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EESTI ELU reedel, 16. juulil 2021 — Friday, July 16, 2021
Nr. 28
Fiction that shapes the physical world Vincent Teetsov
English-language supplement to the Estonian weekly “EESTI ELU” Tartu College Publications Founding Chairman: Elmar Tampõld Editor: Laas Leivat 3 Madison Avenue, Toronto, ON M5R 2S2 T: 416-733-4550 • F: 416-733-0944 • E-mail: editor@eestielu.ca Digital: www.eestielu.ca
Mart Klepp with his .22 match rifle.
Photo: Margus Jukkum
Olympic shooter Mart Klepp has joined the Toronto Rifle and Pistol Club Tauno Mölder Mart Klepp, an internationally recognized Estonian-Cana dian rifle shooter, has joined the Toronto Estonian Rifle and Pistol Club (TEPP). Mart is an Olympic discipline smallbore (.22 calibre) and air rifle (.177 calibre) shooter. He specialized in the three position smallbore event (shooting kneeling, prone and standing) and the air rifle event (shooting only standing). Some noteworthy accomplishments: • XXIV Olympic Games, 1988 Seoul, Korea, 14’th air rifle, 36’th three position • Pan American Games, 1991 Havana, Cuba, and 1987 Indianapolis USA: One Gold, Four Silver, One Bronze individual and team medals • Commonwealth Games, 1990 Auckland, New Zealand: Three Gold and One Bronze indivi dual and team medals • World Cups, 1988 Mexico City, one bronze medal and 1988 Munich, Germany, one bronze medal • World Cup Finals, 1988 Munich, Germany 8th • Former world and Common wealth Games record holder • Multiple time Canadian Champion in three position and air rifle After a prolonged hiatus, Klepp has returned to competitive shooting, taking part in Provincial and National
Championships. “I first visited the Seedrioru range with Evald Gering in the 1980’s and I am glad to be a member so many years later. It is a wonderful facility. I am happy to see that the range and TEPP are active as target shooting is a fun, all inclusive sport enjoyed around the world.” Klepp is the first internationally recognized shooting competitor to be a member of TEPP since Evald Gering, who represented Canada at the 1960 Rome Olympics. TEPP has access to two shooting ranges: a 50 m outdoor range at Seedrioru and a 20-yard indoor range at the Toronto Revolver Club (TRC) At Seedrioru, TEPP members teach the summer campers to learn, practice and compete in the shooting sports. In addition to supervising the campers, the club provides beginners with personalized training in the safe handling of all types of firearms and offers individual coaching in the Olympic disciplines. TEPP also organi zes the federally mandated safety courses and examinations that are required to obtain a firearms license (Possession and Acquisitions Licence PAL and RPAL). After the Province moves to Stage 3 of reopening, anybody interested in taking part of TEPP activities can contact the club at info@teppclub.ca
ESTONIAN LIFE
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Words on the printed page can alter the bricks and mor tar that we are surrounded by. Platform Nine and ThreeQuarters at King’s Cross Railway Station in London is proof of this concept. On a typical day, several dozen tourists line up in an orderly queue to put on a scarf and pretend to push a trolley like Harry Potter, through the brick wall divide that se parates the muggle universe and the steam train to Hogwarts. It’s a sliver of literature we can actually touch because it captured many people’s imaginations. In Estonia, consider Pokumaa (“Poku Land”) in the small town of Urvaste, nestled between Võru county and Põlva county. This theme park was opened in 2008, two years after the passing of Edgar Valter, the author of Pokuraamat (“The Poku Book”) and its two sequels, on which the park is based. 14 years after the book’s publication, fans were able to see it in physical form. The creatures of his story, the pokud, are based on the grassy tussock sedge plants (carex stricta) that were all around him in Padasoomäe, the land he inhabited in the last years of life. Albeit, the characters look like tussock sedges in their later stages, when the marshland foliage is dry, shrively, and droopy. Like King’s Cross prompted part of a story and then came out the other end in an augmented shape, the marsh es of southeast Estonia were assigned new meaning. And Puuko, friend of the pokud, looks suspiciously like Edgar Valter himself. At Pokumaa, the grounds of Padasoomäe are one with the story’s surroundings. Upon parking your car, a trail walk leads you along to the peaceful patch of land. There are farm buildings constructed in the vernacular style, farm animals, a smoke sauna, huts plucked right out of Valter’s imagination, and paths that trace around the theme park. When visitors in the summer and spring weekends have had enough of walking, looking at original illustrations from the book, character sculptures, paintings, and other objects from the author’s life, they can get pannkoogid (“pancakes”) with different toppings and make their own poku as a craft souvenir. On occasion, live theatre and music shows take place at Pokumaa, with the apple orchard becoming one such stage. In exchange for characters with dry, grassy hair, many Canadians are more familiar with a young girl with red braids and a straw hat – Anne Shirley. Her adopted home, Green Gables, is a perpetual
