arabaliozian Posted March 13, 2010 Report Share Posted March 13, 2010 March 11, 2010 *************************************************** TOYNBEE ******************************************* One reason I love to read and reread Toynbee (sometimes more than twice) is that so much of what he says, and the authorities he quotes, are anti-authoritarian and apply not only to me personally but also to mankind in general, including – or should I say, especially – to Armenians. Random examples follow: Volney: “The source of man's calamities reside within him; he carries them in his heart.” Saint Cyrian: “If the foreign enemy were to cease from troubling, would Roman really be able to live at peace with Roman?” Rabbi Agus: “'Uniqueness' as an innate quality of being is exclusive in character, invidious in intent, invariably offensive.” Walter Bagehot: “The very institutions which most aid at step number one are precisely those which most impede at step number two.” In Toynbee's own words: “Progress would not have been the rarity it is if the early food had not been the late poison.” And I think of our own political parties whose step number one was love of freedom, and step number two fear or hatred of free speech.” Our own Garabents put it more succinctly when he said: “Once upon a time we fought and shed our blood for freedom. We are now afraid of free speech.” And to think that Garabents was a thoroughly pro-establishment writer beloved by all. Another quality that makes Toynbee attractive to me personally is that he quotes the Bible (and he does so frequently – more frequently than any other historian I have read) not as a believer but as a non-believer. In his own words: “I believe that the answers to the questions that matter most to us can be found only beyond the reason's limits, if they can be found at all.” Please note that final “if.” When asked why he had devoted thirty years of his life to the writing of his magnum opus, STUDY OF HISTORY, Toynbee is said to have replied with a single word: “Curiosity.” # March 12, 2010 *************************************************** BLUNT TALK ******************************************* “The United States was not the golden land of opportunity people thought it was. Blacks were oppressed. The poor were downtrodden. The press told lies. Truth existed nowhere. Everyone was motivated by money.” (THE SHOT, by Philip Kerr. New York, 2000, page 62). Blunt talk. That's what I like. I wish we had more of it. * People who are afraid of open spaces are said to suffer from agoraphobia, a word that combines two Greek words – agora (space) and phobia (fear). It seems to me, collectively, we suffer from alithophobia (fear of truth) and pragmatophobia (fear of reality). Which may well be why there are a great many people out there who don't believe us even when we speak the truth, probably because they think we suffer from psematolatria (the worship of lies). Next time you hear or read one of our pundits or “patriotards” (baloney artists parading as community leaders), I urge you to keep these words in mind even if you can't find them in any dictionary for the simple reason that I just made them up. * Please note that Philip Kerr, the author of the above quotation, is not a historian, sociologist, or academic, but a writer of thrillers who was greatly influenced by Raymond Chandler, the only American writer I have enjoyed reading three times – see especially his FAREWELL, MY LOVELY. Like Chandler, Kerr has a brilliant sense of humor. At one point, for instance, his central character, who happens to be a professional assassin, says: “I'm the real careful type. Ava Gardner offered to suck my c*ock I'd probably ask what was in it for me.” * The only other American writer I have read three time is Hemingway -- not his novels but his short story “The Killers.” I don't mention LOLITA because Nabokov was less American and more Russian cosmopolitan. # March 13, 2010 *************************************************** REFLECTIONS ******************************************* My two ambitions in life as a writer: (one) to explain why many Armenians are alienated, and (two) to expose the arrogance and incompetence of those who alienate them in the name of patriotism. * If rabbis, imams, and bishops were to renounce their monopoly on truth, would the number of their followers go up or down? Hard to say. But one thing we can say with certainty: they would be promoting tolerance instead of intolerance. * As a reader, I prefer bad dialogue to good descriptions. I should like to read a work of fiction that begins with the words: “In what follows, I will not speak of the appearance and wardrobe of my characters on the assumption that what's most important about them will emerge in what they say.” * The trouble with some of my critics is that they don’t consider me worthy of criticism. Instead, they insist that I either give up writing or change my views in such a manner as to jibe with theirs. In short, they demand that I become a disciple and an echo. Their disciple and their echo! My critics are not literary critics in the usual sense of these words, but messianic figures whose message is “Abandon your ways and follow me, for I am the only path to wisdom and salvation.” To such an Armenian to say anything but “Yes, master!” would be heresy leading to eternal damnation and hellfire. # Quote Link to post Share on other sites
