I do not watch Armenian TV series, and consequently, I am not familiar with Diana Grogoryan’s scenarios. I suppose, she is neither Shakespeare, nor Bernard Shaw. But certainly there are thousands of people who watch the TV series shot on her scenario and like them. In the whole world TV series, as a rule, are simply commercial projects and last until they have consumers. Thus, if any TV channel hires Diana, Poghos or John for writing a scenario, it expects from their scenarios to have consumers. By the way, Diana is not the only screenwriter in Armenia, there are dozens of people who have the same occupation. However, the names of those people are not known to the public perhaps because they do not have an elite life and do not receive poisonous comments on Facebook. I also suppose that Armenian TV series are less in quality than, for example, Netflix’s production, and it is natural, the scales of the audience are different. The economic conditions of Armenia and the developed countries are incomparable, and, as a consequence, the advertising markets as well. (For the very same reason “Aravot” will never become “New York Times”, which, however, does not mean that no newspapers should be published in Armenia. We are what we are and we should work within the limits of the opportunities given to us.) Figuratively speaking, Netflix’s scenarists work at “Mercedes”, and Diana and other scenarists of Armenia work at “Yeraz” factory. Does giving them state awards worth it? Perhaps, not, inasmuch as we speak of the people working in once circle of the mere commercial direction. But the way, the tone in which this issue is discussed is important to me. If people struggle against tastelessness and “rabis”, then, I think, they should not be tasteless and “rabis”, starting from elementary things, for example, not to use vulgarisms when speaking about that woman. And what does “not being rabis” mean overall? In my opinion, it means not to go too deep into details, not to try to self-sustain by harming someone else, to be forgiving and broad-minded, and most importantly, not to grieve because of any given senseless thing, furthermore, not to start a nation-wide mourning. The mourning without an occasion, I believe, is the top of “rabis”. Movses Khorenatsi had serious grounds for mourning. He was mourning the downfall of the public morals of his time, not because the King had awarded one of the minstrels.
ARAM ABRAHAMYAN
