A good description of today's Treason & Trump Party, formerly known as the Republican Party:
"It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sa…
A good description of today's Treason & Trump Party, formerly known as the Republican Party:
"It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. All it required was no character."
In reading that Heller quote at first I’m thinking how perfect for the idjt repugs —then thinking even the word character is fading away as a value in our corrupt society.
🤣 Catch-22 was one of my favorite books in my teen years, and about the only book taking place during WW2 that I willingly read. And the film, although significantly toned down from the biting satire of the novel, was also brilliant. All of the characters cold be transported to today and would find footholds in the political-military-industrial universe. Thanks Peter!
Heller always claimed that the novel was "pure fiction." However, a study of the 57th Bomb Wing, of which the 340th Bomb Group in which he was a bombardier, will show that each event in the book is based on a real event: the bombing of the airfield that Milo Minderbinder sets up is the bombing of the base in the last German air raid in the Mediterranean Theater, which happened a week before Heller arrived on Corsica (the island he claims is the group's base was a small island off Corsica one could see from Alesani airfield, where he was based); the scene where the crews are sent to bomb an innocent village to block the road, and are shamed into doing it when Cathcart tells them he can always drop the "milk run" and subsitute a mission to Verona (well-known for a heavy flak defense) is based on the Settimo Bridge incident, down to the pilot who drops his bombs in a field, and no one turns him in. More importantly, it turns out that in all likelihood Heller wrote the novel out of self-loathing for having said "yes" to the deal Yossarian says "no" to. At the end of September 1944, he virtually disappears from the 340th's war diary of crews on missions, flying only 8 more, during a period when the group was flying "The Battle of the Brenner" an "all hands" effort - it turns out he got picked to be a "cast member" for a documentary on training replacement aircrews that 1st Lt. Wilbur Blume was making for the real Col. Cathcart - Blume in his diary described the project as a "boondoggle" and he deliberately took his time with it, working on it in November-December at the height of the initial missions in the Brenner Pass. Then, at a time when the "tour" was set at an irreducible 70 missions, Heller got to go home with 60. That he would be upset with himself for that squares with what Buck Henry (who wrote the screenplay) told me about him being "the angriest guy I ever met." If you're interested in the whole story, it's in my book "The Bridgebusters: the True Story of the Catch-22 Bomb Wing." Feel free to buy a used book - I don't want that @#$%$#@! publisher making any more money they don't report as profits to me. (It turns out they're cheap up there now) You can find it here:
Bookseller I chose won't make much off the one I bought. Probably should have ordered a copy of Catch 22 while I was at it- not sure where my copy is. But that's easy to replace/borrow. Suspect if mine's not here, it's at my daughter's house. I knew that Heller based it on his own experiences, but did not know how closely until now. Looking forward to reading your take on it.
Funny, I have had the feeling for weeks of living inside that book. Suspect, though, that a lot of folks our age feel that way. Talking to a 21 year old a few weeks ago. She asked me if I'd ever heard of a book called "Catch 22". She told me she'd been seeing a lot of mentions of it and wondered if I thought it was worth reading. Absolutely. Later realized that what she is living through might qualify her to relate to it even more than our generation did. Next time I see her I'll ask if she's read it and what she thinks of it. Or lend her whatever I come up with.
A good description of today's Treason & Trump Party, formerly known as the Republican Party:
"It was almost no trick at all, he saw, to turn vice into virtue and slander into truth, impotence into abstinence, arrogance into humility, plunder into philanthropy, thievery into honor, blasphemy into wisdom, brutality into patriotism, and sadism into justice. Anybody could do it; it required no brains at all. All it required was no character."
-- Joseph Heller, "Catch 22"
In reading that Heller quote at first I’m thinking how perfect for the idjt repugs —then thinking even the word character is fading away as a value in our corrupt society.
Unfortunately, too true.
The PERFECT description.
But of course this is FICTION, old, old fiction...
No possible connection with any persons living in today's squeaky clean America.
Post it on billboards and telescreens. Read it on radio.
The people need LITERATURE!
Besides, no one like that EVER existed in America... Only Russian commies...
🤣 Catch-22 was one of my favorite books in my teen years, and about the only book taking place during WW2 that I willingly read. And the film, although significantly toned down from the biting satire of the novel, was also brilliant. All of the characters cold be transported to today and would find footholds in the political-military-industrial universe. Thanks Peter!
Heller always claimed that the novel was "pure fiction." However, a study of the 57th Bomb Wing, of which the 340th Bomb Group in which he was a bombardier, will show that each event in the book is based on a real event: the bombing of the airfield that Milo Minderbinder sets up is the bombing of the base in the last German air raid in the Mediterranean Theater, which happened a week before Heller arrived on Corsica (the island he claims is the group's base was a small island off Corsica one could see from Alesani airfield, where he was based); the scene where the crews are sent to bomb an innocent village to block the road, and are shamed into doing it when Cathcart tells them he can always drop the "milk run" and subsitute a mission to Verona (well-known for a heavy flak defense) is based on the Settimo Bridge incident, down to the pilot who drops his bombs in a field, and no one turns him in. More importantly, it turns out that in all likelihood Heller wrote the novel out of self-loathing for having said "yes" to the deal Yossarian says "no" to. At the end of September 1944, he virtually disappears from the 340th's war diary of crews on missions, flying only 8 more, during a period when the group was flying "The Battle of the Brenner" an "all hands" effort - it turns out he got picked to be a "cast member" for a documentary on training replacement aircrews that 1st Lt. Wilbur Blume was making for the real Col. Cathcart - Blume in his diary described the project as a "boondoggle" and he deliberately took his time with it, working on it in November-December at the height of the initial missions in the Brenner Pass. Then, at a time when the "tour" was set at an irreducible 70 missions, Heller got to go home with 60. That he would be upset with himself for that squares with what Buck Henry (who wrote the screenplay) told me about him being "the angriest guy I ever met." If you're interested in the whole story, it's in my book "The Bridgebusters: the True Story of the Catch-22 Bomb Wing." Feel free to buy a used book - I don't want that @#$%$#@! publisher making any more money they don't report as profits to me. (It turns out they're cheap up there now) You can find it here:
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=The+Bridgebusters%2C+by+Thomas+McKelvey+Cleaver&i=stripbooks&ref=nb_sb_noss
Bookseller I chose won't make much off the one I bought. Probably should have ordered a copy of Catch 22 while I was at it- not sure where my copy is. But that's easy to replace/borrow. Suspect if mine's not here, it's at my daughter's house. I knew that Heller based it on his own experiences, but did not know how closely until now. Looking forward to reading your take on it.
Funny, I have had the feeling for weeks of living inside that book. Suspect, though, that a lot of folks our age feel that way. Talking to a 21 year old a few weeks ago. She asked me if I'd ever heard of a book called "Catch 22". She told me she'd been seeing a lot of mentions of it and wondered if I thought it was worth reading. Absolutely. Later realized that what she is living through might qualify her to relate to it even more than our generation did. Next time I see her I'll ask if she's read it and what she thinks of it. Or lend her whatever I come up with.
TC this is fantastic info. Thanks so much!
Ty
All it required was no character.
Thanks for the reminder of that quote! Perfect!
Thank You for this TC. May have to dig out my copy. In the meantime, I will copy and post that all too apropos quote."
Copy and post away!
Whoa!
Perfect!
Ugh. So true