Perhaps Armen Shekoyan is an exception with his “Armenian Times” novel. His work is probably the only novel with the highest number of copies in Armenia-nearly 5,000 copies of each of the novel’s chapters are printed each week (it is worth mentioning that the author prints parts of his novel in the daily and readers are sure that they can find their names in the chapters and dialogues). Recently, Armen Hovhannisyan translated and published Dostoyevsky’s “Devils” and “Writings from the Phantom House” and the copies were 600 and 400 respectively. Four hundred copies is fine and is not that big of a number, if we compare it to the 50,000 copies of the Armenian translation of Boulgakov’s “The Master and Margarita” novel published in 1990. However, as Pertch Zeytuntsyan says, “We are living in a time when we have to pray for that 400 to be sold.”
Only 40-50 books are printed by order of the state in Armenia each year. For two years, the Armenian government thought it would be better to not have the number of copies of the books exceed the 500 limit. However, this year, the number of copies for the book “Save, Horace” is 400.
“Many classic books just aren’t sold. For example, Dostoyevsky,” says one of the female workers at “Bukinist” book store and placed emphasis on the fact that “books written by Armenian authors are mainly not sold.” It’s hard to find the logical answer to the question as to why Armenian society has gotten used to not reading and why people don’t protest when they can’t find, for example, the Armenian translation of the book “Devils” at bookstores.
“What’s going on at publishing houses is illogical and has nothing to do with the law, rules and regulations. The so-called “new” conditions, which we are slowly getting used to, are nothing more but “a market of wild bores” for writers, poets, literary critics and translators who used to get financial aid from the former Soviet Union for decades. Things have changed so much that the author pays the publishing house to publish his book, so what you have are non-professional, “maculate” books at the bookstores. It’s ridiculous to see the number of copies of masterpieces. Before, authors with 30,000 printed books were forced to be satisfied with 400-1000 copies, of which some were sold, while others were given as presents. Currently, the author has to be more than happy to have someone sponsor the publication of his copies, so that people will know about his book.”
Pertch Zeytuntsyan faces the same problem. In 1990, he sold 80,000 copies of his book “Last sunrise”, whereas now his book “Don’t look in the mirror” sold only 400 copies. Which modern writer is in high demand? Pertch Zeytuntsyan has a couple of favorites:
“Do you know Gurgen Khanjyan? I like him, although he does make some mistakes. He’s talented. I like Karine Khodikyan, Anahit Aghasaryan, I like Armen Shekoyan a lot. Contemporary writers don’t have one goal in mind. However, I’m optimistic and I think that this phase will pass.”
Prose-writer and scenarist Aghasi Ayvazyan believes that the state is already doing a big thing by paying for the 400 copies. “Asking the authorities for money to publish copies of a book is a shame. It’s like beggary. The number of copies of a book has to be fixed, but it has nothing to do with the readers.” Ayvazyan has a couple of favorite Armenian writers, including Levon Khechoyan, Susanna Harutyunyan, Karine Khodikyan, Shushan Harutyunyan to name a few. As for not reading the works of modern writers, according to Aghasi Ayvazyan, nowadays people don’t even read the books written by Armenian authors like William Saroyan and Kostan Zaryan.
“It wouldn’t be realistic to say that the authorities that don’t read books and thus don’t have a world outlook don’t play a role in the world of literature. The government that cares about its country’s culture can’t tolerate this. If it does tolerate, this means that it not only doesn’t care, but also doesn’t deserve to be called a government. It’s time to realize that,” says Armen Hovhannisyan.