“I believe that despite the enormous odds which exist, unflinching, unswerving, fierce intellectual determination, as citizens, to define the real truth of our lives and our societies is a crucial obligation which devolves upon us all. It is in fact mandatory.”
Harold Pinter, 1930-2008
My boyfriend’s father is a stage director who wrote his graduate thesis on Harold Pinter. Upon hearing the news of his death this morning, he recounted this story about the playwright: Pinter grew up in one of the few (if not only?) Jewish families in his London neighborhood, making him the obvious target of neighborhood bullies. One day, as he was being approached by a gang of kids clearly intent on attacking him, Pinter, facing obvious and imminent defeat, addressed the head of the group, and asked him, “Are you okay?”. The other kid responded, befuddled, “Yes”, to which Pinter replied, “Good, then everything is okay”, and thus avoided being beat up.
image via MSU
