Line #45 Literature/SummerCelebration


1	->''A lightning. Its light in the bat of an eyelid''
2	->''Stood, shining, still.''
3	->''A moment that was soaked in the heavens''
4	->''And rose as a shimmer and a world.''
5	-->--The book’s opening lines
6
7	Published in 1965, ''Summer Celebration''[[note]]חֲגִיגַת קַיִץ ''khagigat kayits''[[/note]] by Israeli poet NatanAlterman is a novel in verse.
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9	The book is about the summer celebration arranged by a local bank in the fictional city of Stamboul (based on Tel-Aviv), taking place right before, during, and right after the party, and how it connects several characters: night guard and newly widowed Siman-Tov, a miserable Mizrakhi Jew immigrant from a nearby settlement named Tsiva, his daughter Miriam Helen, the town Witch, local robber Misha Barkhasid, local mafioso Woldarski, the bank chairman, and Alterman himself. The book is full of unrelated poems discussing metaphysical ideas, impressions of city life, &c., to the point it can break the rhythm of reading, and might be a somewhat challenging read to present-day readers due to this and the somewhat enigmatic language of the non-plot-related {{poetry}}; among these poems is poem 19, ''Things Said In-Between'', which is a series of unrelated shorter poems, some with brief plots of their own.
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11	!!This book provides examples of:
12	* AerithAndBob: Poem 18, ''The New Faces'', briefly discusses the strangeness of non-Ashkenazi last names of the new immigrants to the Ashkenazi locals.
13	* AffablyEvil: Woldarski. Poem 16 sums it up nicely:
14	-->Woldarski, who is famous, polite, and knows various languages, but is a scoundrel.
15	* AllLoveIsUnrequited: Siman-Tov is only after the Witch’s money, and Miriam Helen’s lover Woldarski tries to force her into prostitution.
16	* AuthorAvatar: Alterman appears in the book and even interacts with some of the characters towards the end.
17	* AuthorTract: The metaphysical poetry, and more bluntly so some of poem 43, ''Interview With the Poet''.
18	* BigBrotherIsWatching: [[spoiler:Siman-Tov’s dead wife is watching him all over town.]]
19	* BookEnds: Part XXII ''The Grocer and the Cashier'' of poem 19: a grocer picks up a penny that somehow appeared in his cashier as he was counting his money. The penny turns him into a poor man, telling him how he forgot all about her once he turned wealthy, and is now poor again with only her as his ‘bread and candle’.
20	* BreakingTheFourthWall: Debatable. The characters interact openly with the poet, but they don’t necessarily know they’re in his work.
21	* ChekhovsGunman: [[spoiler:The Doctor saves Misha Barkhasid’s life]].
22	* TheChessmaster: [[spoiler:Two of them: the Witch and Siman-Tov’s wife.]]
23	* CunningLinguist: One of the things that make Woldarski so affably evil.
24	* DeadpanSnarker:
25	** Alterman himself, in poem 9 ''It Is Unlike'':
26	-->We said once that a street is like\
27	To a tear rolling down a cheek’s city.\
28	No; such things’ true nature
29	--> Is phlegm, blood, and mucus.
30	** The bank’s Chairman, openly mocking Alterman’s poetry.
31	* DisneyDeath: [[spoiler:Misha Barkhasid narrowly escapes death after being stabbed by Woldarski at the party.]]
32	* DrunkenMaster: Alterman himself, an example of TruthInTelevision, as well as HarsherInHindsight, as he died of alcohol poisoning.
33	* TheDulcineaEffect: Misha Barkhasid sends everyone around him away to listen to Miriam Helen. He agrees to help her, despite her case not being all that special, and even [[spoiler:gets stabbed in the lung while wrestling Woldarski]].
34	* EvenEvilHasStandards: Miriam Helen asks notorious robber Misha Barkhasid to help her against Woldarski, the man she eloped with who threatened to ruin her face with acid if she doesn’t work as a prostitute for him. Barkhasid says that a man of honour can live on robbery, but ‘will never live off the profits of a woman’s body’.
35	* EverythingIsTryingToKillYou: Siman-Tov complains about how inanimate objects seem to constantly fall on him and try to kill him; [[spoiler:justified, as its caused by his angered dead wife]].
36	* {{Foreshadowing}}:
37	** Poem 6, ''A Chat on the Road''.
38	** Poem 16, ''Barkhasid Listens''. Woldarski says he can ruin Miriam Helen’s face with a knife or a razor, but prefers acid. [[spoiler:At the party, he draws a knife on her. This goes to show how strong the Witch’s cosmic power over things has grown.]]
39	* GlasgowSmile: The doctor in Tsiva’s settlement, who was injured in WWI and has a perpetual frozen smile on his face due to the thin metallic plate under his skin.
40	* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Poem 19 has two examples:
41	** In part VI ''The Sheep'' of , an unnamed man steals the ‘poor man’s sheep’ (a ShoutOut to the Poor Man’s Sheep parable from 2 Samuel 12:1-10) and uses up every bit of it, except for a little clump of wool; said clump of wool is used to make the thread that catches fire and gets the man’s house burnt down.
42	** In part XIV ''The Woman'', a battered pregnant wife, whom [[PalsWithJesus God himself offers to avenge]], predicts that her vengeance will come from her yet to be born son.
