Catch 22

If anyone asks me what is the most different, unorthodox and most enjoyable book I've read, from today onwards I'll answer with Catch 22. It's a classic masterpiece by all means and deserves the reputation it has and much more. I've seen references to Catch 22 in couple of places, be it a movie or tv show, which convinced me that maybe I should give it a shot too. But I'd never thought that I'd love this book this much. I bet it's not every ones' cup of tea. It's unconventional, radical and quite frankly weird. But that right there is what appeals to me the most. How different it is from the rest. You can't get the experience that Catch 22 gives from any other work of fiction. For that it's one of the best I've read and I will ever read.

Basically many I believe, categorize catch 22 as a comedic book, more specifically dark comedy. True, it does have many laugh out loud moments. I think I haven't laughed reading any other book as much as I've laughed reading this. The author slips in most of the incidents or remarks almost to take the reader with surprise laughter. The conversations are in a league of their own. One who has watched Monty Python will get the drift of what I'm talking about. Those are weird conversations, admittedly unreal in nature, but placed beautifully to emphasize the out of the box thinking of the author. It's truly unpredictable, and mindblowing at times. I must say the style of conversation has affected my personal style as well to a miniscule degree. But I think it is very cool. I want more conversations like this happening for real in my life. Very unlikely, but it should happen.

But if one thinks that this can be taken as a comedy only, that one couldn't be more wrong. This has so much elements in it, I mean it's practically applicable to almost every aspect in life. This has so much more to give than some good laughs. It's all written around this military division of pilots in the era of world war II. So in one review I've read that it strives to emphasize the empty nature of war... and thats it. I wonder if the reviewer has ever read the book even. Sure, it is one aspect, but for me not that obvious. I believe that the authors main idea wasn't even that at all. Through the different characters, the story does delve in to the inexplicable nature of war it self, how devastating it is, how pointless and how it is only driven by few people with no apparent justification or viable reason for it. It shows the how futile the soldiers lives spent of war is, and how it is all decided by few bureaucratic heads with their own agendas with applied senses of greater purposes which appeals to the masses. It's not only about war, how the whole human race is driven like that in various aspects of political agendas, that's what really being addressed here. That last conversation with Major Danby and Yossarian is a true eye opener regarding this. It's like the legendary speech given by Charlie Chaplin in the Great Dictator. Yes, it's that good.

That is one thing. But through different chapters and different characters, the subjects brought to light are immense. Through the character of the chaplain, and in other instances, spirituality, religion, theology is questioned fantastically. I'm surprised as to a book of that era ventures this bravely to question religion and God this much. That must've hit hard on it's popularity. That is why I think the book is so much ahead of its time. One such conversation that immediately impressed me, I took it down in the blog then and there. This shows how progressive of a book catch 22 really is. Its so true, its funny! This is a conversation between should we really celebrate thanksgiving and be thankful for anything.

“I’ll bet I can name two things to be miserable about for every one you can name to be thankful for”

“Be thankful you’ve got me”

"I am honey, But I’m also goddam good and miserable tha I can’t ave Dori Duz again too. Or the hundreds of other girls and women I’ll see and want in my short lifetime and won’t be able to go to bed with even once"

"Be thankful that you’re healthy"

"Be bitter you’re not going to stay that way"

"Be glad you’re even alive"

"Be furious you’re going to die"

"Things could be much worse"

"They could be one hell of a lot better"

"You're naming only one thing, You said you could name two"

 

"And don’t tell me that god works in mysterious ways. There’s nothing so mysterious about it. He’s not working at all. He’s playing. Or else He’s forgotten all about us. That’s the kind of God you people talk about—a country bumpkin, a clumsy, bungling, brainless, conceited, uncouth, hayseed. Good god, how much reverence can you have for a Supreme Being who finds it necessary to include such phenomena as phlegm and tooth decay in His divine system of creation? What in the world was running through that warped evil scatological mind of His when He robbed old people of the power to control their bowel movements? Why in the world did he ever create pain?" 

