Thursday, January 25, 2007
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REFLECTIONS ON A REMARK BY SHAHNOUR
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If there is a story in my life, I don’t see it. All I see is either a succession of dead ends or paths that lead nowhere. I have wasted so much time trying to reason with my readers — as if that were in the realm of possibilities.
In one of his letters Shahnour writes (I translate from memory): “Sooner or later the voice of an authentic writer will be heard. He will even prevail over those who misinterpret him.” But can he prevail over those who having heard his voice choose to ignore him or dismiss him as a nuisance? Who reads Shahnour today, or having read him is open to his line of thinking?
It is said that on the battlefield soldiers don’t think of victory, only of survival. I have survived, so has the nation. But what if our survival is nothing but a slow-motion death of a thousand cuts, most of them self-inflicted?
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Friday, January 26, 2007
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CRITICS AND MAD DOGS
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Stand long enough at the edge of an abyss and someone is sure to push you.
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Whenever a faceless anonymous hooligan on the Internet verbally abuses me, my first reaction is to believe everything he says. Paul Valéry is right: when a mad dog bites, it hurts.
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There is nothing wrong in saying “I believe in god.” But there is something horribly wrong in saying “My god is the only true god.”
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To those who tell me I go about my criticism the wrong way, I say: Name an Armenian critic, or any critic, who went about it the right way and I will be more than happy to adopt him as my role model.
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Has anyone ever written a treatise on etiquette for critics and, having done so, has not been torn to shreds by critics?
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Speaking of a Sorbonne-educated avant-garde poet, a friend tells me: “When I told him I didn’t understand his poetry, he said you will, in 25 years. I met him again last week and told him the 25 years were up and I still can’t make heads or tails of it…”
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Nothing comes easier to a charlatan than to assume everyone else is a charlatan.
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Three of our most abundant national products: bragging, backbiting, and bullshitting.
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My favorite 11th Commandment: “Thou shalt not aim at perfection in an imperfect world.”
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Saturday, January 27, 2007
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WHAT I UNDERSTAND ABOUT
POWER STRUCTURES
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You may not understand power structures but power structures understand you; and they understand you because they have only one criterion: “You are either with me or against me.” You may have the IQ of a genius but if you are not with the power structure body and soul, you might as well be an idiot, and worse, a nuisance. That’s why some of the best men in the history of mankind were persecuted and sometimes even condemned to death. Don’t get me wrong. I am not saying those in power are all vicious fools. No. Most of them may even be highly able men – smart, sophisticated, cunning. What they lack is not smarts but moral compass. And they are moral morons because they place their own powers and privileges above all other considerations. This is true of all power regardless of race, color, and creed. Which is why sentences like “Their politicians are crooks, but ours are honest men” make sense only to the naïve and brainwashed dupe.
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