43	* HumanityIsInfectious: One of the interpretations of section XVIII ''The Grocer and the Dæmon'' of poem 19: a dæmon grabs a grocer, taking his shape, and takes his place; but when he asks his mother to take a rest, and she says she is ‘dirt below his feet’, he turns terrified and flees, but leaves hoof-prints behind.
44	* HyperlinkStory: [[spoiler:Every character, pretty much, plays some role or another in the battle between Siman-Tov’s wife’s ghost and the Witch.]]
45	* IChooseToStay: The Doctor, after having given birth to Mr. Katan’s wife, chose to stay in the settlement where he and Tsiva live.
46	* ImplausibleDeniability: Misha Barkhasid denies being at the Witch’s house right before the fire started, yet somehow he was busy saving her from it.
47	* InformedAbility: Woldarski’s linguistic abilities are only briefly mentioned and never displayed.
48	* {{Irony}}:
49	** [[spoiler:The Chairman wants to host the party somewhere accessible to the public, not to shut itself away from the commoners. They reserve the second floor of a café for that matter, and don’t notice when Misha Barkhasid and Woldarski engage in a brutal fight. Once they do, everyone notices just how ironic the Chairman’s words are.]]
50	** A darker example: [[spoiler:Misha Brakhasid fights Woldarski to save Miriam Helen from becoming a prostitute. When the fight breaks, the crowd says it was a fight between ‘two pimps over a hooker’.]]
51	* IsThereADoctorInTheHouse: [[spoiler:Everyone’s looking for one after Barkhasid is stabbed.]]
52	* LastNameBasis: Siman-Tov’s and Woldarski’s first names are never given.
53	* LoveableRogue: Misha Barkhasid qualifies, perhaps. He’s a rather notorious robber, but still comes across as sympathetic as he agrees to help out Miriam Helen.
54	* LovePotion: Enfuriated, the Witch uses a strange variation thereof: her potion, described as very concentrated and including some hashish and dynamite, draws all men in town to her house with its scent.
55	* MacGuffin: Tsiva has pawned the precious chalice he inherited from his father before the book began, planning to give it to his own daughter as her wedding gift, but when he wanted to get it back, it was already sold and could not be traced down again. [[spoiler:It resurfaces at the end.]]
56	* MindRape: See Only Sane Man below.
57	* {{Mooks}}: Woldarski uses those as body guards. [[spoiler:Misha Barkhasid is a bit nervous at the thought of having to confront them as well as Woldarski, but goes on as planned. Fortunately, Siman-Tov’s wife’s ghost is there to help.]]
58	* NoNameGiven: The Witch, the Chairman, and the cashier at the café where the party is held.
59	* NotSoStoic: [[spoiler:Misha Barkhasid at the party itself. He leaps violently on Woldarski as soon as he seizes Miriam Helen and starts a brutal fight against him.]]
60	* OdeToIntoxication: See Drunken Master above.
61	* OhCrap: Alterman’s reaction when he finds himself surrounded by the party guests.
62	* OnlyKnownByTheirNickname: The poet himself is always referred to in the third person as ‘the writer’, and his name is never mentioned.
63	* OnlySaneMan: Only one man in town stands up against the witch’s love potion, praising the merits of the human mind (‘Even had it invented / Only the use of leverage and the multiplication table / I would have bowed my head before it’, poem 24). Subverted, as every other man is fully aware of how gruesome the witch is, but can’t help but going to look for her anyway, and said man quickly joins them himself.
64	* OurGhostsAreDifferent: [[spoiler:Siman-Tov’s wife. The double meaning of the Hebrew word ‘ruakh’[[note]]רוּחַ, meaning both ‘ghost’ and ‘wind’[[/note]] is used at the end of the poem, when she takes the form of a powerful gust of wind and trashes the café to save Miriam Helen.]]
65	* {{Plunder}}: Strangely inverted when [[spoiler:Siman-Tov’s dead wife turns off the lights and blows a strong wind in the café The cashier there thinks the world has gone mad and throws out Tsiva’s chalice, which was intended as a gift for the Chairman.]]
66	* SelfDeprecation:
67	** In poem 27, ''Before the Riot'', Misha Barkhasid says that his face can only be further corrupted using a ''[[RefugeInAudacity cannon]]''. Perhaps. This is actually justified, as [[spoiler:he plans to take Woldarski’s bottle of acid as a warning to stay away from Miriam Helen, realising that acid is not such a serious threat to himself as it is to him. Woldarski draws a knife instead.]]
68	** In poem 43, ''Interview with the Writer'', the bank’s Chairman openly mocks Alterman’s style.
69	* SeriousBusiness: In part XVII ''The Musical Instruments'' of poem 19, a random young man is asked by a band of three street performers to write lyrics to some tune of theirs. [[SeriousBusiness He works on those lyrics well into his old age, constantly improving, editing, re-writing it,]] and ''still'' [[ThePerfectionist not finding it worthy]]... [[spoiler:[[ShaggyDogStory only to be met by their laughter when he finally submits it to them.]]]]
70	* SexSlave: Woldarski wants to turn Miriam Helen into a prostitute by force.
71	* TheWalrusWasPaul: Not the main plot, which is pretty straight-forward, but the unrelated poems are very enigmatic. [[LampshadeHanging Lampshaded]] by Alterman in poem 34, ''Footnote Poem''.
72	* WhatIsThisFeeling: Misha Barkhasid is surprised at being nervous when he [[spoiler:plans his confrontation against Woldarski]].

Context Literature / SummerCelebration