Writers

[arabaliozian]

Re: Writers

African proverb: “Until lions have their historians,
tales of the hunt shall always glorify the hunters.”

[arabaliozian]

Re: Writers

A NOTE ON ZARIAN
******************************
As a writer Zarian was more
like a volcanic eruption. Everyone,
including the Catholicos Etchmiadzin,
wanted him on his side.
But ultimately his fate resided
in the hands of anonymous and
faceless operatives
with their own agenda
that had nothing to do with literature.
He died alone and friendless,
convinced he had been assassinated.
He died not as an agent of the KGB or the CIA
but as a writer who compromised
(he had a family to support)
but refused to surrender
to the forces of Darkness.
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[arabaliozian]

Re: Writers

Writing became a pleasure on the day I gave up not only all hope of popularity, fame, and fortune, but also of minimum wage.

[arabaliozian]

Re: Writers

When dealing with Armenians, it helps to have one eye shut -- both would be preferable of course. #armenians

[arabaliozian]

Re: Writers

Unbelievable but true: Suleiman the Magnificent once wrote a poem in praise of a contemporary Turkish poet.

[arabaliozian]

Re: Writers

At the funeral of an elder relative I am introduced to quite a few out-of-town Armenians, one of whom tells me: "Your name sounds vaguely familiar." I am reminded of an old English joke that goes something like this: Two Englishmen meet in a pub.
"My name is Porter," says the first.
"Mine is Shakespeare," says the other.
"A familiar name," comments the first.
"It should be," replies the second. "I have been delivering milk in these parts for 35 years."

[arabaliozian]

Re: Writers

God has given us a brain
but our educational system teaches us not to use it.

[arabaliozian]

Re: Writers

There are two kinds of Armenians: those who think and those who recycle propaganda. Those who recycle propaganda speak louder and they are never wrong; and armed with that conviction, they persecute and silence anyone who dares to think for himself. Examples from the past: writers from Abovian to Zarian.
#armenians

[arabaliozian]

Re: Writers

A man once went up to a French writer (may have been Valéry) and said: “I have a great idea for a book.” The writer interrupted him by saying, “Books are written with words, not ideas.”

[arabaliozian]

Re: Writers

In his recently published biography of V.S. Naipaul, Patrick French quotes him as having said: “I am enraged by the way Indians don't wish to understand their history, I am enraged.” Naipaul's book on India is titled A WOUNDED CIVILIZATION.
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The first Armenian novel in ashkharapar or the spoken idiom is by Khachatur Abovian (1805-1848) and it's titled THE WOUNDS OF ARMENIA. And to think that Abovian wrote his novel nearly a century before the real wound.
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