Blast from the Past. At Daily Kos on this date in 2008—Open Thread for Night Owls, Early Birds & Expats:
The provocative Nobel laureate Harold Pinter died December 24. Although his work in the theater over the course of 32 plays was broadly praised, his political views drew savage attacks, including one from fellow Brit and neo-conservative Christopher Hitchens, who wrote in 2005 that giving the Swedish award "to someone who gave up literature for politics decades ago, and whose politics are primitive and hysterically anti-American and pro-dictatorial, is part of the almost complete degradation of the Nobel racket."
Matt Schudel at the Washington Post writes:
Mr. Pinter's works, which bore the influence of the existential dramatist Samuel Beckett and the modernist poet T.S. Eliot, explored such themes as sexual frustration, jealousy, loneliness and an overriding if indistinct sense of fear. The social or mental balance of his characters -- and, by extension, society as a whole -- was often undercut by a biting, sardonic humor.
"Words are weapons that the characters use to discomfort or destroy each other," Peter Hall, who frequently directed Mr. Pinter's plays, once said. ...
... "I've never been able to sit down and say, 'Now I'm going to write a play,' " he said in 1976. "I just have no alternative but to wait for the thing to be released within me."
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On
today's "encore performance" of the Kagro in the Morning show, it's the 12/20/13 episode, in which we found ourselves at the stage where we had to endure Duck Dynasty "think pieces." It was also time for duelling essays by Washington journalists about why Washington journalism does or doesn't suck. Next, wild tangents deriving from
Gawker's "The Second Class Citizens of the Google Cafeteria."
Roll Call's taxonomy of "The 4 Types of House Retirements to Come," then some context & anecdotes to accompany their report the House's newest Member has hired a 25-year-old Chief of Staff. And one more shot at that crazy EPA/fake-CIA guy story.
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