arabaliozian Posted May 19, 2010 Author Report Share Posted May 19, 2010 May 16, 2010 *************************************************** REPLIES ************************************************ FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH BETTY MIDLER **************************** Q: What is the quality you most like in a man? A: Guts. Q: What is the quality you most like in a woman? A: Balls. * FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH BRIGITTE BARDOT ***************************************************** Q: If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? A: Nothing about me. Everything about others. * FROM AN INTERVIEW WITH SALMAN RUSHDIE ***************************************************** Q: What do you consider the most overrated virtue? A: Faith. Q: What is your greatest fear? A: Irrelevance. * See VANITY FAIR'S PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE (New York, 2009) # May 17, 2010 *************************************************** MORE REPLIES TO THE PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE ************************************************ MAUREEN DOWD ************************************* Q: How would you like to die? A: After my enemies. * DUSTIN HOFFMAN ******************************** Q: On what occasion do you lie? A: When people ask , “How are you?” The real answer I save for my therapist. Q: Who are your favorite writers? A: Nineteenth-century Russians. * WILLIAM F. BUCKLEY **************************************** Q: What or who is the greatest love of your life? A: J.S. Bach. * SIDNEY POITIER **************************** Q: Who is your favorite hero of fiction? A: Jason Bourne. * WALTER MATTHAU ******************************* Q: Which historical figure do you most identify with? A: Jack the Ripper. Q: What is your motto? A: “F*ck you.” * DAVE BRUBECK ***************************** Q: If you could choose what to come back as, what would it be? A: J.S. Bach. * GORE VIDAL ******************************** Q: Who are your heroes in real life? A: Dr Kevorkian. # May 18, 2010 *************************************************** MY ANSWERS TO THE PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE ************************************************ Q: What is your idea of perfect happiness? A: Playing Bach on the organ in an empty church. Q: What is that you most dislike in others? A: Intolerance. Q: What do you consider the most overrated virtue? A: Charm and a perfect set of white gleaming teeth. Q: What do you consider your greatest achievement? A: The fact that I have been writing for thirty-five years and I am still alive. Very few Armenian writers can say as much. Q: Your favorite word? A: Compassion. Q: Your favorite writers? A: Plato, Chekhov, Toynbee, Sartre, Zarian, Koestler, Simenon, Chandler, Lesley Blanch...among many others. Q: Who are your heroes in real life? A: Socrates, Diogenes, Gandhi. Q: Your favorite heroes of fiction? A: Jack Bower, Jason Bourne, Bugs Bunny, and Walker in POINT BLANK. Q: Your happiest experience? A: Receiving a letter from Saroyan saying he reads everything I write. Q: Who is the greatest love of your life? A: After my mother, J.S. Bach. Q: Which words or phrases do you most overuse? A: “If you know what I am saying,” when I don't know what I am saying. Q: On what occasion do you lie? A: When asked by a writer to assess his work. Q: How would you like to die? A: Suddenly, in my sleep. Q: Which talent would you most like to have? A: The ability to sing Neapolitan serenades. Q: What is the trait you most deplore in yourself? A: Self-doubt. Q: What is the trait you most deplore in others? A: Subservience. Q: What is your most marked characteristic? A: Timidity. Q: Which living person do you most despise? A: Flunkies, hirelings, and brown-nosers. Q: What is your favorite journey? A: Greek islands, Italian cities, South-American jungles, and Caucasian mountains. Q: If you were to die and come back as a person or thing, what do you think it would be? A: A concert pianist. Q: What do you regard as the lowest of misery? A: To be a homeless refugee in a poor country under an authoritarian regime in time of war. Q: If you could change one thing about yourself, what would it be? A: To be more diplomatic in my dealings with my fellow men. # May 19, 2010 *************************************************** MORE ANSWERS TO THE PROUST QUESTIONNAIRE ************************************************ Q: Your favorite occupation? A: Reading. Q: Your greatest fear? A: Losing my eyesight. Q: Where would you like to live? A: Since I can no longer live in the Armenian ghetto in Athens where I spent my early years – because it was torn down – in Venice. Q: Your most treasured possession? A: The complete organ and piano works of J.S. Bach. Q: Your favorite saying? A: “When the house is finished, death enters.” * DAVID STEINBERG ******************************** Q: If you could choose what to come back as, what would it be? A: Frank Sinatra's dick-- the early years. * ON THE RADIO **************************** “They don't eat bagels in Israel.” * SHRINKS ************************** I am told I hate myself. If I do, it may be because I can't imagine anything more repulsive than being infatuated with oneself. * Everything I say about Armenians has been said before, and if not said, felt. # Quote Link to post Share on other sites
