Writer Narine Abgaryan holds a special place in contemporary Russian literature. Her books remind us that the law and order of the breathing universe – lasting millions of years yet unreachable until the end – fits in beautifully and effortlessly in the daily life of a small Armenian town, Berd.

Narine Abgaryan with an episodic structure and cunningly intertwined texts, restructures the proud, strong and wounded city’s fate, which with a thousand and one tree branches reaches and touches the delicate strings of the human heart. The sorrow, the humor, the happiness and the coming tragedy all intersect at that point, which we can call “original.”

That is the point at which the existence of a human being turns into a person (reflective and grateful), a wandering town isolated from the world and within high mountains becomes the fatherland (always moving with you), and the noisy and rebellious family, a love resource (waving, but precious).

Her stories are kind, warm and familiar for all of her readers (even those unfamiliar to anything related to Armenia). It seems that the author’s soul has sympathy for every person, tree, sprout and rock, which by good fortune have been and are by her side. That is what lavishingly arises out of her books, short stories and posts made on social networks.

Narine Abgaryan began her career as a blogger, and now for her large amount of followers, she is a path to Armenia, to become familiar with it, and be inspired by it. If you join that path, you will immediately feel emotional energies, which will help you understand what you have, and what you do not have. Only what you dream…

Social media has played a big role in your life. To what extent does it help and to what extent is it an obligation?

Let me begin by saying that for any aspiring author, who has a blog and a large number of followers, various media resources provide tremendous advertising. Personally, I would have never become a writer if at the time, I did not open a page on Live Journal. The publishing house found me on Live Journal and made an offer to publish my book.

I believe that social media is not only a means of promoting and advertising, but that it is also the author’s alter ego. By posting, you are describing yourself to yourself.

In that sense, of course, it is a strict obligation.

Luck worked in my favor, since I already had a large number of followers in Russian-language social media, and when I began to write books, it was not necessary to initiate specific advertising campaigns. I wrote on my page and immediately informed followers that my new book would see the light of day.

Social media is also a trap. If you are a public figure, you are obligated to write several things daily, in order for people not to forget you.

Of course, people can forget you, but in any case, the important thing is to maintain a balance. I know people who went head first into their blogs, and neglected their primary work.

I regularly constrain myself and put myself in conundrums, understanding well that books are the priority.

Although I have a very appreciative attitude towards social media (which has made authors, artists, actors, and essentially everyone famous), I do however understand that it is the space where you must dive and very quickly come back to the surface.

If you stayed in the depths slightly too long, you will no longer come out. In that sense, social media is a sweet trap.

The youth, who are of the digital generation, literally live in the network and with the illusion that they are understood. Do you think that their psychology is changing?

All of us are living in an era of total isolation. The media, blogs, and social networks are replacing human contact. This includes the youth, who sometimes have very complicated relationships with their friends, school, or with their families.

Something similar happened with my child, who at one point was communicating with his entire grade exclusively with his blog. I even joked saying that if they met in reality, they would not even recognize each other. They won’t even remember the names, since on blogs it is standard to use a pseudonym when chatting.

But it in any case, that is just one situation, which should be treated with understanding, since we can neither prevent or eliminate it. In the end, it is also a stage of self-formation.

Thanks to you there is a vivid sense of the Armenian footprint in Russian social media. How do you manage to deal with trolling and promotional comments?

In social networks whenever I am writing any kind of political text (for example, about the days of war in April), I receive many threats. There are also personal messages, especially by Azerbaijani users.

I think there is no need to be fearful of them. The moment you begin to be afraid and be careful, you unintentionally begin to change yourself and lose your own face.

If you are ready to be in the media spotlight, you must be prepared to withstand attacks. And if you are afraid of attacks, it is better that you leave the network.

In any case I always give the advice to all bloggers to not lose their face. That, it seems, is the main prerequisite for a person’s success. Do not betray yourself, and the rest is all empty stuff.

There is seemingly no free or impartial media. I think that in Russia this reality is even worse than in Armenia.

I agree with you completely.

To what extent does that lack of impartiality affect your daily life? For example, reading the news or watching television.

Everything depends on a person’s choices. Either you watch and read that which is presented to you in very bad taste, or you don’t read or watch it.

Alas, we are living in the times when a tremendous amount of people watch Russian federal television reports, which only present information from the pleasant view of the authorities.

Of course, it is a cause of happiness that somehow small sources and streams of information exist, which are able to maintain their quality. It is imperative to receive information from alternative sources, in order for the news and events to remain clear.

For example, in connection with the recent events of the “Sasna Tzrer” group, the Armenian media was presenting it in such an incomprehensible manner, that we, who find ourselves far away from Armenia, were essentially lost and were not able to understand what was happening.

Personally, I tried to be very careful and not confuse the situation in my posts, until the time when the fighting between the protestors and the police was stopped. It is not possible to live in a country where teachers or artists are beaten with iron rods. That is unacceptable.

In Russian cases do you respond in a similarly compassionate way?

Of course, I live in Russia, but I do not write about Russia for a simple reason: I am not a Russian citizen. This fact seems to leave room for maneuver, so to speak, in the sense of giving the right to optionally write or to not write. And then, when I compare the quality of life in Armenia and Russia, I understand that if we must criticize, the first must be our own people. If only for the reason that Russia provides a minimum guaranteed medical package to its citizens, but Armenia does not. And with that, my heart explodes.  

In all aspects, Armenia is dear to me, and that, so to speak, is the intradermal feeling.

Your texts, with a deliberately simple structure, have a strong emotional effect. How do you calculate the dose of emotion, so that excess sensitivity does not destroy the idea?

Texts require lengthy work. I write the short texts in approximately 7-10 days. First I write, then I shorten, and in the next step I already reject emotions.

When an Armenian writes about Armenia, they almost always exaggerate emotions.

Thus, to become free from emotions is a necessity.

Interview by Nune Hakhverdyan