may 7: preview

Thanks to everyone who voted in the Book Poll!

Today we will start reading Catch-22 by Joseph Heller.

The book was the first of its kind. It became so famous that the phrase "Catch-22" became part of the English language.  Before, there wasn't a label for moments like this (taken directly from the book):

"There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's own 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 was 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." 

Chapter 5, pg. 55

United States Army General George Patton once said, "Compared to war, all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance." Whatever people think of war, they don't usually think to make fun of it. However, as we talked about on Tuesday, Catch-22 is a satire set in World War II. Instead of viewing the topic as heroic, savage, or even serious, author Joseph Heller applies logic and the keen observation of an omniscient third-person narrative to point out the absurdity of it all. It still seems strange to use the words "war" and "funny" in connection with one another, but Heller is skillful, and his tone has a purpose. As with all satire, expressing anger through humor has the potential to point out what's wrong in the world and move the reader to support improvement -- I'd like to imagine that, somewhere, someone is writing a satire about this crazy moment in American history.

You can read some background on the book and the author HERE.

You can read the whole thing, thanks to Ms. Ragland (*whose website is a bit of a mystery), HERE.

I will be using a well-worn copy that I inherited from my Dad.

See you online at 1:00!

(P.S. Since there were also some votes for The Secret Life of Bees, The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao, and a write-in for The Secret Garden, I want to remind you that you can read any of those -- or whatever else you like -- and write up a literature analysis on your blog. I'll even meet with you on Zoom at a separate time to discuss!)