YES! A book that gives me an excuse to use ampersands! High fives, anyone? God, I love ampersands. Maybe not as much as semicolons, but it is a little more exciting to see an ampersand since they appear even less often. ...Uh, can we pretend none of what I just typed actually happened?
Anyway, as you can see, this book is right there in my 'Top Books' column. You know why? BECAUSE IT IS AWESOME. Way better than that other book of his I read which shall not be named (Theyiddishpoliceman'sunioncoughcough). It's about two boys in New York (one of them having immigrated--emigrated?--to escape the ominous hints of war on the horizon) who have a dream to make comic books. The book is about a year--yes, a good portion of the book only happens in a year, a fact that left me reeling when they actually bring it up--creating these books and making it big, though eventually it goes through the following years much faster and faster, eventually giving you kind of snapshots--and then pulling back. Does that make sense? No? Good. I'm doing my job correctly!
"'Never worry about what you are escaping from,' he said. 'Reserve your anxieties for what you are escaping to'" (37).
Josef Kavalier is the boy who emigrated--though his first attempt fails; he was cut off at the station because he was supposedly missing a stamp. So he shows back up at his teacher Kornblum's--teacher of escapism--flat, determined to find a way to get to the US. "'What am I saying--"if I am going"?' He spat a flake of tobacco at the ground. 'I have to go.' 'What you have to do, my boy,' Kornblum said, 'is try to remember that you are already gone'" (43).
Kavalier at one point observes a crate that contains a sword-cane. YES PLEASE.
"'Maybe it was supposed to be female,' Josef suggested as he watched Kornblum zip the Golem's fly. 'Not even the Maharal could make a woman out of clay,' Kornblum said. 'For that you need a rib'" (61).
When Kavalier and (Sammy) Klayman are attempting to think up superheroes: "They began to go through the rolls of the animal kingdom, concentrating naturally on the predators: Catman, Wolfman, the Owl, the Panter, the Black Bear. They considered the primates: the Monkey, Gorillaman, the Gibbon, the Ape, the Mandrill with his multicolored wonder ass that he used to bedazzle opponents. 'Be serious,' Joe chided again" (93). Hehe. They end up coming up with the Escapist, a hero who utilizes--what do you expect?--escapism. With him eventually arises a whole other slew of heroes.
"'He was all muscle. No heart. He was like Superman without the Clark Kent'" (120). Sammy is describing his father, who was a travelling strong man that eventually left him behind.
"'What's so bad about Hitler?' said Davy. 'Just kidding.' 'Maybe you ought to call it Racy Dictator,' said Marty" (142). This quote exists here mostly for Kelly's reaction upon my texting it to to her: "I'm a racy dictator." (The racy thing is because popular comic books of the time were entitled things like Racy Science, Racy Adventure, et cetera.)
Kavalier, hiding his Jewishness or at least in an attempt to not admit it outright tells Sammy's friends that he's from Japan. "'And you have to tell us how's come if you're from Japan, you could be Sammy's cousin and look like such a Jew,' Davy O'Dowd said. 'We're in Japan,' Sammy said. 'We're everywhere.' 'Jujitsu,' Joe reminded him. 'Good point,' said Davy O'Dowd" (143). Again, insert some mad chuckling here.
Well, I don't have much to say till a lot later on. At this point, the Escapist has made quite a name for himself and his creators, and there is talk of a radio show being created. The boys are at a party, one which features Salvador Dali who almost suffocates in a diving outfit (a story which is based on an actual event, believe it or not) and anyway. A man named Harkoo asks Josef to take a picture of him. Just some pretty words, here, again. "'How do I focus it?' Joe asked him, lowering the camera. 'Oh, don't bother about that. Just look at me and push the little lever. Your mind will do the rest.' 'My mind... The camera is... Telepathic.' 'All cameras are'" (233).
