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i'm the goons who whine about anime 24/7 calling what is considered one of the greatest books of the 20th century bad. perhaps game of thrones or like a picture book for toddlers is more your level
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Jul 20, 2014 18:40
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Benedick Cuckold posted:yeah it was a slog. it's kind of cool that it ends with yossarian as an extremely old man but still alive, even as the literal apocalypse happens around him. but it's full of such boring, turgid poo poo that it's really not worth it to get to that point 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
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Jul 20, 2014 18:42
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oh wait they were talking about the sequel. yeah that was a mediocre book. i'm dumb, sorry
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Jul 20, 2014 19:07
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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. 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 icantfindaname fucked around with this message at 01:51 on Jul 22, 2014 |
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Jul 22, 2014 01:38
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