Harold Pinter's Acceptance Speech for Nobel Prize
"The crimes of the United States have been systematic, constant,
vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about
them," Mr. Pinter said. "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."
Sitting in a wheelchair, his lap covered by a blanket, his voice hoarse
but unwavering, Mr. Pinter, 75, delivered his speech via a video
recording that was played on Wednesday at the Swedish Academy in
Stockholm. When he won the award, Mr. Pinter said he did not know if
the academy, whose deliberations and reasoning are kept secret, had
taken his politics into account. He clearly welcomed the platform the
award gave him to bring his views, long expressed in Britain, to a
larger audience.
Dressed in black, bristling with controlled fury, Mr. Pinter began by
explaining the almost unconscious process he uses to write his plays.
They start with an image, a word, a phrase, he said; the characters
soon become "people with will and an individual sensibility of their
own, made out of component parts you are unable to change, manipulate
or distort.
"So language in art remains a highly ambiguous transaction," he
continued, "a quicksand, a trampoline, a frozen pool which might give
way under you, the author, at any time. Drama represents the search for
truth," Mr. Pinter said, "politics works against truth, surrounding
citizens with a vast tapestry of lies spun by politicians eager to
cling to power."
Mr. Pinter attacked American foreign policy since World War II, saying
that while the crimes of the Soviet Union had been well documented,
those of the United States had not. "I put to you that the United
States is without doubt the greatest show on the road," he said.
"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."
He returned to the theme of language as an obscurer of reality, saying,
"American leaders use it to anesthetize the public. It's a
scintillating stratagem," Mr. Pinter said. "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."
Mr. Pinter ended with saying, "It is the duty of the writer to hold an
image up to scrutiny, and the duty of citizens to define the real truth
of our lives and our societies. If such a determination is not embodied
in our political vision, we have no hope of restoring what is so nearly
lost to us - the dignity of man".
vicious, remorseless, but very few people have actually talked about
them," Mr. Pinter said. "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."
Sitting in a wheelchair, his lap covered by a blanket, his voice hoarse
but unwavering, Mr. Pinter, 75, delivered his speech via a video
recording that was played on Wednesday at the Swedish Academy in
Stockholm. When he won the award, Mr. Pinter said he did not know if
the academy, whose deliberations and reasoning are kept secret, had
taken his politics into account. He clearly welcomed the platform the
award gave him to bring his views, long expressed in Britain, to a
larger audience.
Dressed in black, bristling with controlled fury, Mr. Pinter began by
explaining the almost unconscious process he uses to write his plays.
They start with an image, a word, a phrase, he said; the characters
soon become "people with will and an individual sensibility of their
own, made out of component parts you are unable to change, manipulate
or distort.
"So language in art remains a highly ambiguous transaction," he
continued, "a quicksand, a trampoline, a frozen pool which might give
way under you, the author, at any time. Drama represents the search for
truth," Mr. Pinter said, "politics works against truth, surrounding
citizens with a vast tapestry of lies spun by politicians eager to
cling to power."
Mr. Pinter attacked American foreign policy since World War II, saying
that while the crimes of the Soviet Union had been well documented,
those of the United States had not. "I put to you that the United
States is without doubt the greatest show on the road," he said.
"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."
He returned to the theme of language as an obscurer of reality, saying,
"American leaders use it to anesthetize the public. It's a
scintillating stratagem," Mr. Pinter said. "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."
Mr. Pinter ended with saying, "It is the duty of the writer to hold an
image up to scrutiny, and the duty of citizens to define the real truth
of our lives and our societies. If such a determination is not embodied
in our political vision, we have no hope of restoring what is so nearly
lost to us - the dignity of man".