"A surprising fact about Bernard Kornblum, Joe remembered, was that he believed in magic. Not in the so-called magic of candles, pentagrams, and bat wings. Not in the kitchen enchantments of Slavic grandmothers with their herberies and parings from the little toe of a blind virgin tied up in a goatskin bag. Not in astrology, theosophy, chiromancy, dowsing rods, seances, weeping statues, werewolves, wonders, or miracles... What bewitched Bernard Kornblum, on the contrary, was the impersonal magic of life, when he read in a magazine about a fish that could disguise itself as any one of seven different varieties of sea bottom, or when he learned from a newsreel that scientists had discovered a dying star that emitted radiation on a wavelength whose value in megacycles approximated [Pi]. In the realm of human affairs, this type of enchantment was often, though not always, a sadder business--sometimes beautiful, sometimes cruel" (265). There's a lot of fluff in here, but there's still a lot of good things going on too...
"The magician seemed to promise that something torn to bits might be mended without a seam, that what had vanished might reappear, that a scattered handful of doves or dust might be reunited by a word, that a paper rose consumed by fire could be made to bloom from a pile of ash. But everyone knew that it was only an illusion. The true magic of this broken world lay in the ability of the things it contained to vanish, to become so thoroughly lost, that they might never have existed in the first place" (339).
Well... hmm... I guess there's no choice but to introduce spoilers. Sorry, this one is kind of sparse, I guess. Well, Kavalier still has family across the ocean, you remember. And he uses a good portion of the money he garners to get his brother passage to the US. The ship is sunk, and Kavalier leaves for the military, specifically the navy. His girlfriend at the time is pregnant--though he is unaware of it, and Sammy marries her. I only bring this up because Emma will recognize an unconscious parallel to it... sort of... sometime in the future... Uh. Well, anyway, after this it picks up to many years later first starting around Kavalier and Rosa's son, Sammy.
"'You can't walk me to school,' Tommy said... 'Mom, you can't possibly. I would die. I would absolutely die.' 'He would die,' Sammy told Rosa" (476).
At one point a few comic book artists talk about some comics Sammy worked on--one of which is Lone Wolf and Cubby, which I thought was funny and had to be a reference to the actual comic Lone Wolf and Cub. I've never read it, but I hear it's fantastic. They sell shirts for it at Old Glory. (But it seems like those guys like everything, really.)
"'You were watching my fingers. Don't watch my fingers. My fingers are liars. I have taught them to tell lies'" (511).
Kavalier eventually does come back, the reason why it took him so long is because he didn't... quite... know how to do it. He was scared, he didn't know how he would explain himself or what had happened, how to apologize for what he had done, and so on. One of the sweetest moments in its own strange way is Sammy's response: "'Christ, Joe, you f--king idiot... We love you'" (558). Okay, I thought there was something oddly sweet about it.
"'God is a madman. He lost his mind, like, a billion years ago. Just before He, you know. Created the universe'" (564).
"...The usual charge against comic books, that they offered merely an escape from reality, seemed to Joe actually to be a powerful argument on their behalf" (575).
Rosa says at one point that even though bacon is pork, it is okay--because of one passage in the Talmund--to eat. A rudimentary inspection of Google tells me that you can get struck down for eating bacon along with the followers of Baal, however, there is bacon made of ducks and others available for Kosher consumption. And apparently it's okay in some respects, as long as you're not an Orthodox Jew. (I feel like the rules regarding proper slaughter come into effect, as turkey isn't considering Kosher unless you 100% know it was slaughtered in the proper fashion.)
Now, if you'll recall, Sammy's father abandoned him and then later died. Sammy in the future is brought to court for his works (as are other comics creators) and one of the things brought up is his often adding boy sidekicks to comic book heroes' repertoires. This is meant to be a homosexual charge and although (spoiler alert which is kind of unnecessary since I know Emma has read this) Sammy is actually gay, he imagines it more as a yearning for what he hadn't had: a close father who he could rely on and was always around to protect him and interact with him. Poor Sammy.
Tommy, going through his real father's possessions finds Joe's very first sketch and attempt at a superhero during Sammy's original pitch... a Golem, the Golem of his home. It's a touching moment via drawing though perhaps not the most--Joe's brother sent Joe to the US in possession of a drawing of Harry Houdini falling from the sky drinking tea completely unworried, as though he had all the time in the world... I believe about three times it is mentioned, though its run finally ends with Joe's military service, when he leaves it behind in his post.
"'This is feeling very strange to me,' Rosa said. She was gripping the pillowcase filled with Joe's old sheets in one hand, like a sack, and dabbing at the tears in her eyes with the other. 'It's been strange all along,' said Sammy" (636).
