Sunday, October 01, 2006
*****************************************
HISTORY REPEATS ITSELF
**************************************
Yervant Odian ends his novel, THE COUNCILMAN’S WIFE, abruptly in 1915 by saying most of his fictional characters, who had tried to inflict fatal damage on each other’s reputation, were arrested, jailed, and hanged. Those who survived ran away and joined the Russian army. The rest were allowed to stay in Istanbul on condition they refrain from getting involved in community affairs. One good thing about major catastrophes, Odian seems to be saying here, is that they solve all petty internecine problems.
*
Odian died in 1926 and had no way of knowing that in our Soviet phase we would behave, and to some extent we continue to behave today in both the Homeland and the Diaspora, as though we had learned nothing from our tragedy of 1915 – nothing except to bitch about Turks.
*
Odian had a sharp eye for Armenian doubletalk. Everyone in THE COUNCILMAN’S WIFE speaks about his honor in whose defense he is more than willing to behave in a dishonorable manner.
*
It is to be noted that the Soviets allowed the publication of Odian’s complete works, except his COMRADE PANCHOONIE, which is a savage attack on the misuse of language, political rhetoric, and Communist humbuggery. In one of his letters to the Central Committee (which ends, like all his other letters, with the words, “Send us a little money”) Panchoonie writes:

“We are all Armenians, we are brothers. Why can’t we live together? Why must we fight?” that filthy bourgeois kept repeating, not being able to comprehend that conflict is the basic condition of life, that class conflict is essential to socialist victory, and that it is impossible to do any good at all without at least a little bloodshed…. In vain did I repeat that violent class conflict must be waged between us, that they had to use against us every evil means at their command – betrayal, false accusation, force; without these it would not be possible to have a dirty bourgeois class, the existence of which was essential if we were to wage our noble revolutionary struggle against it.
#
Monday, October 02, 2006
************ ********* ********* *********
ON FREE SPEECH
************ ********* ********
John Stuart Mill (1806-1873), English economist
and philosopher: “We can never be sure that the
opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false
opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would
be an evil still.”
*
HOW TO JUDGE A NATION
************ ********* ********* *****
Jean-Francois Revel (1924-2006), French essayist
and critic: “One can measure how civilized a
nation is by its willingness to consider itself
an object of ridicule or contempt.”
*
On Freud: “Since time immemorial all men have had
an Oedipus complex except Oedipus.”
*
On French influence: “When the sun of France was
at its zenith, I wonder why the world did not die
of sunstroke.”
*
FROM MY NOTEBOOKS
************ ********* ********* ********
As I grow older I become increasingly aware of my
shortcomings and the good qualities of those I
held in contempt.
*
When a man of power ceases to think of himself as
a servant of the people, he becomes a tyrant.
Where there is power there will also be abuse of
power. I never had much power to abuse but on
those extremely rare occasions when I did, the
temptation to abuse it was irresistible and I
don’t remember to have ever made any effort to
resist it.
*
As sinners we don’t mind confessing to other
sinners. What we mind is confessing to hypocrites
who pretend to be better than we are.
*
Remember me? The more correct question should be:
Do you consider me worth remembering?
*
When I was young I had a solution for every
problem. I must have been an unbearable pain in
the ass. Some of my readers are eager to inform
me that I still am. In a year or two I may agree
with them.
*
On more than one occasion I have been taken to
task for my negativity. What could be more
negative than six centuries of subservience to
Turks followed by a series of massacres? And yet,
I wasn’t even born when these things happened.
Have we fallen so low that all talk of reality
has become negative?
*
Speaking of his Nazi past, Guenter Grass said, “I
was too young to be guilty.” I have every reason
to suspect, had Germany won, he would have
bragged about his service to the nation.
#

Tuesday, October 03, 2006
*****************************************
FAMILY, HONOR, MORALITY
****************************************
As a humorist, Yervant Odian (1869-1926) could be screamingly funny, but he could also be a realist in the manner of Dostoevsky, Tolstoy, and Zola (all of whom he translated into Armenian). The intent of his two major novels, THE COUNCILMAN’S WIFE and FAMILY, HONOR, MORALITY, both written shortly before the Genocide, is not to amuse or entertain but to expose the hypocrisy, arrogance, and moral bankruptcy of wealthy Armenians who parade as pillars of society and benefactors.
When an impoverished widow with a sick daughter, following the advice of friends and neighbors, applies for financial support to an Armenian benevolent institution in Istanbul, she is told she must wait two or three weeks until her case is thoroughly investigated. When she explains that she has no source of income or savings, not even enough money to buy coal with which to heat her room (it’s winter), she is told by Ghougas effendi, the central character of FAMILY, HONOR, MORALITY, and one of the pillars and benefactors mentioned above: “Impossible, no way, can’t be done! We have rules and regulations here. No investigation, no money. We don’t know who you are and where you come from. You could be lying to us. We must first make sure what you are telling us is true. We are not in the habit giving away money to whoever walks in here, understand? For all we know you could be a whore.”
Ghougas effendi, like most of Odian’s fictional characters, is the quintessential Ottomanized Armenian. He sprinkles his speech with Turkish words, expressions, and proverbs, among them “pij,” “pezeveng,” “khaltakh,” (freely translated: bastard, pimp, floozy).
It is to be noted that, in addition to being a great novelist, Odian was also an investigative reporter. He invented nothing. To his contemporary readers, all his fictional characters had real and recognizable counterparts.
When he is publicly exposed as a fraud, a liar, and a rapist, Ghougas effendi muses: “Let them bark all they want… After I make a few generous financial contributions to the hospital, orphanage, and to a few newspapers, I will be once more a respected pillar of society.” Which is exactly what happens.
I challenge anyone to read FAMILY, HONOR, MORALITY and say he is proud to be an Armenian.
#
Wednesday, October 04, 2006
************************************
NOTES AND COMMENTS
********************************************
The most effective counterargument is not questioning the common sense and decency of an adversary but mentioning a fact, no matter how marginal, that has been ignored.
*
I never say anything about my fellow men that I am not prepared to say about myself. Lying to others is bad enough. Lying to oneself is infinitely worse.
*
Suicide is a luxury the very poor can’t afford because they are too busy trying to survive.
*
In a corrupt democracy as soon as you throw one set of rascals out, another set moves in. Very often voting consists in rejecting a barrel of rotten apples for the sake of another.
*
To write means barking up the wrong tree in a desert.
*
If you think you know better, sooner or later you will run across someone who knows better.
*
Never underestimate the strength of underdogs and the weakness of top dogs.
*
The worst thing a mathematician can say about the work of another mathematician is, “That’s not math – it’s religion.”
*
Only after we reject all role models we may discover our true selves. Role models, even the very best, have the validity of hearsay evidence.
#