Customer Reviews (1)

Harold Pinter
Harold Pinter and the Language of Cultural Power was one of the first critical/theoretical studies on Pinter.I read the book years ago while in graduate school, and after Pinter's recent death, I decided to re-read this seminal work.I am impressed by how this book has stood the test of time. Dr. Marc Silverstein's rigorous intellectual approach and keen theoretical insight make this book a must for serious Pinter readers and scholars. ... Read more

Product Description
Throughout his life, playwright and political activist Harold Pinter has consistently cast light on the hypocrisy of conformist truths in pure and simple terms. Awarded the Wilfred Owen Prize in 2004 for his poetry condemning U.S. military intervention in Iraq, Mr. Pinter has succeeded as no other of his generation in combining his artistry with his political activism. Death etc. brings together Pinter’s most poignant and especially relevant writings in this time of war. From chilling psychological portraits of those who commit atrocities in the name of a higher power, to essays on the state-sponsored terrorism of present-day regimes, to solemn hymns commemorating the faceless masses that perish unrecognized, Mr. Pinter’s writings are as essential to the preservation of open debate as to our awareness of personal involvement in the fate of our global community. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (2)

Courageous, well-written, with some exception
In DEATH, ETC., Harold Pinter takes a strong stand against the war in Iraq, President George W. Bush, and Prime Minister Tony Blair. His anti-war stance in Great Britain compares well to that of the late Susan Sontag in the United States. He is courageous in criticizing both George W. Bush and Tony Blair, and amply demonstrates that in order to be a good citizen, you do not have to believe that your leaders are always right, and that it is patriotic to criticize them when they are wrong. Unfortunately, from time to time, he uses profane language, which does damage to the book on the overall.

A literary catharsis
That social change takes an exceedingly long time can perhaps be taken as an axiom, and an enormous amount of human energy is needed to bring about this change. When goals seem elusive, when discouragement sets in, and when it seems that one has no influence over current events, literature can offer temporary consolation. Strings of words formed into sentences, grammatically perfect or not, can act as a literary catharsis: they activate the proper neurons in the brain, instigating momentary comfort.

This small collection of works definitely qualifies for this purpose, and of course much more. One can of course read the poetry, the plays, and the various snippets for their own narrative beauty. It would be difficult though to distance oneself from their content. They are not politically or morally neutral. The author lashes out. But considering current world events, his vituperative excesses seem benign by comparison.

Here's some of the arithmetic in the book:

The equation of the United States government, full spectrum control = control of air + land + sea + space, must be corrected: Full-spectrum dominance = control of air + land + sea + space + control of the world's resources.

United States invasion of Iraq = totally unjustified + illegal + illegitimate + criminal act + act of state terrorism.

The Bush/Blair equation: freedom + democracy + liberation = death + destruction + chaos.

Bush + Blair = bandits + war criminals.

Democracy + The Old Days + The "Special Relationship" + The Bombs + Weather Forecast + After Lunch + Meeting + Death = short + painful to read + accurate reflection of a yellow regime.

These equations are all correct. ... Read more

Product Description
Two plays in one volume: "Mountain Language" - "extraordinarily economical and extraordinarily chilling"; and "Ashes to Ashes" - "dark, elegiac play, studded with brutally and swaggeringly funny jokes". ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

Powerful indictment of language police
This book, which I had read before (I gave my copy to a friend and so ordered a new one), is a short, terse, and very powerful testament to the cruelty of interfering with the language rights of others.I read somewhere that Pinter got the idea from an incident in Turkey--the same one that led to the establishment of International Mother Language Day in February.I think every two-bit "English Only" enthusiast in this country should read this book, if they're able to.

Perhaps Pinter's most successful political play
Harold Pinter's MOUNTAIN LANGUAGE is a short play in four scenes inspired by the oppression of the Kurds in Turkey. As the play begins, we see a group of women waiting all day through snowfall and intimidation by dogs to visit their imprisoned husbands and sons, . Pinter's "political" plays have always explored how individuals and governments exercise power over their fellow man, and here Pinter concentrates on how oppressive regimes have broken the spirits of minorities by banning their language:

"OFFICER: Your language is dead. It is forbidden. It is not permitted to speak your mountain language in this place. You cannot speak your language to your men. It is not permitted. Do you understand? You may not speak it. It is outlawed. You may only speak the language of the capital... Your language is forbidden.. It is dead. No one is allowed to speak your language. Your language no longer exists. Any questions?"