...Well. I guess this was really sparse, sorry... I guess I'm still kind of drained from Ulysses and Connecticon and my first visit ever to a 7-11. Well, the book is awesome is what you need to know, and that you should read it. Really. (The only bothers me thing about the book is sometimes Chabon's writing style really bothers me, but most of the time I'm fine with it.)
Answer to last post's cryptic song lyrics for Emma: Spitting Venom by Modest Mouse
This post's cryptic song lyrics for Emma: I cannot turn to see those eyes as apologies may rise; I must be strong and stay an unbeliever
Showing posts with label The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Show all posts
Showing posts with label The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 13, 2010
Friday, August 14, 2009
You're face to face with the man who sold the world
I just got back from wandering around North Haven--Did you know EB games doesn't take DVDs anymore? What the hell, man. And Barnes and Noble e-mails that say there are sales are lies. LIES.
Anyway, I finished Doctor Zhivago too. I decided not to write about it for my school project, though it would be sublimely easy: You're supposed to write about how the main character changes. In the beginning, he's nine years old. In the end (spoiler!) he's dead. But! It was a pretty good book. Like I said, Pasternak is a very eloquent fellow, and can make even arbitrary things sound and seem quite majestic and beautiful.
One thing that always surprised me a little is how the underclasses are referred to as peasants, even into the 1930's. The word brings an image of Medieval beggars, and very easily it's my imagery to fault, but it's so strange that even in a 'modern' age they should still be known as peasants, and still living in villages that, to description, sound very much like Medieval villages. Odd.
"'Rome was a flea market of borrowed gods and conquered peoples, a bargain basement on two floors, earth and heaven, a mass of filth convoluted in a triple knot as in an intestinal obstruction.'" Oh snap! Rome got served! I just picked this because Rome is considered the 'ideal' civilization and not only was it hit pretty hard on the head... well, look, that's actually a pretty good unromantic view of Rome. Really. And, I guess eloquence doesn't always mean beautiful. For the record.
"All the strong are dominated by the weak and ignoble."
Man, I can never read books about the military again. There's a long section where a general is trying to get his troops, you know, pumped by giving this long speech about how great the country is and how you must fight for it, even if you're your parents' only child. And all I could think of were lines from Catch-22 criticizing war, and patriotism. In Language and Comp we learned about logical fallacies--one of which was 'flag-waving' or using patriotism so your target group will agree with you. And, you know what? Not to belittle anything or offend anyone, but it is a logical fallacy. Really, it doesn't make any sense. "'What is a country?'" Huh, I wish I could include the whole quote, but it appears Wikiquote sucks. Just--just pay attention to the Sacrilegious Old Man when you get to him.
"'And about that deaf-mute, we're fed up hearing about him. Everybody goes on and on about the deaf-mute. And what have you got against him? Just that he was dumb all that time and then he suddenly started to talk and didn't ask your permission? As if that were so marvelous!'" I am not sure why I should favor so this passage.
"...an unshared happiness is not happiness..." I believe it was in Doctor Zhivago Christopher Johnson McCandless wrote this, and I guess it must have been around here. Maybe not, but I'd expect it to be in affirmation: "HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED".
"Everyday life struggled on, by force of habit, limping and shuffling." There's something about that "by force of habit" I like. This bit works well on its own, and also if you continue the quote around the whole paragraph-- "Everyday life struggled on, by force of habit, limping and shuffling. But the doctor saw life as it was. It was clear to him that it was under sentence. He looked upon himself and his milieu as doomed. Ordeals were ahead, perhaps death. Their days were counted and running out before his eyes." I--I'm morid, a--aren't I?
"'It has something of Pushkin's uncompromising clarity and Tolstoy's unwavering faithfulness to the facts.'" Both Russian authors, obviously. I've never read Pushkin, but I find it kind of funny that Tolstoy should be described in such a way--War and Peace, at the time of its publication (I don't know if it still is, though, I only read reviews that were printed the same year of its publication) was criticized heavily for unfaithfulness to facts, and that Tolstoy was making up his own facts for "his conveniance" and the story's conveniance. A criticism that stands out is the fact that Napoleon randomly spoke Russian and then would go back to French. I mean, there was more, it was a long review, but that's the biggest point. I remember being like "Well, duh, it's a Russian novel..." but, you know. Maybe this is sarcasm here, but I don't know Pushkin, so I can't be sure.
