For years, from time to time, I, as an editorial, was writing the series of “Armenia – 2020”. It was a satirical by its genre anti-utopia, not so much by the style of Zamyatin or Orwell, as by Vladimir Voynovich style. Do you remember his “Moscow – 2043” novel, which was published in 1986. The novel in a sarcastic tone was presenting the writer’s imagination about how Russia could be, if the trends available in the communist country of the 1980s reached their so-called “logical conclusion”.
Recently, Voynovich confessed that Putin’s Russia has exceeded his bravest imaginary flight, and his “Moscowrep” based on some ideas of special services and religion is much weaker satire than the marasmus, in which actually his country is now. I can say approximately the same about me, not claiming, of course, to the writer’s laurels. The reality is positioned ahead of my imagination, and in this event, any “projection” simply fades away before the real manifestations. As a result, people cease to adequately perceive the anti-utopian “visions” and accept everything not as humor, but as true information.
I, nevertheless, tried to write something on Facebook to understand whether this genre is in demand. The “news” was that the former Armenia residents gathered in Glendale and protested against emigration. Isn’t it clear that no such a thing can happen and it is an absurdity? The meaning is also clear: emigrants cannot protest against emigration, like the “pioneers” of the shadow economy in our current government cannot fight against the shadow economy. But, people perceived this “Glendale news” as true information and began to seriously consider it, yes, they did right, no, they did wrong. And I realized that the problem is not that people have lost their sense of humor, but the fact that the absurd “assumption” probably is pretty close to the reality, and theoretically, it is quite possible that, let’s say, the one who wears a crocodile-skin shoes can be a “Greenpeace” activist.
Therefore, to write about how impudent the government would be in 2020 and how idler and empty-taker the opposition would be in 2020 simply makes no sense. Suppose, I will write that in 2020, Shmice would be an Ombudsman, and Khachik Asryan – president of the Academy of Sciences. But first, it would not even cause the reader’s smile because of being far from the reality. And then, I would be blamed for giving an idea to the government if these people are truly appointed to these positions. The likelihood of which is there.
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ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
