Importance of Being Pinter: A New Production by the Belarus Free Theatre Reinforces the Global Resonance of the British Playwright's Political Works."
–––. "Passionate Pinter's Devastating Assault On US Foreign Policy: Shades of Beckett As Ailing Playwright Delivers Powerful Nobel Lecture."
Bond, Paul. "Harold Pinter's Artistic Achievement". World Socialist Web Site. World Socialist Web Site, 29 December 2005. Web. 2 October 2007.
"Bush and Blair Slated by Pinter". BBC News. BBC, 7 December 2005. Web. 2 October 2007. (Features related links.)
Chrisafis, Angelique, and Imogen Tilden. "Pinter Blasts 'Nazi America' and 'deluded idiot' Blair".
Eden, Richard, and Tim Walker. "Mandrake: A Pinteresque Silence".
Ferguson, Niall. "Personal View: Do the Sums, Then Compare US and Communist Crimes from the Cold War". Daily Telegraph. Telegraph Media Group, 11 December 2005. Web. 9 May 2009.
Freed, Donald. "The Courage of Harold Pinter". Presentation at Artist and Citizen: 50 Years of Performing Pinter. University of Leeds, 13 April 2007. Another America. Donald Freed, Apr. 2007. Web. 28 May 2007.
"Harold Pinter Meets Free Theatre in Leeds". Press release. Belarus Free Theatre. Belarus Free Theatre, 2 May 2007. Web. 2 October 2007. [English version has some typographical errors; also accessible in Belarusian [p??????] and in French [français]. Features photographs reposted from Mark Taylor-Batty's University of Leeds Website for the conference Artist and Citizen: 50 Years of Performing Pinter.]
Hickling, Alfred. "Being Harold Pinter ***** Workshop, University of Leeds".
Hitchens, Christopher. "Opinion: The Sinister Mediocrity of Harold Pinter". Wall Street Jour. 17 October 2005, A18. Print. Wall Street Journal (Dow Jones & Company), 17 October 2005. Web. 7 May 2009. [Electronic ed.; printable version "for personal, non-commercial use only."]
Howard, Jennifer. "Nobel Prize in Literature Goes to Harold Pinter, British Playwright Widely Studied in Academe". Chronicle of Higher Education. Chronicle of Higher Education, 13 October 2006. Web. 2 October 2007.
Hudgins, Christopher C. "The Nobel Prize Festivities: Stockholm, December 2005. A Joyous Report." The Pinter Review: Nobel Prize/Europe Theatre Prize Volume: 2005 – 2008. Ed. Francis Gillen with Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2008. 43–50. Print.
Lyall, Sarah. "Playwright Takes a Prize and a Jab at U.S." New York Times. New York Times Company, 8 December 2006. Web. 2 October 2007. [Correction appended 10 December 2005: "An article on Thursday about the playwright Harold Pinter's criticism of American foreign policy in his acceptance speech for the Nobel Prize for literature described it incompletely. He said that both President Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair – and not just Prime Minister Blair – should be tried before the International Criminal Court of Justice for the invasion of Iraq."]
[McDowell, Leslie.] "Book Festival Reviews: Pinter at 75: The Anger Still Burns: Harold Pinter". The Scotsman 26 August 2006: 5. Print. The Scotsman Publications Limited (Johnston Press Plc), (updated) 27 August 2006. Web. 6 January 2009.
Merritt, Susan Hollis. "(Anti-)Global Pinter." The Pinter Review: Nobel Prize/Europe Theatre Prize Volume: 2005 – 2008. Ed. Francis Gillen with Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2008. 140–67. Print.
–––. "Nobel Week 2005–The Experience of a Lifetime: Homage to Harold Pinter." The Pinter Review: Nobel Prize/Europe Theatre Prize Volume: 2005 – 2008. Ed. Francis Gillen with Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2008. 51–65. Print.
–––, comp. "Harold Pinter Bibliography: 2002–2004 With a Special Supplement on the 2005 Nobel Prize in Literature, October 2005 – May 2006." The Pinter Review: Nobel Prize/Europe Theatre Prize Volume: 2005 – 2008. Ed. Francis Gillen with Steven H. Gale. Tampa: U of Tampa P, 2008. 261–343. Print.
"The Nobel Prize for Literature 2005: Harold Pinter".
Parini, Jay. "Theater: Pinter's Plays, Pinter's Politics". Chronicle of Higher Education, Chronicle Rev. Chronicle of Higher Education, 11 November 2005. World Wide Web. 2 October 2007. (3 pages.)
Riddell, Mary. "Comment: Prophet without Honour: Harold Pinter Can Be Cantankerous and Puerile. But He Is a Worthy Nobel Prizewinner."
Smith, Neil. " 'Political element' to Pinter Prize?" BBC News. BBC, 13 October 2005. Web. 2 October 2007.
Traub, James. "The Way We Live Now: Their Highbrow Hatred of Us". New York Times Mag.. New York Times Company, 30 October 2005. Web. 30 October 2005.
External links
External videos | |
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Nobel Lecture by Harold Pinter on YouTube |
- Art, Truth & Politics. Illuminations, 2006.
- Art, Truth and Politics: The Nobel Lecture at Faber and Faber(Pinter's publisher in the UK).
- "Art, Truth and Politics: The Nobel Lecture" in The Essential Pinter, published by Grove Press (Pinter's publisher in the US).
- "Art, Truth & Politics" in Publications of the Modern Language Association (PMLA) 121.3 (2006): 811–18.
- "Bio-Bibliography" for Harold Pinter at nobelprize.org.
- HaroldPinter.org: The Official Website of the International Playwright Harold Pinter.
- "Nobel Lecture: Art, Truth & Politics" Video (46 mins.) and "The Lecture in Text Format" in the original English and in French, German, and Swedish translations at nobelprize.org.