Imatge de l'autor

Armen Melikian

Autor/a de Journey to Virginland - Epistle 1

2 obres 64 Membres 9 Ressenyes 1 preferits

Sobre l'autor

Crèdit de la imatge: Armen Melikian during the Dog years of Virginland--age 34 (now 48).

Obres de Armen Melikian

Expraedium (2023) 1 exemplars

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Melikian, Armen
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male

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Aquesta ressenya s'ha escrit per al programa Donatius de membres de LibraryThing.
It took me forever to read this book. It is not an easy read or even an approachable read. You must really dedicate yourself to immersing in the language and style. Just like a Fantasy novelist creates a culture and world for their characters to flurish in, this author created words and experimental literature techniques to present a mirror of history and politics. I enjoyed reading something completely different from what I usually choose to read.

That being said, the actual ideas conveyed could at times be funny or agreeable, but most of the time I just thought the author was crazy. I spent some time abroad in the areas that were described. I could see their reflections in the work. The history I knew certainly helped me to understand the setting (although I suggest having at least wikipedia near by if you try and read this, even if you think you're an expert in history and politics). It was just so pessimistic about the world and our hope for a future. All the follies of government and society were presented as our doom that must be lived in forever and ever. There is no character or people that you like or relate to. There is very little in general to really make you feel connected to what you're reading in any deep way past your historical and cultural perspective. Many of the gender issues especially bothered me. I could never tell if the author was mocking all gender relations or if they really hated women that much. Any section talking about women or the main characters relationships always left a very sour taste in my mouth after reading it.

I don't think I was the target audience for this novel. I'm sure someone else will love it if they have a lot of time to devote to it without taking the philosophy personally.
… (més)
 
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EsotericMoment | Hi ha 8 ressenyes més | Dec 30, 2012 |
Aquesta ressenya s'ha escrit per al programa Donatius de membres de LibraryThing.
Review Journey To Virginland: Epistle I by Armen Melikian

A rather confusing tirade over religion, culture, and ethnocentricities. If you don’t know a lot about the history of the Turkish region, including its literary history, you’re lost. Not meant for the mass market. Aside from the density of the writing, if you can devote the time and energy to trudging through it, Journey to Virginland: Epistle I has interesting ideas and some entertaining scenes.
 
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kedicat | Hi ha 8 ressenyes més | Dec 20, 2012 |
I agree with most of the other reviews on this site, this certainly isn't an easy, fast read that you can read while sunbathing or whatever it is you may do while reading a good novel.
This requires your full attention, and you might be turning a couple pages back to read the previous few paragraphs, or page, just in case you got sidetracked;)
I found that I tend to agree with this author, and I had to laugh during several parts of this book, which is made especially easy, since the author is super witty, and has a genuine, very real mind.
I also have to add about how this book flowed so perfectly, kind of like your favorite song, poetic in some spots, and really gets your mind moving. Which for most, is a good thing. I do also need to point out, that at first, when I received this book, I really started thinking I was going to hate it, (I love America, and to see America deemed, Satanland, really at first irked me!) but, I got the point behind it, and society is more or less, how this author expresses in his book.
That being said, I would have to say that there will be parts, that some may hate, some may agree, and then turn the page and think, "WHAT???" But, when you really think about it, and when you picture society and the people and wars and Governments in this crazy place, you can start to understand what the author is trying to convey.
Although, some people may have a hard time understanding, (not meant arrogantly at all), and I would have to think that they are maybe partially what this book is about and why it was written.
… (més)
 
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busymommylist | Hi ha 8 ressenyes més | Jul 6, 2012 |
Aquesta ressenya s'ha escrit per al programa Donatius de membres de LibraryThing.
Disclaimer: This book was awarded to me in a LibraryThing giveaway. I was asked to provide a review in return.

I'm only halfway through this book so far, so I might add more to the review once I'm finished, but there are some things I need to address.

Here's a quick lesson how not to do self-promotion. The text from the first giveaway has appeared in several reviews. I'd recommend you read it as well. When I entered the giveaway, I was looking for a book that was more than fluff, more than YA vampire luv (not that there's anything wrong with that if that's your bag—I enjoy some fluff, myself) so I was willing to overlook the slightly-condescending tone used in the promotional material. After all, if you were an author who was trying to write something with a bit of depth, and your giveaway copies were awarded to someone who had only read something at the level of, say, Twilight, the review would probably consist of ZOMG BIG WORDS, LIKE TOTALLY ZERO STARS, and you'd likely want to let the people entering the giveaway know that this is a bit more advanced. Although, there's probably a better way to tell your readers that it's advanced, rather than suggesting they attend college before reading your book. I went to college, and I'm a pretty voracious reader, and I still had to reread several passages to figure out what the hell they actually said.

The following is the text from the second LibraryThing giveaway, the one after I won a copy. I'm not sure if it's still up, but if I had seen it before I won, I can definitely say that I would not have entered the giveaway, and the author would have earned a prize place on my authors behaving badly shit-list:

Description: Some reasons for NOT reading this book:
1. The author caricatures the Holy of Holies of all religions. Jerusalem is Penisalem.

