<!DOCTYPE HTML PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional//EN">
<HTML><HEAD>
<META http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=iso-8859-1">
<META content="MSHTML 6.00.2900.2769" name=GENERATOR>
<STYLE></STYLE>
</HEAD>
<BODY bgColor=#ffffff>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><STRONG>It makes no sense, as
some have done, to criticize Harold Pinter’s Nobel acceptance speech for
being “anti-American” and for being marked by deliberate factual errors, by
deprecating his achievement as a playwright, partly on the grounds that he has
not written any “great works” of late.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>The speech is not, at base, anti-American; rather, it is a pointed and
telling argument against American imperialistic aggression and against other
nations, Pinter’s own included, that sedulously ape these practices.<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>He is at pains to point out that there
are many Americans who are opposed to this foreign policy. If he has made
factual errors or manipulated facts to suit his argument, it is incumbent on
those who are making these charges to point out exactly where he has done so.
The question of whether he has recently written any “great plays” is moot, and
is nonetheless beside the point.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>Pinter received the Nobel Prize for <U>Literature</U>, for his
extraordinary range over a lifetime as a brilliant, innovative, influential, and
morally-centred writer in <U>many</U> genres and forms, including not only plays
but film scripts, poetry—he therefore includes one of his own poems in the
acceptance speech--and indeed prose.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>His acceptance speech is an integral and exemplary part of these works
and treats many of the salient themes that have preoccupied him throughout his
career: in particular, the uses and abuses of power, individually, socially,
politically, ideologically, and collectively, wherever they have occurred, now
occur, and are likely to occur in the future. His speech is in keeping with the
spirit of those of many previous Nobel Prize Winners for Literature, as it seeks
to demonstrate that the writer is an impassioned witness of and for our times,
and is obligated, as is <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">everyone</I>, to
pay attention to what is <I style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal">actually</I>
happening in our world, in our history. He is not preaching to the choir, for as
he says at one point, “Sermonising has to be avoided at all costs.”<SPAN
style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>As he puts it in the penultimate
paragraph, “I believe that despite the enormous odds which exist, unflinching,
unswerving, fierce intellectual determination, as citizens, to define to the
real truth of our lives and our societies is a crucial obligation which devolves
upon us all. It is in fact mandatory.”<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes">
</SPAN>The question, as with many Nobel speeches, is whether we can live up to
the idealism which he articulates with such clear and deeply-felt
conviction.<SPAN style="mso-spacerun: yes"> </SPAN>Professor David Mayer
tells us that the speech, delivered in a <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns =
"urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" /><st1:City
w:st="on">London</st1:City> studio because Pinter “is too ill to travel to
<st1:place w:st="on"><st1:City w:st="on">Stockholm</st1:City></st1:place> . . .
was staged as a John of Gaunt scene . . . echoing that scene with its prescience
and analysis.” Thus, through the voice of the solitary ailing writer, the voices
of an entire nation are enabled to speak to the entire world.</STRONG></P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><STRONG></STRONG> </P>
<P class=MsoNormal style="MARGIN: 0cm 0cm 0pt"><STRONG>--Denis
Salter.</STRONG></P></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><BR><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff><STRONG>__________________________________________________________</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><STRONG></STRONG></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><BR><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><STRONG>"The sea is history."--Derek
Walcott<BR>_______________________________________________</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><STRONG></STRONG></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><STRONG>"That's what hybrids were invented
for: survival in changing ecologies."--Lisa Doolittle</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><STRONG></STRONG></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff><STRONG>__________________________________________________________________
</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><STRONG></STRONG></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><STRONG>""To celebrate this award, and the
work it recognizes of those around the world, let me recall the words of Gandhi:
My life is my message. Also, plant a tree." Wangari Maathai, winner of the
2004 Nobel Prize for Peace.</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><STRONG></STRONG></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff><STRONG>__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________</STRONG></FONT></DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><STRONG></STRONG></FONT> </DIV>
<DIV><FONT face=Arial color=#0000ff><STRONG>Denis Salter<BR>Professor of
Theatre<BR>McGill University<BR>853 Sherbrooke St. West<BR>Montréal, QC<BR>H3A
2T6<BR>Tel (514) 398 6550<BR>Regular Fax (514) 398 8146<BR>Computer Fax (309)
294 0444<BR></STRONG></FONT><A href="mailto:denis.salter@mcgill.ca"><FONT
face=Arial><STRONG>denis.salter@mcgill.ca</STRONG></FONT></A><BR><A
href="mailto:d.salter@videotron.ca"><FONT
face=Arial><STRONG>d.salter@videotron.ca</STRONG></FONT></A><BR><FONT face=Arial
color=#0000ff><STRONG>__________________</STRONG></FONT></DIV></BODY></HTML>