heh, this is a classic...insert, bitter, cynical emoticon and a wmv file of a hearty belly laugh
Message: 4
Date: Sat, 10 Dec 2005 17:49:41 -0500
From: "hernan correa g." <pije at optonline.net> Subject: Re: Harold Pinter on truth and lies
I can set my watch by your underhanded reactionism, Pugliese. It manifests itself with taxonomic regularity. The minute Pinter won the Nobel and filed a scathing, eloquent attack on US foreign policy and broad appeal to oppose corporate media—all of it perfectly on target, or is it that you deny any of it?—I knew you'd pop up and start your work to undermine his moral credibility and stature by digging dirt and advancing derogatory manure on his style and writings. But so what? How do matters of literary style contradict the FACTS that Pinter is alluding to in his acceptance speech? Matters of taste— especially by establishment institutions like the Nobels—respond to cultural and political fads and other highly "unscientific" and subjective standards, so, as they say, there's no accounting for taste. As for Pinter's "radical unconventionalism"—how many artists can we mention in one paragraph that were deemed horribly unconventional, almost incoherent, in their time to eventually acquire broad affirmation? So there's only one thing that must have triggered your curious reaction to his nomination: his politics.
In this regard, it is certifiably twisted to support a comparison between Kissinger—demonstrably a self-serving whore and unprincipled war criminal, imperialist water carrier, and human excrescence, to boot—with Pinter, who, no matter how long you argue, can never be accused of being instrumental in the death of hundreds of thousands around the world by dint of political machinations in the service of empire...which, er, you so loudly profess to oppose. So which one is it, Michael? Your moral and political compass seems to be broken. In fact, it's peculiar that you, like Hari, seem to fire simultaneously in all directions. That sounds to me more like a neurosis, at best, than a formula for useful political guidance.
Hernán
PS/ As for Hari, that is certainly a curious source to do this dirty job by proxy. But, hey, in the spirit of open information, here's a bio bit on this fellow, from a friendly (to Hari) site:
Who Is This Guy?
Johann Hari is an award-winning journalist and playwright. Since 2003 he has been a columnist for The Independent, one of Britain's leading newspapers, and a Contributing Editor to Attitude (Britain's main gay magazine). He is also on the editorial board of the magazine The Liberal, and he is a patron of the magazine Safer Society, which campaigns for more liberal and rehabilitative law and order policies.
His writing has appeared in the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, Le Monde, El Mundo, The Guardian, , The Melbourne Age, the Sydney Morning Herald, South Africa's Star, The Irish Times and a wide range of other international newspapers and magazines. He has appeared as a commentator on CNN, NBC's Today program, the BBC's , Question Time, Head-to-Head, Dateline: London and the Moral Maze, the Australian Broadcasting Corporation and others.
In 2005, he became the youngest person to ever be nominated for the prestigious Orwell Prize for political writing. He has also been nominated twice for the David Watt Prize, also for political writing. In 2003, he was named 'Young Journalist of the Year' by the Press Gazette awards, which are regarded as the Oscars of British journalism. In 2000, he was named Student Journalist of the Year by the Times of London.
Since he began work as a journalist, Johann has been attacked in print by the Daily Telegraph, John Pilger, Peter Oborne, Private Eye, the Socialist Worker, Cristina Odone, the Spectator, Andrew Neil, George Galloway, Mark Steyn, the British National Party, Medialens, al Muhajaroun and Richard Littlejohn. 'Prince' Turki Al-Faisal, the Saudi Ambassador to Britain, has accused Johann of "waging a private jihad against the House of Saud". He's right. Johann has been called "a Stalinist" and "beneath contempt" by Noam Chomsky, "an uppity little queer" by Bruce Anderson, "fat" by the Dalai Lama and "a cunt" by Busted.
He was born in Glasgow, Scotland in 1979. His father Eduard is a Swiss-German cook now retraining as a bus driver, and his mother Violet is a Scot who works with battered wives. He has lived in London since he was a baby, and is now based in Brick Lane, East London. Educated at King's College, Cambridge, he graduated with a Double First in Social and Political Science in 2001.
-- Michael Pugliese