“It was the best of times, it was the worst of times, it was the age of wisdom, it was the age of foolishness, it was the epoch of belief, it was the epoch of incredulity, it was the season of Light, it was the season of Darkness, it was the spring of hope, it was the winter of despair, we had everything before us, we had nothing before us, we were all going direct to heaven, we were all doing direct the other way – in short, the period was so far like the present period, apart from living in that stinking hole, which, all things considered, sucked the big black camel dick.”
(Hat tip, Head Beeb via Charles Macdonald.)
Hey, don’t forget the Turkmanbashi*! Whenever one of his volumes of poetry comes out, it immediately becomes the best selling book in Turkmanistan. He also publishes books on philosophy. It all goes with the ubiquitous statues of him all over the country, including a giant golden one in the capital that rotates to face the sun. In any case, I seem to recall that some literary folk in Turkmanistan offered him an award for the quality of his writings, so they must be good!
*He was orginally named Saparmurant Niyazov. He changed his name to mean (loosely) “father of all Turkmen.”