"Near him, touching him, were hell, dissolution, corruption, death, and equally near him were the spring and Mary Magdalene and life. And it was time to awake. Time to wake up and get up. Time to arise, time for the resurrection."
"'Look at all these stations. The trees aren't cut, the fences are intact. And these markets! These women! Think how wonderful! Somewhere life is still going on, some people are happy. Not everyone is wretched. This justifies everything.'" Nothing is universal. Not everywhere is wretched, no matter how wretched one place may be. Vice versa, no matter how pleasant and wonderful one place is, there is a wretched and raggedy counterpart.
"But was this the way to win back lost love? For that you had to move mountains!" This was noted because of the fact that it reminded me of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Just the way the sentences are structured reminded me of each other--Because the interenet hates me, I shall paraphrase. "But even the X could not create a woman from clay. For that, you needed a rib." I like the sentence itself, but I like this one too, and paired together, I am quite enamored.
Okay, so background on the next one: Zhivago sees his love for the first time in quite a while, and they are quite unfamiliar to each other: "This was the only form of intimacy that still remained between them. And how distant, cold, and compellingly attractive was this women to whom he had sacrificed all he had, whom he had preferred to everything, and comparision with whom everything seemed to him worthless!" --->"Once you have loved someone this much
you doubt it could fade despite how much you'd like it too" (Fade Together, Franz Ferdinand) Well, for the record, they do suddenly fall back into each other's arms briefly. But I guess it's shocking, seeing someone so dear and beloved suddenly so distant. I hardly ever wonder about old friends in that manner, and I... I don't really have an old boyfriend to wonder that about. But. That commentary--it just grabbed me.
"'It isn't just that I don't love him--I despise him.' 'Can you know yourself as well as that? Human nature, and particularly woman's '"[HAHAHA!] "'is so mysterious and so full of contradictions. Perhaps there is something in your loathing that keeps you in subjection to him more than any man whom you love of your own free will, without compulsion.'" I am under the deepest belief that hate really is quite similar to love, a different type of love under a different name. Because really, say you have made an enemy of a classmate: you are constantly on the lookout for them, and when you see them, your heart skips a beat, you get excited and emotional. You react strongly upon seeing them. If the hate is deep enough, you are constantly talking about them, even if it's in ill terms--it is still constant. If it's deep enough, you are constantly thinking of them and such. And... oh man. I just totally lost my train of thought. Oh, damn. Well, my point was going to be--I think--that that's very similar to affection, right? And as lost as you are when you lose a significant other or some such, that's how someone losing an enemy must feel--why do you think people are so slow to apologize? They'd like to hold onto their object of hate, to the point of needing as desperately as a lonely person clings to love.
"'Just like something out of Jules Verne.'" Uh, so, how's about being my best friend? Any name-dropper of Jules Verne is a friend of mine!
All right, up next is the end, which is one of the most detached upsetting endings I've ever read:
"One day Larisa Feodorovna went out and did not come back. She must have been arrested in the street at that time. She vanished without a trace and probably died somewhere, forgotten as a nameless number on a list that afterwards got mislaid, in one of the innumerable mixed or women's concentration camps in the north."
...
So, I skipped the poetry at the end. So it's possible I've missed some major messages or something deep, but I've never had it much for poetry. I just don't really understand it. I mean, sometimes things jump out at me, but most of the time I just don't have a head for it. I wouldn't know if it was any good or not had I been interested enough to read it, in any case.
Anyways, the book itself: It's an enjoyable book. I can't imagine carrying it around and it meaning as much to be me as it did to Christopher Johnson McCandless, but it's certainly a book I would be proud to have on my self. I'm not quite sure if it would go in my classics shelf (which technically doesn't even exist at the moment) but it would certainly have a place on my bookshelf.
Anyway, I finished Doctor Zhivago too. I decided not to write about it for my school project, though it would be sublimely easy: You're supposed to write about how the main character changes. In the beginning, he's nine years old. In the end (spoiler!) he's dead. But! It was a pretty good book. Like I said, Pasternak is a very eloquent fellow, and can make even arbitrary things sound and seem quite majestic and beautiful.
