Catch-22 by Joseph Heller
That’s some catch, that Catch-22.
It’s the best there is.
Someone saw me carrying Catch-22 around recently and asked, “Is that your first time through the book?” It wasn’t — I think I first read it when I was in high school in the 70s — but it got me to thinking, does anyone read Catch-22 today? Apparently they still do. It’s number 7 on the Modern Library’s list of 100 Best Novels. It was revived in Britain, where people appreciate black comedy, in 2002. After posting this I will be able to see how many high school students around the world have been assigned the book, because they will hit my blog looking for answers to essay questions.
These are reassuring signs in a world gone crazy. Heller’s circular, paradoxical prose seems a little dated and tedious today, but the themes are just as relevant as ever, and the Dickensian characters just as lively. Who can forget our hero, Captain Yossarian, or Major Major Major Major, who can only be seen when he is not available, or shy and well-meaning Captain Tappman, the group chaplain, or über-entrepreneur Milo Minderbinder?
As the book hurtles to its ending, I found it ever more resonant with our current world situation, as though the Bush administration had decided to discard the 400-page build-up and just plunge us directly into the maddest part of the madness. Milo is a type of Halliburton, selling his army’s own products back to itself at cutthroat prices and still somehow managing to make a profit for the syndicate. Generals Dreedle, Peckem, and Scheisskopf represent the competitive, incompetent heads of the twisted chains of command. When our soldiers are asked to serve longer tours of duty more frequently, I wonder if they think of Colonel Cathcart and how he continually raises the number of missions to be flown before being sent home?
And when we think of the extra-legal maneuverings of the White House with regard to Guantanamo, the Geneva Conventions, warrantless wiretapping, special military tribunals, doesn’t it call this passage to mind?
“Catch-22,” the old woman repeated, rocking her head up and down. “Catch-22. Catch-22 says they have a right to do anything we can’t stop them from doing.”
….”Didn’t they show it to you?” Yossarian demanded, stamping about in anger and distress. “Didn’t you even make them read it?”
“They don’t have to show us Catch-22,” the old woman answered. “The law says they don’t have to.”
“What law says they don’t have to?”
“Catch-22.”
I leave you with that.
Catch-22 showed up on Lost a few weeks ago, too, and as any good Lost fan knows, you have to read all the books to understand what’s going on.
I Googled “Catch-22″ this morning and “Lost” came up in a lot of the results, so I thought there must be some connection with the tv show.
If anyone has any questions about clues from the book, just ask them here — we’ll figure it out!
I haven’t read it for a long time, but also first read it in high school in aroun 1970. I remember thinking it was the funniest, most profound thing I could imagine.
Is there something about Catch-22 that appeals to high school kids in particular? It was one of my favorites of that time, too, read for pleasure rather than as an assignment. I enjoyed the film back then, as well. The chaos and powerlessness that entraps the characters must have resonated for me.
You’ve made me want to re-read it!
Catch-22 and Catcher in the Rye — I think those were touchstones for many of us who were in high school in the 70s. I think you’re right, Gerry, about the appeal of the atmosphere of chaos and powerlessness, the phoniness and the doubletalk, to kids that age — that’s exactly how the world seemed to me. It was all run by a big bunch of liars and phonies, with Nixon at the top! And now our generation is running the world, and it’s soooooo much better….
And the film is fantastic. The shot of the planes taking off in formation — pre-CGI — is amazing. Alan Arkin, so unappreciated…