Catch 22
Every year or so, I try and read the "historical, satirical masterpiece" that is Catch 22. The problem is I get about one third through and just give up since it is sooooo incredible dull and badly written! I don't know why it is hailed as a masterpiece in literature but it's awful dribble! I try and read as I want to see what all the fuss is about.
Maybe that is the real Catch 22 - to understand the greatness of the book, you have to read it, yet to read it you find out it's a pile of shit and the greatness is lost!
(maddave, Sat 26 Jun 2010, 11:21, 17 replies)

^this^
also James Joyce....
( TheFinch is getting to grips with the complex plane on, Sat 26 Jun 2010, 11:30, closed)

I disagree sir!
I think Catch-22 is justly deserved as a masterpiece. It's confusing until the end, but intentionally so. As for dull, sure nothing much happens, but it does so in a brilliantly funny way.

Although I agree with Thefinch- don't understand James Joyce at all
(Urban Hermit Exit, pursued by a bear on, Sat 26 Jun 2010, 12:13, closed)

I was really looking forward to reading it....
Then after persevering for about two thirds of the vastly overlarge page count, it dawned upon me that

Its is indeed Total Bollocks.
(Colonel Blink is now officially a pretentious prick, Sat 26 Jun 2010, 19:25, closed)

It's actualy very well written once you "get it ". It starts off very confusing, but by the end it all drops into place and it makes perfect sense, it's both upsetting and uplifting.
(Mong goose, Sat 26 Jun 2010, 12:22, closed)

Really? Not a fave, but hardly a slog.
If you found this "sooooo incredible dull" You should probably avoid Proust then ;)
(& as for the comments above: "Ulysses" is a masterpiece, imvho).
( Tab Hunter Make this useless process end and so, begin again, Sat 26 Jun 2010, 12:36, closed)

Disagree
Like others have said everything becomes clear. I admit the first chapter was awful but things start snowballing into the masterpiece that it is. Yossarian, what a guy ;)
( whenanimalsattackhumans clad in global hypercolour, Sat 26 Jun 2010, 12:38, closed)

eh?
You're saying Catch 22 is boring!?

Obviosuly it's not as good as, say, Harry Potter or the Da Vinci Code, but it's pretty good.
( Ring Of Fire A petty, drooling belming butthurt retard., Sat 26 Jun 2010, 13:08, closed)

Back in the knife drawer you!

( Tab Hunter Make this useless process end and so, begin again, Sat 26 Jun 2010, 15:08, closed)

;0
what did I do?
( Ring Of Fire A petty, drooling belming butthurt retard., Sat 26 Jun 2010, 20:05, closed)

it was the satire:
the way you misspelled "obviously"
( writerblock ... embedding disabled by request on, Sun 27 Jun 2010, 1:09, closed)

I have to say, I couldn't stop laughing, I wouldn't call it a historical book though...
(patchsticles Me and you, elbow fetish club:, Sat 26 Jun 2010, 23:08, closed)

As I recall...
... the catch was that if you knew that risking your life by flying bombers over Europe was certifiably insane, then you were plainly sane, so had to keep flying because you were medically fit for duty ... if you kept quiet and flew the missions (proving you were crazy), then you were still risking your life ... either way, you were screwed and the only person who got anything out of it was Milo Minderbinder, the merchant ...

I concede that the book may have bored you (fair enough) but to describe it as badly written is just silly ... a sentence like "I goed to the toylet because i waunted to peed" is badly written ... The opening page of Angels & Demons by Dan Brown (I checked) is what some critics would call a litany of cliché (in itself a clichéd phrase), what some B3tans would call a bunch of wank and what some eccentrics may describe as a trollop of wibble ... Catch 22 however is not "badly written" ...
( writerblock ... embedding disabled by request on, Sun 27 Jun 2010, 1:08, closed)

Every time
I read Catch-22, I always tell myself "This time I'll actually sit down and figure out how Milo makes money out of the syndicate"

Still haven't got it. Anyone?
(Kendal, Tue 29 Jun 2010, 10:10, closed)

The Syndicate
Milo is both the vendor and the customer, but the Army pays the bills - see? It's really very simple.
(What Could Possibly Go Wrong? ..., Wed 30 Jun 2010, 7:36, closed)

Try Thomas Pynchon some time ...
I got through 150 pages of Gravity's Rainbow before I realised that the author was simply taking the piss.
(mudskipper, Sun 27 Jun 2010, 4:50, closed)

I started it last year
but then spilled a glass of water on the book, causing it's already hefty size to inflate to almost gargantuan proportions. It's still readable, though, and I will get back to it eventually.

I got through Nineteen Eighty Four just previous to it, my God that was a cheery read. Very good, but incredibly depressing.
( baw__bag contains traces of nuts on, Sun 27 Jun 2010, 14:36, closed)

ah
You see, 1984 is probably my most loved book.

Right, I will try again with catch 22. I'm determined to find out what all the fuss is about!
(maddave, Mon 28 Jun 2010, 15:06, closed)