arabaliozian Posted September 15, 2010 Author Report Share Posted September 15, 2010 Sunday, September 12, 2010 ************************************ SCORPIONS ************************************************* Whenever I hear an Armenian bragging about survival, I consider it my duty to remind him that scorpions and spiders have survived too, you don't hear them bragging about it. Our brainwashed phony patriots consider me unpatriotic because I dare to point out failings visible to everyone but themselves. I don't like braggarts. No one does! And yet, we are taught to brag. * To be a slave of former slaves means to be paralyzed with fear not only of the master's shadow (who may well be dead and buried to begin with) but also of any idea that may be remotely connected with reality. * For almost a century now we have been clamoring for justice, and what have we accomplished? We pretend to be for dialogue but only from a fixed position, which is an oxymoronic position visible to all except morons. * One of my gentle readers once described me as a “self-appointed critic,” as if critics qualify as such only when appointed by God or a representative of His on earth, say, like the Pope, the Sultan, or some other source of authority. Because I dare to speak for no one but myself, they think I can safely be dismissed as an undesirable and unqualified interloper whose testimony should be ignored. * The problem with braggarts is that they are too satisfied with their own lies to be useful to anyone but themselves. Their unspoken motto seems to be, “Don't fix that which ain't broken,” or “One should not mess with perfection.” * Once, when I was accused of comparing Armenians to scorpions, I said I had no desire to insult scorpions who can always plead not guilty by reason of the fact that evolution had failed to endow them with a brain -- a plea which is not available to us. # Monday, September 13, 2010 ************************************ DOGMAS ************************************************* Taliban slogan: “Throw reason to the dogs.” * Taliban come in all sizes and shapes and there is a Taliban in all of us. * The higher you climb on the tree of knowledge, the greater the area if ignorance that comes into view. * When they run out of arguments, they insult you. In a different time and place they would have you arrested on charges of treason. Let us therefore count our blessings. * Speaking as a layman, I find some scientific theories as incomprehensible as religious dogmas. The Big Bang is to me as unbelievable as the pandemonium and paraphernalia of fornicating Greek gods in whose name Socrates was arrested, tried, found guilty, and executed. * The Koran-burning controversy and the protests in Muslim countries have proved one thing beyond a shadow of a doubt: the true aim of Islamists everywhere is to intimidate and control the West the way they intimidate and control their women. And since in order to survive their women adopt a passive stance, they expect the West to do likewise. And they are outraged to the point of hysteria when it doesn't. * As for moderate Muslims: consider the case of the imam in New York who keeps saying, if he is not allowed to build a mosque near Ground Zero, Americans will make themselves vulnerable to a billion Muslims around the world bent on revenge. # Tuesday, September 14, 2010 ************************************ IS GOD AN ARMENIAN? ************************************************* They adopted the role of masters, which they assumed to be their manifest destiny, to the same degree that we adopted the role of slaves (and more recently, that of slaves of former slaves). * In reference to the Watergate scandals, Nixon once stated: “When the President does it, it's not illegal.” The Turks now expect us to believe we are in no position to question or doubt the legality of their actions performed at a time when they were masters and we their slaves. * Some people are so addicted to brag that they will brag even about the fact that they massacred innocent and unarmed civilians (“We taught the Armenians a lesson they will never forget!”) and we brag about the fact that we are the first nation in the 20th century to be targeted for extermination. * The final act of this tragedy of illusions and lies has not yet played itself out. We are now told by our leaders they will see to it that justice is done, notwithstanding the fact that so far, and after a hundred years of trying, we have not seen a single red cent in reparations, or a single square inch of soil annexed, or a single victim resurrected. * Instead of doing what must be done or what is within their power to do (such as enhancing our solidarity, shedding their tribalism, or respecting our human rights) they promise to do what only God Almighty can do but so far has consistently refused to do. * Does God recognize the Genocide? I for one cannot claim to read His mind. I can only say that He allowed it to happen and it was done in His name. * To those who say I repeat myself, I say, I see nothing wrong in repeating my truths as often as they repeat their lies. # Wednesday, September 15, 2010 ********************************************** FAITH AND KNOWLEDGE *************************************** Religions are popular not because they are true but because they make sense the way Leonardo's Mona Lisa makes sense to lovers of art, Beethoven's 6th Symphony makes sense to lovers of music, and algebra and trigonometry make sense to mathematicians. The Greek myths made sense to the Greeks to the same degree that Islam makes sense to Muslims, Christianity to Christians, and atheism to atheists – with one difference: whereas there is only one trigonometry, there are many religions that contradict one another. * It's astonishing how little men know about the world around them and themselves. A man's area of ignorance is infinitely greater than his area of knowledge. Men like Beethoven and Einstein may have know everything there is to know about music and physics respectively but little or nothing about many other subjects, including, say, Armenian history and culture. Even though I have myself written several books on the subject, my own knowledge of our history and culture may be said to be less than 0.01% of the total. Which may explain why dupes outnumber the wise, and even the wise are no better dupes. Hence the number of great 20th-century philosophers, writers, and Nobel-Prize winners who were Catholics, atheists, Stalinists, and members of the Nazi Party. # __._,_.___ Quote Link to post Share on other sites
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