notes and comments

[arabaliozian]

charlie

JE SUIS CHARLIE
************************************
You say we need solutions
and I say, what is the value of a solution
in the absence of men willing to implement it?
*
Every brainwashed Armenian knows the difference
between a good and a bad writer.
My question is: “Eshek khoshftan ne annar?”
(What does a jackass know about stewed raisins?)
*
No self-respecting Armenian believes
he is or has ever been brainwashable.
*
About freedom of the press,
the question we must ask is:
Do we have it?
Did we ever have it?
*
What kind of men divide the nation?
The answer must be:
Little men more interested in their own backyards
than in the destiny of the nation.
#

[Haykakan]

Re: tragedies

Hey lets add your posts to the list of tragedies as well and then we can truly see the scope of it all.

[arabaliozian]

tragedies

TWO TRAGEDIES
***********************************
We have to contend with two major tragedies
in our history: (a) our genocide and (b) our leadership.
*
There are two kinds of tragedies:
tragedies that have a beginning and an end,
and tragedies that don’t.
*
There are two kinds of victims:
victims of wars and massacres,
and victims of corruption and incompetence.
My guess is, and it’s only a guess,
victims of corruption and incompetence
outnumber the others.
*
When we are told talk is cheap,
you cay be sure of one thing:
they include literature.
*
To our leadership, all talk that does not glorify
their greatness and nobility is treason.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: opinions

AS I SEE IT
**********************
If I repeat myself it may because
my memory is no longer what it used to be
and I no longer remember what I said last week.
*
Virginia Woolf on James Joyce’s ULYSSES:
“An illiterate underbred book…nauseating.”
*
As an expression of their contempt for Kazantzakis,
who had dared to depict them in an unflattering manner
in one of his novels, Cretans used to xxxx on his grave.
To be noted, the words "Cretan” and “cretin”
share the same root.
*
If you prove to an Armenian
you may know or understanding something he doesn’t,
he will take it as a personal insult.
*
Van Gogh committed suicide
because he thought of himself as a failure
and the world agreed with him
by refusing to buy a single canvas.
*
Edna O’Brien to Walter Mosley:
“You’re black, xxxish, with a poor upbringing,
there are writing riches therein.”
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: opinions

Typo or Freudian slip?

premeditated Freudian!

[arabaliozian]

Re: opinions

In his novel,
A PARTISAN'S DAUGHTER (New York, 2008)
Louis de Bernieres writes about “an emperor
who blinded all his prisoners except for one in every hundred,
who was supposed to lead the others home,
and when the opposing king saw what had happened to his troops,
he died of the shock.”
*
What he he fails to mention is that
both the emperor (Basil II Bulgaroktonus [Bulgar-slayer])
and the Bulgarian king (Czar Samuel)
were of Armenian descent.
*
For more details, see my book,
THE ARMENIANS: THEIR HISTORY AND CULTURE
(New York, 1981).
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: opinions

FROM MY NOTEBOOKS (XXIII)
***************************************
When a divided nation confronts a united empire,
the outcome is bound to the predictable
to the point of being a recurring or routine occurrence,
like sunrise and sunset.
Don’t believe everything you are told.
*
Must be hard being God.
Everyone speaks of you but no one understands you,
and everything that is said is based on hearsay.
*
A writer once bragged to me:
“I write more than I read. I hope you do too!”
I don’t remember his name.
*
A billionaire on the radio this morning:
“I don’t care about the money. I just love the challenge.”
*
There are no short cuts to heaven.
*
Akhmatova on Chekhov:
“…uniformly drab; a sea of mud,
with absence of heroism and martyrdom,
absence of depth and darkness and sublimity.”
#

[bell-the-cat]

Re: opinions

*
Even when I write
about our bosses, bishops and benefactors
I speak of myself.
I believe there is a boss, bishop and benefuctor
in all of us.

Typo or Freudian slip?

[arabaliozian]

opinions

OPINIONS
**********************************
We have no use for opinion surveys
because our men at the top
already know what’s best for us (also them)
and they are already doing what must be done.
*
Even when I write
about our bosses, bishops and benefactors
I speak of myself.
I believe there is a boss, bishop and benefuctor
in all of us.
*
Are Armenians smart?
I don’t know.
I am not sure.
But I do know this:
I have never met an Armenian
with even a remote awareness
of the depths of his ignorance
and stupidity – beginning with myself.
*
I have yet to meet an Armenian writer
who did not think,
if his works were translated into English
he wouldn’t be world famous.
#

[arabaliozian]

Re: elegy

FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
*****************************************
When I was a brown-noser
I never thought of myself as one.
All brown-nosers are denialists.
*
Armenia is not the greatest country on earth
except for our 1%.
*
Technologically speaking
the human brain is a miracle of design and execution.
We are all born geniuses,
but somewhere along the line,
like Dante in midlife,
we lose our path and become mediocrities.
*
A dictionary of quotations
is the best proof of the fact that
some very smart men
have said some very dumb things.
*
There are some Armenian situations
that only the Turkish language can do justice.
#