icantfindaname posted:

did you even finish reading the book? he literally deserts at the end and says 'no gently caress you all i won't stand for this' goddamn. he literally escapes to sweden, no joke

Waltzing Along posted:

did someone say catch 22 was bad?

Trixie Hardcore posted:

Is there a romantic teen reboot movie version of this book for me to watch?

Dirty Job posted:

GBS catch 22: making fun of nerds on an internet forum makes you the nerd

quote:

Chapter 9: Major Major Major Major

Major Major had been born too early. His mother was very ill on her deathbed during his birth, and his father lied to her, saying he named the boy Caleb. Essentially, Major Major had been born into mediocrity, suffers in mediocrity, and then had mediocrity thrust upon him. He also has a strong resemblance to Henry Fonda.

His father, on the other hand, is a liar who hides Major Major's real name until Major Major enrolls in kindergarten. His mother dies as a consequence, and Major becomes a shy, awkward, submissive boy. Major performs well in school but is viewed with suspicion as a Communist and homosexual. The FBI sends five men and a Scotch terrier to spy on him and then place him in the army, where he is promoted to Major.

Waltzing Along posted:

I wondered if/when someone would figure it out. Congrats.

How are Hellers other books? I know there are a few of them.

quote:

The week after Lieutenant Scheisskopf followed Clevinger’s recommendation and let the men elect their own cadet officers, the squadron won the yellow pennant. Lieutenant Scheisskopf was so elated by his unexpected achievement that he gave his wife a sharp crack over the head with the pole when she tried to drag him into bed to celebrate by showing their contempt for the sexual mores of the lower middle classes in Western civilization. The next week the squadron won the red flag, and Lieutenant Scheisskopf was beside himself with rapture. And the week after that his squadron made history by winning the red pennant two weeks in a row! Now Lieutenant Scheisskopf had confidence enough in his powers to spring his big surprise. Lieutenant Scheisskopf had discovered in his extensive research that the hands of marchers, instead of swinging freely, as was then the popular fashion, ought never to be moved more than three inches from the center of the thigh, which meant, in effect, that they were scarcely to be swung at all.

Lieutenant Scheisskopf’s preparations were elaborate and clandestine. All the cadets in his squadron were sworn to secrecy and rehearsed in the dead of night on the auxiliary parade-ground. They marched in darkness that was pitch and bumped into each other blindly, but they did not panic, and they were learning to march without swinging their hands. Lieutenant Scheisskopf’s first thought had been to have a friend of his in the sheet metal shop sink pegs of nickel alloy into each man’s thighbones and link them to the wrists by strands of copper wire with exactly three inches of play, but there wasn’t time-there was never enough time-and good copper wire was hard to come by in wartime. He remembered also that the men, so hampered, would be unable to fall properly during the impressive fainting ceremony preceding the marching and that an inability to faint properly might affect the unit’s rating as a whole.

And all week long he chortled with repressed delight at the officers’ club. Speculation grew rampant among his closest friends.

“I wonder what that Shithead is up to,” Lieutenant Engle said.

Lieutenant Scheisskopf responded with a knowing smile to the queries of his colleagues. “You’ll find out Sunday,” he promised. “You’ll find out.”

Lieutenant Scheisskopf unveiled his epochal surprise that Sunday with all the aplomb of an experienced impresario. He said nothing while the other squadrons ambled past the reviewing stand crookedly in their customary manner. He gave no sign even when the first ranks of his own squadron hove into sight with their swingless marching and the first stricken gasps of alarm were hissing from his startled fellow officers. He held back even then until the bloated colonel with the big fat mustache whirled upon him savagely with a purpling face, and then he offered the explanation that made him immortal.

“Look, Colonel,” he announced. “No hands.”

Waltzing Along posted:

I wondered if/when someone would figure it out. Congrats.

How are Hellers other books? I know there are a few of them.

Waltzing Along posted:

Juche Box Hero posted:

I'm John Voight.

Pumpy Muffinz posted:

its been a while since I read it, but, I don't think that's right.

Pumpy Muffinz posted:

I'm glad Scheisskopf finally got his parade.

Pumpy Muffinz posted:

They are bad. He hit gold with 22, but then the mine ran dry.

Rodatose posted:

Spoiler: over time it's revealed (during the last chapter in rome where MPs evicted some citizens claiming catch-22 and nothing else) that Catch 22 doesn't exist, it's the catch-all label for any actions ordered by authoritarians that need to sound plausible by having the pretense of some sort of textual backing. This textual backing's either so vague and sweeping as to be contradictory and insubstantial, or it cannot be shown, because what an authoritarian wants to do changes to fit their current situation.

in the real world you can see it with people claiming what some great authority figures would have said about it based on their own speculations (like "what would jesus/mohammed/the founding fathers have done in their lives" and basing their actions that are contradictory to what hose figures actually did) or invoking the name of a sweeping work like the constitution or a religious text that can be interpreted in opposite ways because of how broad it is

Pumpy Muffinz posted:

Hi John! I'm Charlie

Hungry Joe posted:

I had a catch 22 once. I left my gym card in my locker and left the gym. I needed my card before I could get in, but I needed to get in before I could get my card.

This moment brought to you by Hung J

icantfindaname posted:

catch-22 is an acquiescence to the meaninglessness and fundamental injustice of the universe, and the declaration that what is is what ought to be simply because there's nothing anyone can do. the point of the book is that this is morally abhorrent and that integrity of values is the only way to live a moral life in a fundamentally meaningless and unjust world. yossarian is about to give up and go home with his pension or whatever, but then at the end he says 'no gently caress you' and deserts anyways even though given the nightmarish hellscape world depicted in the book he will probably end up dead or in prison.

and yeah, the chapter the eternal city about the dream/nightmare-like rome is probably the most emotionally vivid thing i've ever read. the part where the guy is beating the crap out of his 8 year old son and there's a crowd of people just standing around watching and doing nothing is one heck of a scene. it's also an allusion to raskolnikov's dream in Crime and Punishment. FWIW Crime and Punishment is basically the exact same book as Catch 22 but in reverse. raskolnikov starts out thinking that the world is meaningless and that personal integrity is the only way out, and then comes to find the truth of our lord and savior jesus christ at the end.

as for authority yes in the sense that worldly authority is often arbitrary, but the book's not really about any particular war or the military itself, but more the philosophical injustice of existence and mortality itself. heller himself said that during his time in the army he had great, honest and respectable officers in all cases, and that the stuff about loyalty oaths had more to do with domestic politics in the 50s than anything else

Jerry Mumphrey posted:

I SEE EVERYTHING TWICE