Harold Pinter's Old Times

I picked up a book by Lady Antonia Fraser about her marriage to Harold Pinter, Must you go? (2010, Weidenfeld & Nicolson). This copy has been withdrawn from New Plymouth library and there's no indication of its home. I don't know where I got it. I enjoyed much of it – how they met and their powerful rapport, the difficulties of managing a transition from their previous marriages to this one. The book is based on her diary, and some of it is tedious because this happened almost 50 years ago, many people are named who are no longer famous or well-known. I enjoyed the end of the book, where there's more detail about events. Also loved the poetry. The poem about death, which her son or her nephew (not his) read to the registrar for births and deaths. His own son was a tragedy.

Their meeting was serendipitous, in their 40s, both successful writers, though in different fields. Their backgrounds were also different. From what she wrote and from the photos in the book, they seem very close. Their connection reminds me of how I met my husband - though Peter and I are not geniuses! We met at a party given jointly by two people living in adjacent apartments. He was invited by one and I by the other. On our first date, we experienced a strong connection and moved to live together within a fortnight. No other marriages needed dissolving, fortunately. We were also around 40 years old.

I find gifted people a mystery. Antonia Fraser writes that Pinter is a genius. So is she - writing outstanding books on historical subjects which many had written about already, with far less success.

The many authors and playwrights mentioned in this book triggered a bout of reservations at our public library: as I write this, I'm tempted to dip into one of Ian McEwan's books which I picked up yesterday. Wellington Library is an extraordinary resource. They always seem to have whatever book I hear about. I have four books on the go, and am about to pick up a fifth. My walk for the day.

I've now started reading Pinter’s plays. She mentions them often, from the sometimes inconvenient moment of inspiration, when they both hunt urgently for paper upon which to write the initial thought - until the play is performed. So far I've only seen Waiting for Godot, and some of the films for which he wrote the script.

The first play in the book of Pinter's plays is Old Times (1970, before he met Antonia). It's full of jolts and unexpected turns of phrase, in what seems on the surface an ordinary conversation between three people, a couple and the wife's best friend. I read it again, and then again. The commentary on the Wikipedia page contains factual errors, and anyway I don't agree with their analysis. 

Pinter was concerned with the unreliability of memory. In the play one person talks to another about the time they killed them, “and then you opened your eyes…” Was there a murder or not? Were there two murders? The wife is described as beautiful. She appears empty, hardly knowing how to express herself. Her language is bland, inexact.She says she prefers things damp, that water blurs things, like raindrops on eyelashes. Rather than the sharp edges of city life, she likes a reality with vague boundaries, the beach and the sea.

The husband is often away. He describes himself as traveling 'the globe'. The word ‘globe’ reoccurs, describing a woman’s buttocks. In a separate conversation, the husband and the visitor deplore the fact that the wife does not dry herself well after a bath (but we know she likes dampness, and wonder how come they both know this and what business it is of theirs anyway) – particularly her buttocks. They agree easily - like a well-suited couple, though they aren't a couple. Together they sing phrases of familiar old songs which the wife says she's forgotten. 

I don't know why he cries. Twice. He sits 'crumpled' in a chair, a word reminiscent of a tissue, with its dampness-absorbing quality. There's also an on-going game with the word 'proposing'. 

Wikipedia reports that Anthony Hopkins, playing the husband, asked about the meaning of the ending. 

Pinter said, "Just do it."