One thing that always surprised me a little is how the underclasses are referred to as peasants, even into the 1930's. The word brings an image of Medieval beggars, and very easily it's my imagery to fault, but it's so strange that even in a 'modern' age they should still be known as peasants, and still living in villages that, to description, sound very much like Medieval villages. Odd.
"'Rome was a flea market of borrowed gods and conquered peoples, a bargain basement on two floors, earth and heaven, a mass of filth convoluted in a triple knot as in an intestinal obstruction.'" Oh snap! Rome got served! I just picked this because Rome is considered the 'ideal' civilization and not only was it hit pretty hard on the head... well, look, that's actually a pretty good unromantic view of Rome. Really. And, I guess eloquence doesn't always mean beautiful. For the record.
"All the strong are dominated by the weak and ignoble."
Man, I can never read books about the military again. There's a long section where a general is trying to get his troops, you know, pumped by giving this long speech about how great the country is and how you must fight for it, even if you're your parents' only child. And all I could think of were lines from Catch-22 criticizing war, and patriotism. In Language and Comp we learned about logical fallacies--one of which was 'flag-waving' or using patriotism so your target group will agree with you. And, you know what? Not to belittle anything or offend anyone, but it is a logical fallacy. Really, it doesn't make any sense. "'What is a country?'" Huh, I wish I could include the whole quote, but it appears Wikiquote sucks. Just--just pay attention to the Sacrilegious Old Man when you get to him.
"'And about that deaf-mute, we're fed up hearing about him. Everybody goes on and on about the deaf-mute. And what have you got against him? Just that he was dumb all that time and then he suddenly started to talk and didn't ask your permission? As if that were so marvelous!'" I am not sure why I should favor so this passage.
"...an unshared happiness is not happiness..." I believe it was in Doctor Zhivago Christopher Johnson McCandless wrote this, and I guess it must have been around here. Maybe not, but I'd expect it to be in affirmation: "HAPPINESS ONLY REAL WHEN SHARED".
"Everyday life struggled on, by force of habit, limping and shuffling." There's something about that "by force of habit" I like. This bit works well on its own, and also if you continue the quote around the whole paragraph-- "Everyday life struggled on, by force of habit, limping and shuffling. But the doctor saw life as it was. It was clear to him that it was under sentence. He looked upon himself and his milieu as doomed. Ordeals were ahead, perhaps death. Their days were counted and running out before his eyes." I--I'm morid, a--aren't I?
"'It has something of Pushkin's uncompromising clarity and Tolstoy's unwavering faithfulness to the facts.'" Both Russian authors, obviously. I've never read Pushkin, but I find it kind of funny that Tolstoy should be described in such a way--War and Peace, at the time of its publication (I don't know if it still is, though, I only read reviews that were printed the same year of its publication) was criticized heavily for unfaithfulness to facts, and that Tolstoy was making up his own facts for "his conveniance" and the story's conveniance. A criticism that stands out is the fact that Napoleon randomly spoke Russian and then would go back to French. I mean, there was more, it was a long review, but that's the biggest point. I remember being like "Well, duh, it's a Russian novel..." but, you know. Maybe this is sarcasm here, but I don't know Pushkin, so I can't be sure.
"Near him, touching him, were hell, dissolution, corruption, death, and equally near him were the spring and Mary Magdalene and life. And it was time to awake. Time to wake up and get up. Time to arise, time for the resurrection."
"'Look at all these stations. The trees aren't cut, the fences are intact. And these markets! These women! Think how wonderful! Somewhere life is still going on, some people are happy. Not everyone is wretched. This justifies everything.'" Nothing is universal. Not everywhere is wretched, no matter how wretched one place may be. Vice versa, no matter how pleasant and wonderful one place is, there is a wretched and raggedy counterpart.
"But was this the way to win back lost love? For that you had to move mountains!" This was noted because of the fact that it reminded me of The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay. Just the way the sentences are structured reminded me of each other--Because the interenet hates me, I shall paraphrase. "But even the X could not create a woman from clay. For that, you needed a rib." I like the sentence itself, but I like this one too, and paired together, I am quite enamored.