"Pain? , Pain is a useful symptom. Pain is a warning to us of bodily dangers." 

"And who created the dangers? (ROFL) Oh, he was really being charitable to us when he gave us pain! Why couldn’t he have used a doorbell instead to notify us, or one of His celestial choirs? Or a s system of blue-and-red neon tubes right in the middle of each person’s forehead. Any jukebox manufacturer worth his salt could have done that. Why couldn’t he?"

"People would certainly look silly walking around with red and neon tubes in the middle of the their foreheads."

"They certainly look beautiful now writhing in agony or stupefied with morphine, don’t they? What a colossal , immortal blunderer! When you consider the opportunity and power he had to really do a job, and then look at the stupid, ugly little mess He made of it instead, His sheer incompetence is almost staggering. It’s obvious He never met a payroll. Why, no self- respecting businessman would hire bungler like Him as even shipping clerk!"

 Also through Milo you get to know all about the intricate and confounding details of international trade. It's all so delicately explained with so much detail. Didn't pay much attention to that my self. But it's vile. So vile and disgusting at times. Of course it seems far fetched but the basic idea of how a monopoly of one man can control basically everything in the world, without anyone noticing it, and giving every one the false notion that they are part of that what controls it, is portrayed. Also the sexual encounters. Being the soldiers of the US army, the platoon would go off to Rome in search of broads or prostitutes to fulfill their desires. And oh man they are quite the sexual adventures. Not quite as detailed as what you would expect from an erotic novel or something I guess, but very well written I must say, with it's humor, seduction, romance, enticements, passion and vulgarity.

Thats the most basic gist of the book I can give. But I cannot emphasize more on how little that explains.  All of this is brought forward by introduction of characters with amazingly very specific character traits. The attention to detail to the buildup of every character is quite unique. It's such a diverse set of characters. Which can give the conclusion that instead of just introducing a realistic platoon of soldiers and authority figures, the author wanted to portray a wide range of characters that honestly I can clearly identify and match up with people we personally know. We meet characters like this in our everyday lives, and in our selves too. The paranoid delusions of the chaplain, the reasonable cowardice of Yosarrian, the unreasonable hate of Chief White Halcoat, the social awkwardness of Major Major Major (Yes Major Major is his name) and the list goes on. All of these characters mix and match to give incidents and stories which leads to insights on how the character traits really affect.

It is very  unordered. Kind of a mess really like the new Arrested Development season. The incident matching and the flow is quite entangled and complex at times. The focus of the book is not that of conventional novel, to narrate a story with a carefully planned plot and well placed incidents, but to deliver ideas and notions in ways I can't really explain. The driving in of the unhindered truths that was not so obvious to me before is admirable. I can only imagine the excitement the author must've felt when writing such dialogues.

Irrespective of its real life alegories or applications where we can really apply the book, it's just enjoyable. That's the greatest thing about it. The radical ideas, the humor the conversations always kept me interested. For instance the explanations of déjà vu which I always found fascinating. In the book It is described as "just a momentary infinitesimal lag in the operation of two coactive sensory nerve centers that commonly functioned simultaneously." How about that, I didn't have an idea about THAT before!

The End really takes the cake though. The depressing climax of the book starts with the plight of Doc Daneeka. That was a truly depressing story. Also the chapter The Eternal City is a very powerful and VERY depressing set of events too. The focus on the humor is almost non existent in the latter part of the book. Instead it perseveres to introduce change, revelations and mindblowing and ultimate facts. It all kept me glued to the book at the end. And clearly established in my mind that deserves no less than a 5/5 rating. 


I've thought about a movie or a stage drama made out of this, but it will never really amount to the detail and vividness of the book itself. This IS indeed a life changing powerful book, that I believe that every book addict should read without question.

"Man was matter. That was Snowdens secret. Drop him out of a window and he'll fall. Set fire to him and he'll burn. Bury him and he'll rot, like other kinds of garbage. The spirit is gone, man is garbage. Ripeness was all."