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| Classic Literature Discuss the classics like Poe, H.G. Wells, Mark Twain, Oscar Wilde, Emily Dickinson etc. Read them at Literature Vault. |
07-22-2007, 10:32 PM
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#1
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Addict
Join Date: Mar 2006
Location: I guess so
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Posts: 132
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Catch-22
I started this book last week and I already love it! Heller is hilarious.
It's unfortunate I've never actually heard the term this book added to the dictionary only once before I started reading it. Where? Lost, of course!
Anyway, does anyone have any thoughts on this book?
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07-23-2007, 02:15 PM
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#2
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Scribe
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: York, England
Gender: Male
Posts: 98
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Matt Groening, before creating The Simpsons, did a comic strip called Work Is Hell. One piece was called something like 'The Road To Manhood' - 'First Drink,' 'First Car Crash' etc. Under 'First Realisation That Everything You've Been Taught Is A Lie' he showed an adolescent reading Catch-22. That sums up the book for me. If you didn't read and repeatedly re-read it as a cynical, depressed teenager, you only had half a childhood.
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07-25-2007, 11:41 PM
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#3
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Ink Slinger
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Fernando Poo
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,433
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Quote:
Originally Posted by quarterscot
Matt Groening, before creating The Simpsons, did a comic strip called Work Is Hell. One piece was called something like 'The Road To Manhood' - 'First Drink,' 'First Car Crash' etc. Under 'First Realisation That Everything You've Been Taught Is A Lie' he showed an adolescent reading Catch-22. That sums up the book for me. If you didn't read and repeatedly re-read it as a cynical, depressed teenager, you only had half a childhood.
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The comic is called Life in Hell. Work is Hell, Love is Hell, etc etc are compilations.
Also I couldn't finish Catch-22 because suddenly I got flies in my eyes.
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"Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons wait for you down there. Little pets they are, little little little pets. Cute little things, they say. Don't you believe it. No man ever saw them and walked away alive. You won't either. That's the final dash, flash. That's the utter clobber, cobber." --Cordwainer Smith, Norstrillia.
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07-26-2007, 11:17 PM
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#4
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Addict
Join Date: Jun 2006
Location: Highlands Ranch, CO
Gender: Male
Posts: 145
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ClancyBoy
Also I couldn't finish Catch-22 because suddenly I got flies in my eyes.
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That must have been a feather in your cap...
or was it a black eye? |
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07-27-2007, 04:06 AM
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#5
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Ink Slinger
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Fernando Poo
Gender: Male
Posts: 2,433
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Siglark
That must have been a feather in your cap...
or was it a black eye?
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Crabapples in my cheeks, actually.
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"Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons wait for you down there. Little pets they are, little little little pets. Cute little things, they say. Don't you believe it. No man ever saw them and walked away alive. You won't either. That's the final dash, flash. That's the utter clobber, cobber." --Cordwainer Smith, Norstrillia.
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07-27-2007, 02:22 PM
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#6
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Scribe
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: York, England
Gender: Male
Posts: 98
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Quote:
Originally Posted by ClancyBoy
Also I couldn't finish Catch-22 because suddenly I got flies in my eyes.
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To be pedantic in turn: How did you know you had flies in your eyes? Surely if you have flies in your eyes you can't see them, because of the flies in your eyes. |
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07-27-2007, 11:59 PM
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#7
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Ink Slinger
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Fernando Poo
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Quote:
Originally Posted by quarterscot
To be pedantic in turn: How did you know you had flies in your eyes? Surely if you have flies in your eyes you can't see them, because of the flies in your eyes.
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That's just it! How can I see I got flies in my eyes when I got flies in my eyes?
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"Mother Hitton's Littul Kittons wait for you down there. Little pets they are, little little little pets. Cute little things, they say. Don't you believe it. No man ever saw them and walked away alive. You won't either. That's the final dash, flash. That's the utter clobber, cobber." --Cordwainer Smith, Norstrillia.
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01-21-2008, 10:48 AM
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#8
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Addict
Join Date: Jan 2008
Location: In post-Communistic territory
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Its not for everyone, but I really enjoyed it. It doesn't stay funny all the way, but its abstractness is refreshing, for a lot of people this kind of out of the box thinking is too strenuous and painful. I love Milo Minderbinder his character is incredible.
He's another one of the misunderstood authors with some genius in him!
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02-08-2008, 02:51 PM
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#9
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Member
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 4
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How refreshing that someone thinks it's not funny all the way thru. It's not meant to be comedic.
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02-08-2008, 03:18 PM
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#10
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Writer
Join Date: Feb 2008
Posts: 37
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probably my favourite book out of all those i've read so far. Heller's style of cynicism is also key to many other writers and comedians, for example Woody Allen, Philip Roth, Larry David and Saul Bellow. I love love love this style of comedy, which can probably be classified as "jewish-american", although many of the above people don't like to associate themselves with said genre.
a brilliant brilliant book. i completely agree with "cynical teenager" comment.
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You do not always know what i am feeling.
Last night in the warm spring air while i was
blazing my tirade against someone who doesn't
interest me, it was love for you that set me afire,
and isn't it odd?
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02-09-2008, 11:35 PM
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#11
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Prolific Writer
Join Date: Feb 2008
Location: In my own world
Gender: Female
Posts: 343
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Quote:
Originally Posted by quarterscot
To be pedantic in turn: How did you know you had flies in your eyes? Surely if you have flies in your eyes you can't see them, because of the flies in your eyes.
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<3
I loved this book. I read it a couple months ago. It's hilarious, sad, and it makes you think.
That's the best combo ever.
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"A man's life is what his thoughts make him." --Marcus Aurelius
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02-12-2008, 04:33 AM
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#12
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Writer
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: Scotland
Gender: Male
Posts: 26
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I thought I'd quickly help balance the debate. Catch 22 was one of the most disappointing novels I've ever read. I still can't quite pin down why. It took me 3 attempts and no small amount of determination to drive myself through it.
I think it just bored me rigid in the end. Possibly it was how much I'd heard about it being a classic and hilarious and all the other descriptions out there. I expected to be enthralled by it from the first page. Imagine how gutted I was when I was over a third of the way through it and it was still sh1t. I think I also didn't get why people wouldn't be as cynical as Heller and Yossarian are/were - being a confirmed cynic myself.
I've kept it and will try again when the bad memories fade.
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02-26-2008, 09:35 AM
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#13
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Adept Writer
Join Date: Sep 2007
Location: big sky country
Gender: Male
Posts: 932
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I love this book as well - so much brilliance!
"The Eternal City" has got to be one of my favorite chapters of any book I have ever read.
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Interdum feror cupidine partium magnarum europe vincendarum
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02-26-2008, 11:50 AM
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#14
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Prolific Writer
Join Date: Nov 2005
Posts: 339
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He knew everything about literature except how to enjoy it.
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