Wow. I am simply amazed by Joseph Heller's talent in writing such an honest, perversely humorous, and morosely depressing book. The theme in the book is simply amazing; his use of elevated language in such a degradative setting spews out the stark contradictions and irony's in this short experience we call life. So the main point of Catch-22 is that the main character wants to stop flying missions during World War II; now here is the kick in the ass that many of us will recognize somehow, if not consciously, in our own lives-- if he goes to his commander claiming insanity as a reason for him to be grounded, the commander knows immediately he is not crazy because only a rational person would recognize that flying the missions is crazy--i.e. only a crazy person would fly the missions and they do not know that they are crazy.
This kind of blows my mind. Trying to think of some catch-22's in my life leaves me certainly in want, I don't fly a bomber plane and I am not surrounded by salacious girls and subversive situations. How about this for a virulent catch-22: humility. I want to be humble and come off to others as being so, yet when I try to be humble, recognizing my humility, I immediately lose all credence to my humility and plunge right back into the forefront of being prideful. Therefore, the more I TRY to enact humility, the more I oppositely impose pride. Life's a bitch ain't it?!
What are some of your Catch-22's?
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