![]() ![]() It's hard to describe briefly just how gloriously, envelopingly hilarious this logic becomes as the novel unfolds. 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." The result, put simply, is that no one can get off the ride. As it's described in the novel: "Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. But he's thwarted by Catch-22, a clause which states that pilots don't have to fly if they are certified as insane, but that being driven mad by fear is fundamentally rational. Driven half-mad by his will to live, he wants out. Desperate to impress his superiors, Colonel Cathcart keeps raising the number of missions his men have to fly. As many of you will already know, the novel is set on a made-up island off the coast of Italy during the second world war, where an American bombing group is stationed. The Catch-22 itself is a bureaucratic idiocy so sublime it leaves you staring out the window with wonder. Well, having arrived 50 years late to the party, I'm pleased to finally be able to answer that question with a wide-eyed, emphatic, rapturous yes. So did I really need to bother reading it at this late stage? But let's face it, it's 500-plus pages long, there are more than 50 characters, and everybody knows what a Catch-22 is – it's one of those things where you're damned if you do and damned if you don't. ![]()
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