Okay, so background on the next one: Zhivago sees his love for the first time in quite a while, and they are quite unfamiliar to each other: "This was the only form of intimacy that still remained between them. And how distant, cold, and compellingly attractive was this women to whom he had sacrificed all he had, whom he had preferred to everything, and comparision with whom everything seemed to him worthless!" --->"Once you have loved someone this much
you doubt it could fade despite how much you'd like it too" (Fade Together, Franz Ferdinand) Well, for the record, they do suddenly fall back into each other's arms briefly. But I guess it's shocking, seeing someone so dear and beloved suddenly so distant. I hardly ever wonder about old friends in that manner, and I... I don't really have an old boyfriend to wonder that about. But. That commentary--it just grabbed me.
"'It isn't just that I don't love him--I despise him.' 'Can you know yourself as well as that? Human nature, and particularly woman's '"[HAHAHA!] "'is so mysterious and so full of contradictions. Perhaps there is something in your loathing that keeps you in subjection to him more than any man whom you love of your own free will, without compulsion.'" I am under the deepest belief that hate really is quite similar to love, a different type of love under a different name. Because really, say you have made an enemy of a classmate: you are constantly on the lookout for them, and when you see them, your heart skips a beat, you get excited and emotional. You react strongly upon seeing them. If the hate is deep enough, you are constantly talking about them, even if it's in ill terms--it is still constant. If it's deep enough, you are constantly thinking of them and such. And... oh man. I just totally lost my train of thought. Oh, damn. Well, my point was going to be--I think--that that's very similar to affection, right? And as lost as you are when you lose a significant other or some such, that's how someone losing an enemy must feel--why do you think people are so slow to apologize? They'd like to hold onto their object of hate, to the point of needing as desperately as a lonely person clings to love.
"'Just like something out of Jules Verne.'" Uh, so, how's about being my best friend? Any name-dropper of Jules Verne is a friend of mine!
All right, up next is the end, which is one of the most detached upsetting endings I've ever read:
"One day Larisa Feodorovna went out and did not come back. She must have been arrested in the street at that time. She vanished without a trace and probably died somewhere, forgotten as a nameless number on a list that afterwards got mislaid, in one of the innumerable mixed or women's concentration camps in the north."
...
So, I skipped the poetry at the end. So it's possible I've missed some major messages or something deep, but I've never had it much for poetry. I just don't really understand it. I mean, sometimes things jump out at me, but most of the time I just don't have a head for it. I wouldn't know if it was any good or not had I been interested enough to read it, in any case.
Anyways, the book itself: It's an enjoyable book. I can't imagine carrying it around and it meaning as much to be me as it did to Christopher Johnson McCandless, but it's certainly a book I would be proud to have on my self. I'm not quite sure if it would go in my classics shelf (which technically doesn't even exist at the moment) but it would certainly have a place on my bookshelf.
Wednesday, August 5, 2009
I'll keep you warm and won't ask you where you've been
Wow. 11:30 already? Yeah, I was planning on taking a ten minute nap at eight thirty. Uhh. Oops?
But, I finished Catch-22 yesterday, in any case. Sooo. Of course, I loved the book. I'm gonna be honest here--I'm totally in love with this book. There really is nothing wrong with it, so far as I'm concerned, except for the fact that everything is catch-22 and at the end, when the Chaplain is basically tortured (verbally) falsely. It's even more frustrating when he's get verbally tossed about than the court scene in To Kill a Mockingbird because of the fact that Atticus got his say out--he still lost, but he lost with his head held high. In this case though, there was no way around the madness and surreality. No matter what, you were going in circles, and I was going a little bit insane by that point. Another part in the book I go insane a little at is around page 160, where Yossarian asks the prostitute to marry him, and she can't because he is crazy, and he is crazy because he wants to marry her. Catch-22 exists where it shouldn't. It is everything--it rides everything (not gravity!). And, as a side note, before I start including passages and quotes I favor: A teacher of mine, my psych teacher actually, had been in the air force too when he was younger. I happened to have a quote from the book as my signature and e-mailed him and the next day we were talking about it and he mentioned that the book really is what being in the air force is like. I sort of nodded it off at the time, but thinking about it while rereading it--holy God. Can you imagine? I would go mad. Really, I'd probably end up killing myself or someone around me. It's absolutely maddening! Anyways...
I love Yossarian. He's got a contradiction for everything. He's no oaf, either, so he's not just being a big, dumb... contradictor? Well. I guess you'll see what I mean when we get to my favorite passage. And I hate Orr. I detest his circular nature and he does nothing but enrage me.