This prohibition continues even in the case of an elderly woman who does not speak the "language of the capital". She cannot communicate with her son in the prisoner because her language is banned and she has no other means. The third scene, where a woman is sent through the wrong door and sees her husband hooded and shackled and realizes that sleeping with the commandant is the only way to save her husband, is especially unnerving.

MOUNTAIN LANGUAGE has the same absurdist tendencies and odd turns of phrase as Pinter's other political plays, such as "Precisely" and "Party Time", but on the whole is one of his most successful works.

Buried Language
While the theater of the absurd is often regarded as distant and alienating for readers, it often carries the most profound examinations of social and historical flaws.MOUNTAIN LANGUAGE, by Harold Pinter, is aruthlessly bitter and comic examination of the conditions of prisons wheremen and women are treated without regard as if they weren't part of thehuman race at all.In a broader context, it examines human separatism andour readiness to ignore the similarities between ourselves and otherpeople.Through its disturbingly nonsensical dialogue, it becomes a harshcriticism of the human condition, that we are so unwilling to embrace allof mankind.MOUNTAIN LANGUAGE is a small treasure, one of the great piecesof absurd drama. ... Read more

Product Description
This volume contains two television plays, a radio play and a short story. ... Read more

Product Description
Stanley Webber is visited in his boarding-house by two strangers, Goldberg and McCann. An innocent-seeming birthday party for Stanley turns into a nightmare. This educational edition is designed to be of interest to students. ... Read more

Customer Reviews (3)

great play!
I read this in college and really enjoyed it, so it was nice to find it again.

Pinter and the Theater of the Absurd
In "The Birthday Party" sixtyish batty Meg and husband Petey live in a past-its-prime British seaside resort and run a seedy boarding house which has only one guest, a strange loner named Stanley whom Meg has grown too fond of. Two mysterious ill-boding strangers, Goldberg and McCann, show up and decide to give Stanley a birthday party when it isn't even his birthday. Lulu is a young neighbor who visits and regrets it. A toy drum becomes a disquieting prop.
Pinter, child of Beckett, sets up a bizarre situation. All of the people are weird, kooky, save Petey, and their behavior becomes grotesque. The party goes badly awry and gets into scary territory.
This is early Pinter, not top-drawer, in which he is groping his way toward the Pinteresque theater of the Absurd. He toned down his antics in some of his later, better works like "The Homecoming."
A Pinter play frequently presents:
1. Round-the-bend, barely functional, often disreputable characters living on the fringes of society, some criminal types
2. Commonplace, prosaic dialogue that is often funny, satiric, inane and Absurdist
3. A sense of nameless terror and menace, pending violence, a mystery, the surreal, and the unexpected
4. Often the motivation of some characters is unclear. We see people who are barely able to make it. Are they dumb, out of it, or puppets on a string?
Pinter keeps you interested by the plot. Where is he leading me? Why are these people doing these things? Nothing seems earthshaking
You step into his askew world and you're asking for trouble, and if you're adventurous, you are enjoying being toyed with.
Part of the charm of Pinter are his enigmatic plots. They're fun because he's going to tease you, to make you wonder.
This is a clever play, funny, off-beat and Absurdist, but not really much else. He's showing off, proving that he can pull off a stunt, but does it take a master dramatist just to play games? In this 1958 play one can see touches of "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?" Albee's 1962 classic. Pinter was extremely influential.

"For He's A Jolly Good..."
'The Birthday Party' was first presented by Michael Codron and David Hall at the Arts Theatre, Cambridge, on 28 April 1958 with the following cast:
Petey Willoughby Gray
Meg Beatrix Lehmann
StanleyRichard Pearson
Lulu Wendy Hutchinson
GoldbergJohn Slater
McCann John Stratton.

Stanley Webber is visited in his boarding house by two strangers, Goldberg and McCann. An innocent seeming birthday party for Stanley turns into a nightmare. ... Read more

Product Description
Published to coincide with its world premiere at the Almeida Theatre in London, this play explores relationships within the family, and our own particular and individual understanding of such communal history. ... Read more