Armenia and Books

[Mher]

Re: Armenia and Books

I think one of the major causes of the problem, like with most other issues with Armenia, is the corruption of the elite. It is difficult to get your kids involved in school work when you know they will not get their fair chance to succeed in the academic world, and even if they do, it will mean very little for their future.

[yerazhishda]

Re: Armenia and Books

I think I gave the Armenian book market a little boost when I went there last year, came home with 30 books!

[yerazhishda]

Re: Armenia and Books

In all seriousness, I do not tend to think that the anti-education, anti-learning, anti-book sentiment is unique to Armenia. In fact, my impression was that Armenians were basically in love with books and you could have a conversation with any semi-intelligent person about people like Raffi, Shirvinzade, Baronian, Dostoevsky etc. without a problem. Contrast that with America and you will have a hard time finding someone who even knows that William Faulkner and Ernest Hemmingway were authors. It seems as though Armenia tends to be very literature-oriented when compared with America.

It is very often that while reading/doing self-study in a public place that people will ask me, "why are you reading?" I will reply, "it is self-study, so that I can obtain more knowledge". Then you either get a laugh, a smirk or a look of disgust accompanied by a snide comment. The hatred of the self and the intellect is like a virus here.

That being said, I really did not find that there was much being done in terms of new literature and new authors that have something to say. I looked extremely hard for new Armenian literature, but by browsing through the books, could just not bring myself to buy them; most of them seemed to be too autobiographical and self-indulgent with no universal value for my taste. It is really a sad state. In a country in which basic survival is tough, literature seems to get overlooked (which is not necessarily something that we can judge). Art seems to be much more advanced than literature in Armenia at this point, and that's not saying much.

As for the educational system, don't get me started. The whole system needs to literally be shut down and revamped from the ground-up. Bribes have got to go, and teachers need more respect in terms of salary and working conditions. The whole lack of professionalism and emphasis on rote memorization are remnants of a Soviet system that may have been relevant 60 years ago, but is antiquated by today's needs. I do not mean to say that Armenia need to go to the wishy-washy liberal arts type of education that is prevalent in the West nowadays (this is also bad), but there needs to be some sort of balance between critical thinking and 'knowing the facts' of your subject.

[KarotheGreat]

Re: Armenia and Books

I think one of the major causes of the problem, like with most other issues with Armenia, is the corruption of the elite. It is difficult to get your kids involved in school work when you know they will not get their fair chance to succeed in the academic world, and even if they do, it will mean very little for their future.

Why is it always someone elses fault? Why can't the people in Armenia take the blame for once for something that is going wrong in their country? It is so easy to point fingers and find excuses, but the fact remains that each one of them loves the status quo and don't want real change and the rule of law.

[Mos]

Re: Armenia and Books

If they come to Europe for a degree they are not allowed to stay here and work here, they will have to go back or else stay as illegals. I don't think that it is that natural, because the real wage in Armenia is higher than the one in Europe for highly educated people.

The street culture everywhere is anti-education that is true, but Armenians are a people that live more or less outside. Especially young males, so the problem in Armenia is much bigger than in most of Europe.

Well a considerable amount of people find work abroad after study and continue living there. Of course this is not counting the many migrant workers going to Moscow on worker programs but they usually have little or no formal education.

[KarotheGreat]

Re: Armenia and Books

Did anyone see the News today on ShantTV it seems some people are reading our forum

How many percent of the people do they make, that can afford to go and study abroad and stay there?

[KarotheGreat]

Re: Armenia and Books

I have been thinking about something. Why do we as a people glorify writers of the past. It is not only with writers, it seems to be in every aspect of life that we love to point back to the past. 'Look we were here first and we did that'. Why is it that we never glorify modern writers? Why isn't there the same hype around modern writers as there is around classical writers. It is not only Armenian writers but also European and American writers. Why is it we have such a difficulty to accept change? Like the change in our language. A language is a living thing that needs to keep changing or else it will die, why is it so many Armenians don't realise that? If I hear one more person complying that our language is changing and that it is something bad I'm going to go crazy.

[Armanen]

Re: Armenia and Books

I have been thinking about something. Why do we as a people glorify writers of the past. It is not only with writers, it seems to be in every aspect of life that we love to point back to the past. 'Look we were here first and we did that'. Why is it that we never glorify modern writers? Why isn't there the same hype around modern writers as there is around classical writers. It is not only Armenian writers but also European and American writers. Why is it we have such a difficulty to accept change? Like the change in our language. A language is a living thing that needs to keep changing or else it will die, why is it so many Armenians don't realise that? If I hear one more person complying that our language is changing and that it is something bad I'm going to go crazy.

I don't know about modern Armenians writers, but are there that many great world writers that can compare with the legends of 50, 100 or 150 years? I can think of only 2-3.

[KarotheGreat]

Re: Armenia and Books

I don't know about modern Armenians writers, but are there that many great world writers that can compare with the legends of 50, 100 or 150 years? I can think of only 2-3.

Depends in what field you are looking, historians have grown in number and quality, so have scientific writings grown in number and quality as well some examples dawkings has really great stuff etc. Non fiction in our era is covered really well, in the fiction department it depends on your own taste. You have some real xxxels out there Like George RR Martins, etc. who can compete with most writers from the past. They have a totally different writing style but the quality is there. And then you get the crap that is popular fiction that no person should read twilight is a great example of that.

Now let us look at Armenian authors, modern ones that is. Why aren't they never on tv? Why isn't anyone advertising their books? We look to much at the past and forget what is right in front of us. In America you have the Daily Show that almost every week has one writer in his show. Why doesn't this happen in Armenia? That is my biggest problem.