Young artist about his peers, modern literature, looting of the state budget, and the indifference of the church. Time has shown that many banned works in the arts and literature years after become samples of artistic innovation of a whole period. The works of Paryur Sevak, Hovhannes Shiraz, Hovhannes Grigoryan, Hrachya Sarukhanyan and others deserved such a destiny, works, with which the entry of avant-garde artists in our literature was rejected, they were declared “unsafe and unnecessary for the literature.” There are similar cases in our times. The second collection of poems of a young poet Vahe Arsen issued in 2007 and entitled “Return of Green Gods” for a period of one year “was under arrest”, the sale was banned, and only in the end of 2008 it appeared in the bookstores.
Moreover, today, the entire print of the book was sold out. ‘Aravot’ met with the poet trying to find out the destiny of contemporary or today’s “banned” literature, whether the so-called modern literature is truly modern, and whether it has readers’ interest, and so no. Vahe Arsen said that there is an indifference toward today’s true (not massive) art, and said: “It is a global problem, in fact, one of the issues of concern to me, when people are involved in the civil, political struggle, they want to change something in our reality … First, I would ask what book they are reading today, – continuing his thought he said,- the Soviet regime dictated some literary templates, resulting in the majority of the writers to turn their own talent into lyrical or false patriotic wail, bypassing the true problems of human and reality of his times.” Our interlocutor stated that many creators wrote the “low-forehead kinto of Charents”, thereby signing his own death sentence. Back to our days, he said that even today there is an opposite phenomenon. ‘The gender sexual literature has become required, which captures the reader not with artistic values, psychological subtle and complex sinking, but irritates the basic primitive instinct of the man,” thought he is confident that he will overcome this phase too, and time will make its unchanged verdict as it happened in the Soviet period. To the replica whether the literary critics have no role here, the writer answered: “The school of literary criticism also needs a revival. The literary critic, by itself, must also create, and not only judge. This school needs to turn from the Soviet court instance into a man loving the art, living with it, and trying to analyze its immensity, and living with the best possible literary standards.” Our interlocutor finds that the psychology of a bumblebee prevails in our society, and it is, unfortunately, at the state level. “The bumblebee does not produce honey, but forming a strong offensive army, it can immediately possess the outcomes of the long-term work, in other words, the main goal of some of young men involved in different function of today’s politicized country is looting of the state budget, “rollback” and thus, the realization of the goal of their lives is to have dozens of luxurious car garages, luxury homes and mansions from North Avenue to North Europe, and so on.” In this regard, the young artist accuses the church, too. He said that the church, leaving the spiritual upbringing of the younger generation aside, seems also to be involved in the “rollback”. While, it should be anchored in the consciousness of young men that the material is not an evil if the person striving for it realizes the human and spiritual perfection. Otherwise, the material becomes a supreme evil: the car turns into a guillotine, the syringe turns into a death messenger. Vahe Arsen, referring to the Law on Gender Equality in the country, said: “Those who speak about Nzhdeh values, national ideas, the role of the church, nationalism, how did they vote for the law, where human sex is viewed not as an irreversible fact formed in the mother’s womb, but just possibility of a generic choice at any age.” The artist once again turning to the church, expressed perplexity: “Interestingly, whether the role of our today’s church is to conduct rituals, and renovation of historical temples of God, or resisting spiritual recession of the nation, or injecting fundamental values of Christianity with their own examples and sermons into the followers of the Armenian Church. While the church should promptly respond, and lead the nation against our today’s destructive phenomena.”
Samvel DANIELYAN
“Aravot” daily
