Wednesday, April 24, 2013 ************************************ AGENDA ****************** William H. Gass: “I write because I hate.” * I should have said that. My style. I hate lies and atrocities regardless of race, color, and creed; and I hate those who don’t share my hatred if them. * My aim in life? Not to add a single regret to my long list of them. # Wednesday, April 24, 2013 ***************************** ON TURKS ************************* Turks are brought up to believe they belong to a civilized, progressive and westernized nation. If you mention the Armenian genocide, they will say it’s a lie, it never happened, and Turks did what every other nation would have done when its existence is in peril. * ON ARMENIANS ************************** Armenians are brought up to believe they are too smart, experienced, and progressive to need the empty verbiage of a minor scribbler. * ON ARMENIAN LITERATURE ************************************* “Armenian literature is a cemetery,” said Baruir Massikian. The best career move an Armenian writer can make is to allow himself to be slaughtered by a bloodthirsty foreign tyrant. * ON NARGETASI ***************************** Naregatsi, our Shakespeare and Dante combined, is like Mark Twain’s weather: everybody speaks of him but nobody reads him. I don’t mind admitting that the only time I read him was when I was asked to review Kudian’s translation. Did anyone else review it? I don’t know. I don’t remember. I doubt it. # AGENDA II ********************************** Overheard on the radio this morning: “As an African writer do you think of yourself as a bridge between Africa and the West?” Answer: “When I write I don’t think of myself as a bridge. All I am interested in is producing a good sentence.” * Q: As an Armenian writer – A: Please, don’t call me that. I can’t imagine a worst insult than being called an Armenian writer. Q: What should I call you? A: Anything but that? Call me someone who likes to raise questions in an environment where there is an abundance of wrong answers. Q: Could you give an example of a good sentence in our context? A: How about, “Our political parties have been of no political use to us. Their greatest enemy is free speech.” Q: Who said that? A: Zarian. Q: Another example? A: “An Armenian’s tongue can be sharper than a Turk’s yataghan.” Q: Zarian? A: Right. Q: How about something of your own? A: Our collective failings far outnumber our individual successes. # TRAGEDY #2 ************************************ Committing blunders is easy; admitting them difficult. * Dividing the community is easy; admitting to being a divider impossible. * One reason Obama will not recognize the Genocide is that his advisers have informed him that as a tribal people we divide our votes 50/50 – half Democrat, half Republican. As a result our influence on the outcome of elections is zero, nada, zilch, vochinch. We might as well be an absent factor. * Our dividers – be they pundits, partisans, Turcocentric ghazetajis, editors, publishers, bosses, bishops, and benefactors, are fully aware of this fact but pretend not to notice the mammoth in the room. * We were slaughtered as a nation but we vote as a tribe. That indeed is our second greatest tragedy. #