The Elegant Variation: HAROLD PINTER DIES

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December 25, 2008

HAROLD PINTER DIES

Nobel prize winner Harold Pinter has died at 78.

In more than 30 plays — written between 1957 and 2000 and including masterworks like “The Birthday Party,” “The Caretaker,” “The Homecoming” and “Betrayal” — Mr. Pinter captured the anxiety and ambiguity of life in the second half of the 20th century with terse, hypnotic dialogue filled with gaping pauses and the prospect of imminent violence.

We have vivid memories of seeing the 2001 London revival of The Caretaker with Michael Gambon. An unforgettable turn.

Below, a scene from the 1963 film adaptation of The Caretaker, and below that, Pinter's interview with Charlie Rose.

Posted at 10:38 AM in Obit | Permalink

Comments

Putting aside his contributions to theater for a moment, what most impressed me in Pinter's body of work was his reputation as a go-to guy for adapting complicated literary works for the silver screen. He did not always succeed but the screenplays were always compelling: Ian McEwan's "The Comfort of Strangers", Fitzgerald's "The Last Tycoon", John Fowles' "The French Lieutenant's Woman", and, lastly, the remake of "Sleuth".

Posted by: Rodger Jacobs | December 25, 2008 at 01:46 PM

Marvellous timing to the last. He touched our hearts and our work.

Posted by: Kate Lord Brown | December 26, 2008 at 02:40 PM

A brilliant writer with a sense of outrage that was commensurate with the situation in which we find ourselves. We need more like him; instead, we have one less.

Posted by: EC | December 27, 2008 at 11:17 AM

A truly remarkeable writer, to the end.

Posted by: CollB | December 27, 2008 at 02:24 PM

Irreplaceable. A true genius.

Posted by: Ed Renehan | December 28, 2008 at 05:40 PM

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The Elegant Variation is "Fowler’s (1926, 1965) term for the inept writer’s overstrained efforts at freshness or vividness of expression. Prose guilty of elegant variation calls attention to itself and doesn’t permit its ideas to seem naturally clear. It typically seeks fancy new words for familiar things, and it scrambles for synonyms in order to avoid at all costs repeating a word, even though repetition might be the natural, normal thing to do: The audience had a certain bovine placidity, instead of The audience was as placid as cows. Elegant variation is often the rock, and a stereotype, a cliché, or a tired metaphor the hard place between which inexperienced or foolish writers come to grief. The familiar middle ground in treating these homely topics is almost always the safest. In untrained or unrestrained hands, a thesaurus can be dangerous."

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*Now in Paperback*

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SECOND LOOK

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The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

December 25, 2008

HAROLD PINTER DIES

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

The Elegant Variation

A Literary Weblog. A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog "Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

December 25, 2008

HAROLD PINTER DIES

Comments

MY NOVEL

WORTHY READINGS

TEV DEFINED

RECOMMENDED

THIS GUN FOR HIRE: Reviews & Criticism

SECOND LOOK

Categories

A Literary Weblog.
A Guardian Top 10 Literary Blog * A Forbes "Best of the Web" Pick * A Los Angeles Magazine Top Los Angeles Blog
"Really brave ... or really stupid" - NPR

THIS GUN FOR HIRE:
Reviews & Criticism