"He had decided to live forever or die in the attempt..." A description of Yossarian. I love that line, and I just want to say, I do think people live forever. Well, I have a theory that I'm not sure I'd like to subscribe to, in any case, because it basically discredits the afterlife and I'm only human, and so are my readers. I think. But by saying people live forever, they live their wholes lives--they live until they die. That really is forever for a human. History and time stretch out, but they're too large for us to comprehend... 'Forever' is defined by who's saying it. So in that case, Yossarian really wouldn't be able to fail.
"'Well, maybe it is true,' Clevinger Conceded unwillingly... 'Maybe a long life has to be filled with many unpleasant conditions if it's to seem long. But in that event, who wants one?' 'I do,' Dunbar told him. 'Why?' Clevinger asked. 'What else is there?'" Exactly.
"'If you're going to be shot, whose side do you expect me to be on?' ex-PFC Wintergreen retorted." As much as we'd love to have our noble heroes and martyrs, I do believe they are the minority. I think more people would love to cling to life than stand up for an idea, and a lot of the people who do stand up for an idea are maybe just people stuck in the romanticized views of dying for your cause. I know that sounds cruel while we're in the midst of a war, but I think I just can't see things from an upstanding view because I'd be like Wintergreen, most likely. Saving my own skin would be number one. I'm not sure if I'd turn on my friends, but when your own side is pointing the guns at you? Who knows.
"He knew everything about literature except how to enjoy it." : )
"Major Major had been born too late and too mediocre. Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. With Major Major it had been all three." Any Shakespeare fans? No?
"He was told that he should not kill, and he did not kill, until he got into the army. Then he was told to kill, and he killed. He turned the other cheek on every condition and always did unto others exactly as he would have others do unto him. When he gave to charity, his left hand never knew what his right hand was doing. He never once took the name of the Lord his God in vain, committed adultery, or coveted his neighbor's ass. In fact, he loved his neighbor and never even bore false witness against him. Major Major's elders disliked him because he was such a flagrant nonconformist." At first that last part didn't seem quite right, but really, it makes sense. Who really lives by the Bible in this time? What worries me is that it would be unrecognized in a time where religion was more important and more a part of everyday life. But the fact that Major Major should be so out of place and thought a nonconformist for taking the Bible's teachings to heart? There's something to be said for society there.
Well, to quote the bit I like on page 170 would be too obnoxious and time-consuming, but basically a group of fliers are talking about how they have things that really belong to other people--"someone else's three hundred thousand dollars", a "dose of the clap", etc. Basically saying that I didn't deserve X, this is what happened to me--and another fighter saying yes, that certainly sounds like my [what I should have, instead of health, etc] case of X or X items. It doesn't sound too great the way I'm describing it, but it's one of my favorite sections. It's page 170 if you pick up the Simon & Schuster Paperbacks edition (with the blue cover).
"It was miraculous. Each day he faced was another dangerous mission against mortality. And he had been surviving them for twenty-eight years."
Now, to back this next bit up: Yossarian tells a woman he's sleeping with that for every good thing she can name, he can probably name two unpleasant things. This is my absolute favorite bit in the whole book. "'Be thankful you're healthy.' 'Be bitter you're not going to stay that way.' 'Be glad you're even alive.' 'Be furious you're going to die.' 'Things could be much worse,' she cried. 'They could be one hell of a lot better,' he answered heatedly."
"'Why in the world did He ever create pain?' 'Pain?' Lieutenant Scheisskopf's wife pounced upon the word victoriously. 'Pain is a useful symptom. Pain is a warning to us of bodily dangers.' 'And who created the dangers?'" Yossarian goes on to bash God, but I think the point is gotten well enough here. The general consensus seems to be that God went quite insane (Kurt Vonnegut, Michael Chabon) and that's what made him think Earth and its contents would be a good idea. Kurt Vonnegut's take is... well, in Breakfast of Champions he describes snakes and then says "Sometimes I really wonder about the Creator of the Universe sometimes". And in Timequake while God is performing his seven-day feat, Satan starts thinking the man's gone mad--how far is this guy planning to go? As for Chabon, a character in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (I think it was Joe) says something like "I think God went insane just before He, you know. Created the universe." Anyways. I'm backing Kurt Vonnegut with this one. Sure, maybe the first humans failed some divine test, but He would have known, no? So why bother, when everything will play out exactly as you know it will? Poor Dr Manhattan. He can't even kill himself.