2. The author caricatures the holy of holies of the ideology and the prime representatives of the American empire.The USA is Satanland.

3. The book is experimental literature. Inverts on its head the conventions of the novel. It is Dog Lit, written by a dog who disbelieves in the opium of literature.

4. This book is for "anarchists," "atheists," "terrorists," "criminals," "satanists," "moslems," "subverters," "drug dealers," "the homeless," "the stateless," "the gypsies," "the thieves," "the blacks," "traitors," "whores," "conspirators," "co-conspirators," "co-coconspirators," and... "real Americans."

The above text also appeared on the new giveaway on Goodreads. HOWEVER, on LibraryThing, the author goes on to add a fifth point:

5. One more reason NOT to read this book: The latest reviews assert persuasively that this book is rubbish. Don't believe it? Read it for yourself:

"A conceited attempt to imitate Salman Rushie and others. Pretentious, self-congratulatory rubbish, e-mailed to Early Reviewers along with a poorly made YouTube marketing video. Shameful. The positive reviews of this novel have only re-iterated the points put forth in marketing documents, as no one yet has had the courage to stand and criticize it. This book is, quite simply, a vainglorious writer presenting mundane social commentary with a soaring vocabulary."

While it is a fact that
a. The author has never read Salman Rushdie, and doesn't intend to read him anytime soon, because as a citizen of Satanland, his domain is first and foremost Satanland, not Allahland or Ayatollahland, and as such, he wouldn't feel a particular pleasure by demonizing Allah or Ayatollah, as the ideologues of His Holiness Diabolam Diabolum do basking under the sun of every literary crap that criticizes their ideological enemies. Rather, the author would not deprive himself from the intense pleasure of demonizing Satanland and its self-righteous and all-knowledgeable ideologues.

b. The author has made a "cheap" YouTube video because he is neither a member of the Satanic Plutocracy (he doesn't own a bank), nor is he a successful capitalist investor or an inheritor of wealth or the means of producing wealth. Shame on him! Inferior creature!

c. The reviewer has never received any marketing material, therefore he has no way of knowing if others have. And the fact is none of the winners of LibraryThing have received any (but they will receive it henceforth!) And that none of the other reviewers of the book have used nothing from the marketing material, but have expressed their genuine experiences in reading this book.

d. The reviewer is a liar and an underhanded one whose sole aim is to discredit an author and destroy his ranking, because this writer destroys the ideological hegemony of his sacrosanct beliefs in capitalism, democracy, and the rest... (and brings a new voice in literature that he wants to suffocate—a voice that sounds bizarre to him, since it is a nuclear bomb in the ass of Satan's Grand Narrative). This wouldn't have been as insulting to the reviewer, of course, if the author's knowledge of English was inferior to his.

e. The reviewer thinks he is more intelligent than the editors of major book review magazines and most of the readers and reviewers of the book, as well as all the judges of the 7 awards the author has won in Satanland, and feels a personal sense of responsibility to alert everyone to the prime danger of wasting their time by reading this book.

Nevertheless, we should believe in his genuine remarks, as "where there's smoke, there's fire" says the conventional wisdom.

Therefore, it behooves everyone to read excerpts on author's website BEFORE entering into something that might prove to be after all a waste of precious investment time. http://www.JourneyToVirginland.com

Now, I'm not an author, so I could be mistaken, but it seems to me that responding to negative reviews of your book in a negative way would be a very bad way to attract new readers. You come off looking like a dick. You just called one of your readers a liar, insulted their intelligence, and then posted that in a promotional piece for your next giveaway. Dude. Your balls must be visible from space.

Regarding the actual content of the book:
As I mentioned, I'm only halfway through, but I'm really struggling with this book. Another reviewer, Beatnick Mary, summed up this book perfectly: "It's just a dull book with a convoluted idea and a lot of polysyllabic words."

That is bang on. The book talks a lot without saying much of anything. It started out promising, with interesting lines like:

"They call me dog. Don’t ask who. Them. all of them."

and
"Kill the dog!
Sex is outlawed in Virginland."

which led me to believe that this was going to be a dystopian story, in the vein of 1984 or Brave New World, but it seems to have turned into a commentary on modern life with precious little in the way of narrative. I know there's Dog, and Dog likes to fuck. Also, women are whores, or something. The rest of the book is essentially Look at all the words I know. I know all of these words. Also, gratuitous Latin!

That's not to say that all of the writing is bad or over-the-top. Here's one passage I did like, on page 55: "When I was less than a year old, my parents had me christened at the church of the forty Virgins in adonis. Nobody had thought of asking me first."

Right there is a nice little commentary on how religion is forced on kids before they really understand the world around them. Sadly, these moments are too few and far between, and I can't really recommend this book.
… (més)
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sherrike | Hi ha 8 ressenyes més | Jun 26, 2012 |

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