Koržets says humour helps him survive the world

Writer Vladislav Koržets, who turned 75 in September, says he wants his stories to bring people joy rather than anguish and “an oozing pain of the world,” ERR reported after his appearance on the programme “At the Literature Minister’s.”

Koržets trained as a mathematician but soon began working as a humourist and writer. “I had too little imagination for mathematics,” he said, adding that he began writing at about 15 or 16.

Around the same time, he had the only film role of his life, playing the hippie Uku in “Viini postmark.” He said he had not fully embraced serious hippie philosophy or moved to a commune, but had met several people who represented the culture.

Koržets said Kalju Kass’s invitation to work for the magazine Pikker strongly influenced his life. The decision was difficult because he felt for years that he had abandoned an academic career while he was supposed to pursue a degree in mathematics education. Instead, he began examining the manuscripts in Pikker’s editorial office.

Koržets has never considered himself a satirist. “Rather, I have been guided by the desire to look at the world humorously from a distance, because if I did not look at it humorously, I would go mad,” he said. He described humour as a way for people to survive and said it was necessary not to take the world too seriously.

He identified the poet Artur Alliksaar as his first and strongest influence. Alliksaar’s collection “Nothingness Could Also Not Exist” turned his thinking upside down, Koržets said. For him, a good story begins spontaneously, when an image, picture or contrast starts to stir inside him.

As he approached 60, Koržets said he did not know what to do next. His friend Riho Sibul suggested making the album “Kahemehesaag” using Koržets’s texts. The lyrics included on the record became his first small collection of poetry.

Koržets has also written several well-known song lyrics, including “Aed” for Ultima Thule and “Olemise laul,” which featured in “Lotte from Gadgetville.” He said poems usually come first, after which friends sometimes ask him to continue developing them. He also tries to make his poems singable, noting that song and poetry have historically been closely connected.