March 3 - World Writers Day: Is Armenian society reading books?

President of the Writers’ Union Levon Ananyan strongly believes that the Armenian society is little by little redeveloping its interest in books.

Speaking to Tert.am, he said that 40 new members have quite recently joined the literary community, most being young people.

According to him, the majority of the more or less outstanding writers in Armenia - around 400 people - are members of the Union.

“They give a literary product. The annual book publishing has hit records in the past years - around 1,200 – 1,300 books, most being fiction literature,” he said, adding that about 135 million drams (about $ 375,000) are annually allocated from the State Budget for the books publication.

His comments came on the occasion of the World Writers Day which is annually celebrated on March 3. The holiday has been established in 1986 by the International Congress of PEN Club.

Speaking about the day, writer and publicist Violet Grigoryan said she does not absolutely care about the society’s opinion, and does not even attempt to see any links between a writer’s role and the public.

“Liking or disliking does not absolutely matter to me. The important thing is the different comments, although we do not presently have what is commonly known as a literary critic or a reader’s response which does not actually interest me at all,” she said.

Grigoryan does not think the Armenian society lacks book-lovers.

“I don’t know what has given rise to the statements that the society is now reading less than before. Maybe that past is linked to the Soviet times when no other means entertainment, and none of the technologies we use today existed,” she said, adding that the internet nowadays very often replaces the popular scientific literature that was widely read in the past.

As for why the older generation of writers does not join their ranks, she said: “The continuation of the older [generation] is impossible because the objectives of literature have changed. Outstanding authorities become demanded when the society poses questions - historically and politically,” she said, referring to such prominent writers as Khachatur Abovyan and Raffi who had set themselves a task to shape or preserve a nation (problems which she said no longer exist).

“Today, we consider the classical writer a cultural value, but art differs from culture. Art nowadays is an emerging value that you cannot assess. Art lives with us, and we need time to make it culture,” she noted.