Editing Harold Pinter (section)

==Scholarly response==
{{Main|Harold Pinter and academia}}
Some scholars and critics challenge the validity of Pinter's critiques of what he terms "the modes of thinking of those in power"<ref>Merritt, ''Pinter in Play'' 171–89.</ref> or dissent from his retrospective viewpoints on his own work.<ref>Begley; Karwowski; and Quigley.</ref> In 1985, Pinter recalled that his early act of conscientious objection resulted from being "terribly disturbed as a young man by the Cold War. And McCarthyism&nbsp;... A profound hypocrisy. 'They' the monsters, 'we' the good. In 1948, the Russian suppression of Eastern Europe was an obvious and brutal fact, but I felt very strongly then and feel as strongly now that we have an obligation to subject our own actions and attitudes to an equivalent critical and moral scrutiny."<ref>Quoted in Merritt, ''Pinter in Play'' 178.</ref> Scholars agree that Pinter's dramatic rendering of power relations results from this scrutiny.<ref name=BattyGrimes2>[[Cf.]], e.g., Batty, "Preface" (xvii–xix) and chap. 6–9 (55–221) in ''About Pinter''; Grimes 19, 36–71, 218–20, and ''passim''.</ref>

Pinter's aversion to any censorship by "the authorities" is epitomised in Petey's line at the end of ''The Birthday Party''.  As the broken-down and reconstituted Stanley is being carted off by the figures of authority Goldberg and McCann, Petey calls after him, "Stan, don't let them tell you what to do!"  Pinter told Gussow in 1988, "I've lived that line all my damn life. Never more than now."<ref name=GussowConv>Quoted in Merritt, ''Pinter in Play'' 179.</ref> The example of Pinter's stalwart opposition to what he termed "the modes of thinking of those in power"—the "brick wall" of the "minds" perpetuating the "status quo"<ref>Merritt, ''Pinter in Play'' 180.</ref>—infused the "vast political pessimism" that some academic critics may perceive in his artistic work,<ref>Grimes 220.</ref> its "drowning landscape" of harsh contemporary realities, with some residual "hope for restoring the dignity of man."<ref>Pinter, ''Art, Truth and Politics'' 9 and 24.</ref>

As Pinter's long-time friend David Jones reminded analytically inclined scholars and dramatic critics, Pinter was one of the "great comic writers":<ref>{{cite book |url=http://cco.cambridge.org/extract?id=ccol0521651239_CCOL0521651239A006 |title=Cambridge Collections Online : The sacred joke: Comedy and politics in Pinter's early plays |first=Francesca |last=Coppa |author-link=Francesca Coppa |publisher=Cambridge University Press |year=2011 |isbn=978-0-521-65842-3 |editor=Raby, Peter |url-access=subscription |access-date=30 June 2011 |page=45}}</ref>{{blockquote|The trap with Harold's work, for performers and audiences, is to approach it too earnestly or portentously. I have always tried to interpret his plays with as much humour and humanity as possible. There is always mischief lurking in the darkest corners. The world of ''The Caretaker'' is a bleak one, its characters damaged and lonely. But they are all going to survive. And in their dance to that end they show a frenetic vitality and a wry sense of the ridiculous that balance heartache and laughter. Funny, but not too funny. As Pinter wrote, back in 1960: "As far as I am concerned ''The Caretaker'' IS funny, up to a point. Beyond that point, it ceases to be funny, and it is because of that point that I wrote it."<ref name=JonesWoolf>{{cite web |url=http://roundabouttheatre.org/fc/fall03/jones.htm |title=Roundabout Theatre Company – Front & Center Online |first=David |last=Jones |work=roundabouttheatre.org |date=Fall 2003 |access-date=29 June 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110727223238/http://roundabouttheatre.org/fc/fall03/jones.htm |archive-date=27 July 2011 |url-status=dead}}; [[cf.]] Woolf, quoted in Merritt, "Talking about Pinter" 147–48.</ref>}}  His dramatic conflicts present serious implications for his characters and his audiences, leading to sustained inquiry about "the point" of his work and multiple "critical strategies" for developing interpretations and stylistic analyses of it.<ref>Merritt, ''Pinter in Play'' (''passim'').</ref>