Background

Harold Pinter grew up in a thoroughly middle-class family, but like most kids in London fell in love with an active and physical sports scene. Unfortunately for the purpose of this Soccer/Literature/Life Lesson mash-up of a blog, he was more deeply invested in Cricket. (Don’t worry, I will not try to squeeze Nobel winners onto a Cricket side…although maybe if I get my head around enough Booker Prize winners…)

Pinter’s physicality and directness translated pretty clearly into his work. He started as an actor, then became a writer, and ultimately seemed to do just about everything there was to do in putting on a show short of selling salted nuts at intermission. His wide and varied work became a critical building block for modern drama and ultimately earned him the Nobel in 2005 for how his work “uncovers the precipice under everyday prattle and forces entry into oppression’s closed rooms.”

Works

Ben: If I say go and light the kettle I mean go and light the kettle.
Gus: How can you light a kettle?
Ben: It’s a figure of speech! Light the kettle. It’s a figure of speech!
Gus: I’ve never heard it…I think you’ve got it wrong…They say put on the kettle.

–The Dumbwaiter

Jerry:  Listen to me [Emma]. It’s true. Listen. You overwhelm me. You’re so lovely. You’re so beautiful. Look at the way you’re looking at me. Look at the way you’re looking at me. I can’t wait for you. I’m bowled over, I’m totally knocked out, you dazzle me, you jewel, my jewel, I can’t ever sleep again, no, listen, it’s the truth, I won’t walk, I’ll be a cripple, I’ll descend, I’ll diminish, into total paralysis, my life is in your hands, that’s what you’re banishing me to, a state of catatonia, do you know the state of catatonia? Do you? Do you? The state of … where the reigning prince is the prince of emptiness, the prince of absence, the prince of desolation.

–Betrayal

We blew them into f***ing sh**
They are eating it.

Praise the Lord for all good things.

We blew their ****s into shards of dust,
Into shards of f***ing dust.

We did it.

Now I want you to come over here
and kiss me on the mouth”

–American Football

Message

Pinter is absolutely political, incisive, and direct. Yet he also revels in silences, quiet, and absurdist humor. There are no shortage of lessons and influences that he has had in theater and film. To pick one key lesson from the many on offer, I feel a clear resonance with the idea that what we say, and what we omit is both our greatest weapon and our only defense.

Position: #9 Striker

While I hate to disagree with a very funny Vice article that connects Pinter to legendary defensive manager/egomaniac Jose Mourinho (while also taking a swipe at Manchester City as the Andrew Lloyd Weber of British Soccer), to me Pinter is absolutely an attacking player. Unlike many other dramatists who I have slotted into the creative midfield role, Pinter’s sharpness and wit (and less overt reliance on stage directions to manipulate every moment of the story) feels more appropriate for a striker. I had a brief pause considering how frequently he enjoys leaving out clear endings (given that striker goals are always a clear end point), but perhaps he’s more of a chaos agent striker (like Diego Costa or Darwin Nunez). (84-88?)

Next Time, I’m feeling like I’m on such a role, let’s knock off some laureates I’ve missed!! Let’s read the OG Nobel Winner: Sully Prudhomme!