Always good to see Pinter love too — The Birthday Party left a permanent mark when we studied it at A-level, and that was in 1985. The ‘white teeth/green hair’ lines always make think of The Joker, which has no bearing on the actual poem but does always add to the institutional incarceration weight of it.
Ahhh, that's interesting. I really like hearing other people's associations. There's a brilliant final line in DS51 which I have seen esteemed critics confidently identify wholly convincingly in a number of different and irreconcilable ways; as a pal said to me only the other day, that's maybe the point, that it could be any of them.
Sharp close reading, as always. For "green hair," you might look into an American movie that perhaps got little play in the UK: "The Boy With Green Hair" (1948). A war orphan bullied for his green hair; a pacifist message; a helpful therapist: lots for Berryman to like. I saw it maybe 60 years ago on TV, but it stuck with me.
Always good to see some Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are Dead love, truly a perfect script. The question tennis scene (bothered backhands?) is amazing.
Always good to see Pinter love too — The Birthday Party left a permanent mark when we studied it at A-level, and that was in 1985. The ‘white teeth/green hair’ lines always make think of The Joker, which has no bearing on the actual poem but does always add to the institutional incarceration weight of it.
Re ‘Bothered his backhand’ — I read it (if we're in an institutional / hospital setting) as the insertion of a cannula ...
Ahhh, that's interesting. I really like hearing other people's associations. There's a brilliant final line in DS51 which I have seen esteemed critics confidently identify wholly convincingly in a number of different and irreconcilable ways; as a pal said to me only the other day, that's maybe the point, that it could be any of them.
Sharp close reading, as always. For "green hair," you might look into an American movie that perhaps got little play in the UK: "The Boy With Green Hair" (1948). A war orphan bullied for his green hair; a pacifist message; a helpful therapist: lots for Berryman to like. I saw it maybe 60 years ago on TV, but it stuck with me.
Thank you - interesting! Can surely be no coincidence.