Photo: reisikirjad.gotravel.ee
draw for tourists to Prince Edward Island. Lucy Maud Montgomery, the author of Anne of Green Gables, created an immediately commercially successful book. The love of the land is a theme in these books as well, and the exuberance of Anne’s character struck a chord with readers back in 1908 as it does today, luring curious fans from the beginning. Green Gables Heritage Place in PEI receives visitors from far and wide, who want to see the woodlands that Anne explores in the books. Many come from Japan and South Korea, where the books are notably popular. Just as North Americans may be transfixed with how different the traditions and heritage are in Japan and South Korea, the reverse is true. In the vicinity, the Haunted Wood Trail leads visitors to the cemetery where L.M. Mont gomery is buried. For all that she wrote about this physical place, she was unable to spend much time here in her adult life. What’s now Green Gables wasn’t actually her own home. According to the Heritage Place, “this farm was the home of David Jr. and Margaret Macneill, who were cousins of Montgomery’s grandfather. The farm was first settled in 1831... Although L.M. Montgomery never lived here, she grew up
nearby with her grandparents.” While this property belonged to L.M. Montgomery, it became a place forever touched by her fiction. L.M. Montgomery lived with her husband in what’s now the Uxbridge, Ontario area, when he was called to work there as a minister. Incidentally, it’s still possible to take a tour of this residence, to learn about her life and books. Among other points, the tour sheds light on how writing was a practice of solace for her, transporting her back to the island. And, as the Heritage Site has explained, the house and grounds at Green Gables were restored to what kind of house Anne would have lived in. When we think of the world’s most prominent theme parks, we may picture Universal Studios or Disney World. The latter, with ground breaking in 1965 and completion in 1971, has witnessed so much activity and growth that it’s effectively like its own city. Though Pokumaa and Green Gables may be humble in comparison, and they really make the most sense to those who are familiar with the stories, they have similar immersive qualities that readers find in reading and re-reading the books. These places are reflective of fiction’s basis in reality and its ability to bend that reality.
Sofi Oksanen’s ‘Purge’ to premiere in Canada
Theater; Just Because, Bailey Yarkie is amused by the high-quality visual performance of the play and the fact that the team is following all the necessary safety measurements. “We are waiting optimistically that ‘Purge’ will open the door to our region’s cultural life now the control over the virus is improving,” Yarkie said. The performance features Jenny Price, Taylor Vincent, Davki Patel, Tanner Chubb and Chris Bowers. “Purge” which has been performed in 15 languages hasn’t been performed in Canada before. It was played in New York and Washington in 2011. Oksanen’s latest novel “The Dog Park” will be available in Canada in October. The novel will be published in the U.S. in September.
ERR, July 2021 Finnish-Estonian writer Sofi Oksanen’s play “Purge” is premiering on July 15 in Fort McMurray, Canada. The play was born in cooperation between the Keyano Theater and Theater; Just Because. The plays with a limited audience number are taking place in Keyano Theater & Arts Center from July 15–17 and virtual performances from July 15 to 25. “The pandemic has been a real challenge for theaters, but I’m happy that people are able to see the play everywhere in the world,” Oksanen said. The director of the play is a three-time winner of the Outstanding Director Award, Hanna Fridhed from Sweden. “In the story and characters of ‘Purge’, there are a lot of layers and the character de velopment is great. In essence, the story is deeply humane,” Fridhed said. The artistic director of
Sofi Oksanen. Photo: Peeter Põldre
