A reader wants to know my point in my Pinter post. What I meant to suggest is that we shouldn’t imbibe the bleak visions of many modernist works (especially by left-wing writers), visions based not on life but on willed projections of darkness and despair.
According to Wikipedia, Pinter “acknowledged [in an interview] that his plays — full of infidelity, cruelty, inhumanity, the lot — seem at odds with his domestic contentment.”
"The Homecoming," described as "Pinter's masterpiece," will soon be playing at the American Conservatory Theater (near Union Square) in San Francisco. I'll be there. Wanted to see how the other half lives.
Ever read Shelly's Frankenstein? The original book, I mean. Notice that although much of the story is set in England, anything horrible takes place offshore. Check it out. Apparently England was a place where monsters could ruminate, but not do bad things.
Thus, I take great joy in any work in which the nasty people do nasty stuff in England (as with "The Homecoming").
Postmodern deconstruction is SO yesterday.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIs it okay to "imbibe bleak visions" of nonmodernist works? Macbeth and Hamlet are both pretty bleak, for instance, and by Iannone's (rather vague) standard, they seem to qualify as "willed projections of darkness and despair," since they didn't have anything to do with anything that happened in Shakespeare's life.
(And can one really *imbibe* a *vision*? Oh, never mind.)
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseNo unhappy lib'ral art! Me want HAPPY ART! Art that Rush Limbaw likes! GIMME!
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"...we shouldn’t imbibe the bleak visions of many modernist works, visions based not on life but on willed projections of darkness and despair."
Good gravy. Does Ms. Iannone have even the slightest inkling of what art is? In her worldview, culture appears to be defined by how happy and warm it makes you feel inside. Does she think that "darkness and despair" have no relevance to life?
I suspect Ms. Iannone's beef with Pinter is far more wrapped up in his criticism of America's invasion of Iraq than anything in his plays... that's assuming that she's ever read or seen any of his works in the first place. (I have my doubts.)
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse"Shelly's Frankenstein"? Is that like Hyman's Dybbuk?
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