literature

[arabaliozian]

After rejecting the advances of the prince from Troy,
Helen was warned by a seer,
if she persisted in rejecting him,
she would be depriving world literature of two celebrated
Greek epic poems and one of the greatest masterpieces in 20th century English literature, namely ULYSSES by James Joyce.

[arabaliozian]

Re: literature

Malcolm Cowley: "No complete son-of-a-xxxxx ever wrote a good sentence."

[arabaliozian]

Re: literature

ALL LIVES MATTER –
INCLUDING OUR OWN
***********************************
For 600 years we lived in a world
where Armenian lives did not matter.
Even when warned of the coming catastrophe,
we clung to our lies and illusions.
*
When Raffi said,
“The Ottoman Empire is no place for Armenians,
they have no respect for human life there,”
we ignored him.
*
When Zohrab said
“This time they will massacre all of us,”
we said “Zohrab effendi is exaggerating."
*
Why does Obama
refuse to utter the word “genocide”?
The obvious answer is,
Because Armenian lives– even 1,5 million of them --
don’t matter.
If you have another explanation,
I am all ears.
*
We lived and continue to live in a world
we refuse to understand.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: literature

QUESTIONS / ANSWERS
***************************************
Q: Do you classify yourself as a good Armenian?
A: Frankly, I am so busy trying to be an honest man that I don’t even think about being an Armenian, let alone a good one.
Q: What do you say to readers who are outraged by what you write?
A: I say, Relax! We have survived centuries of oppression by brutal tyrants, countless wars, massacres, deportation, destitution, life in alien slums…we can survive the opinions of a minor scribbler who may well be, in your own estimation, a misguided fool.
Q: Do you think you have had any influence on our policy-makers?
A: Hell no! Even if I were a thousand times smarter and lived as long as Methuselah I doubt if I could change the mind of a single dupe who is brainwashed to believe he is too smart to be deceived.
Q: What’s the hardest thing about being honest?
A: Trying not to give in to the temptation of being dishonest and remembering all those instances in the past when I failed.
Q: Any projects?
A: Many.
Q: Such as?
A: A dictionary of Armenian misconceptions, which I will never write because it may well be as long as WAR AND PEACE and THE BROTHERS KARAMAZOV combined.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: literature

Once when asked why I don't encourage young Armenian writers, I said “We need readers not writers.” No one dared to object.

[arabaliozian]

Re: literature

WALT WHITMAN SPEAKS
***************************************
Some of his lines are piercing in their precision,
as when he speaks of animals:
“They do not sweat and whine about their condition,
They do not lie awake in the dark and weep for their sins,
They do not make me sick discussing their duty to God,
Not one kneels to another, nor to his kind that lived thousands of years ago...”
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: literature

PARADOX
***********************
We think with someone else’s thoughts
and we believe with someone else’s belief system.
When it comes to the two most important things in life –
thinking and believing,
or that which makes us human --
we are more like apes than men.
I think therefore I am not.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: literature

A nation that has been lied to consistently
will be inclined to believe only liars.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: literature

It is easy to have all the answers if you ask the wrong questions.
*

[arabaliozian]

Re: literature

A historian is not judged by the degree of his patriotism, nationalism, loyalty or subersvience to a power structure, but by his honesty and impartiality. For more on this subject see Michael Grant’s GREEK AND ROMAN HISTORIANS: INFORMATION AND MISINFORMATION (London, 1995).