Followers

Sunday, January 30, 2011

Catch-22

Something a bit different today.  I'm currently reading Catch-22 which is, in my opinion, a pretty funny book.  There are not many books that can make me actually laugh out loud while reading them, but this is one of them, so I thought I would share a couple of passages that particularly made me LOL.

If you haven't read Catch-22, it is a novel by Joseph Heller set during the later stages of World War II, and is frequently cited as one of the great literary works of the twentieth century.  The book contains, among other things, a general critique of bureaucracy in general, and especially the processes involved in military bureaucracy and decision making.  My first quote from the book gives a pretty good idea of the style.
There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he were sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle.
  Now for some of the passages that really cracked me up.  This is in the first chapter:
"You murdered him," said Dunbar.
"I heard you kill him," said Yossarian.
"You killed him because he was a nigger," Dunbar said.
"You fellas are crazy," the Texan cried. "They don't allow niggers in here. They got a special place for niggers."
"The sergeant smuggled him in," Dunbar said.
"The Communist sergeant," said Yossarian.
"And you knew it."
When I read that I couldn't stop laughing, I don't know why.

And this one as well
Appleby was as good at shooting crap as he was at playing Ping-Pong, and he was as good at playing Ping-Pong as he was at everything else. Everything Appleby did, he did well. Appleby was a fair-haired boy from Iowa who believed in God, Motherhood, and the American Way of Life, without ever thinking about any of them, and everybody who knew him liked him.
"I hate that son of a bitch," Yossarian growled.
Anyway, that's enough of that for now.  I do recommend that if you're looking for a good book and haven't read Catch-22 then give it a go, you just might like it.

19 comments:

  1. I'm never really into reading, but sounds like some hilarious stuff!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Might just take you upon the offer of reading that book actually. I've been looking for something interesting to read and that last segment might just be enough for me to check it out.

    Suppose you couldn't tell me about how many pages it is?

    ReplyDelete
  3. seems to be a interesting book. thanks for the passages

    ReplyDelete
  4. @Quagles - my paperback edition is about 420 pages.

    ReplyDelete
  5. I just read this last month for school, one of the more enjoyable books I've had to read.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Sounds like an interesting read, lol

    Followed! Please check out one of my blogs!!

    onlythetechnews.blogspot.com
    onlythefunnynews.blogspot.com
    wallpaperwoman.blogspot.com

    ReplyDelete
  7. It's a good read.
    I'm glad you like it

    ReplyDelete
  8. That's cool! I'm reading some old classic literature right now but I always love me some Catch 22. Followed!

    Check out my blog!
    http://gamermangaming.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  9. That's almost too crazy apeshit insane, man.

    ~Randall A.
    Blogographer

    ReplyDelete
  10. Ah, Catch-22. Now I want to grab my battered copy of it and reread.

    You're hilarious. I'm so following you now!

    ReplyDelete
  11. I hear people mention this all the time, gets quite annoying when someone says a "catch-22" situation, following from this account, www.PCReviewist.com

    ReplyDelete
  12. I'll have to read it sometime. I like your blog, I'll be following.

    ReplyDelete
  13. i had to read that book for school. one of the better ones

    ReplyDelete
  14. HELLO MY POTENTIAL FRIEND.
    chizzle my [*izzle] @ http://barfl2thelimit.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete
  15. I didn't think a book like this would be humourous. Hm.

    ReplyDelete
  16. ive heard of the book but havent thought of reading it, might give it a try now though... maybe

    http://entertainvent.blogspot.com/

    ReplyDelete