And aside from that, what could He have had in mind? A gladiatorial match between animals? I guess He wouldn't even make much of a shipping clerk, either. I roll mad deep with Vonnegut on this one.
Anyways, now that I've alienated the world... I guess I'll make this a two-parter. I'd like to get to bed a little early so 8:30, nine o'clock doesn't seem like too much of a stretch. There's randomly a chain of Twilight Zone episodes on from eight to eleven or so tomorrow, which is AWESOME.
But, I finished Catch-22 yesterday, in any case. Sooo. Of course, I loved the book. I'm gonna be honest here--I'm totally in love with this book. There really is nothing wrong with it, so far as I'm concerned, except for the fact that everything is catch-22 and at the end, when the Chaplain is basically tortured (verbally) falsely. It's even more frustrating when he's get verbally tossed about than the court scene in To Kill a Mockingbird because of the fact that Atticus got his say out--he still lost, but he lost with his head held high. In this case though, there was no way around the madness and surreality. No matter what, you were going in circles, and I was going a little bit insane by that point. Another part in the book I go insane a little at is around page 160, where Yossarian asks the prostitute to marry him, and she can't because he is crazy, and he is crazy because he wants to marry her. Catch-22 exists where it shouldn't. It is everything--it rides everything (not gravity!). And, as a side note, before I start including passages and quotes I favor: A teacher of mine, my psych teacher actually, had been in the air force too when he was younger. I happened to have a quote from the book as my signature and e-mailed him and the next day we were talking about it and he mentioned that the book really is what being in the air force is like. I sort of nodded it off at the time, but thinking about it while rereading it--holy God. Can you imagine? I would go mad. Really, I'd probably end up killing myself or someone around me. It's absolutely maddening! Anyways...
I love Yossarian. He's got a contradiction for everything. He's no oaf, either, so he's not just being a big, dumb... contradictor? Well. I guess you'll see what I mean when we get to my favorite passage. And I hate Orr. I detest his circular nature and he does nothing but enrage me.
"He had decided to live forever or die in the attempt..." A description of Yossarian. I love that line, and I just want to say, I do think people live forever. Well, I have a theory that I'm not sure I'd like to subscribe to, in any case, because it basically discredits the afterlife and I'm only human, and so are my readers. I think. But by saying people live forever, they live their wholes lives--they live until they die. That really is forever for a human. History and time stretch out, but they're too large for us to comprehend... 'Forever' is defined by who's saying it. So in that case, Yossarian really wouldn't be able to fail.
"'Well, maybe it is true,' Clevinger Conceded unwillingly... 'Maybe a long life has to be filled with many unpleasant conditions if it's to seem long. But in that event, who wants one?' 'I do,' Dunbar told him. 'Why?' Clevinger asked. 'What else is there?'" Exactly.
"'If you're going to be shot, whose side do you expect me to be on?' ex-PFC Wintergreen retorted." As much as we'd love to have our noble heroes and martyrs, I do believe they are the minority. I think more people would love to cling to life than stand up for an idea, and a lot of the people who do stand up for an idea are maybe just people stuck in the romanticized views of dying for your cause. I know that sounds cruel while we're in the midst of a war, but I think I just can't see things from an upstanding view because I'd be like Wintergreen, most likely. Saving my own skin would be number one. I'm not sure if I'd turn on my friends, but when your own side is pointing the guns at you? Who knows.
"He knew everything about literature except how to enjoy it." : )
"Major Major had been born too late and too mediocre. Some men are born mediocre, some men achieve mediocrity, and some men have mediocrity thrust upon them. With Major Major it had been all three." Any Shakespeare fans? No?
"He was told that he should not kill, and he did not kill, until he got into the army. Then he was told to kill, and he killed. He turned the other cheek on every condition and always did unto others exactly as he would have others do unto him. When he gave to charity, his left hand never knew what his right hand was doing. He never once took the name of the Lord his God in vain, committed adultery, or coveted his neighbor's ass. In fact, he loved his neighbor and never even bore false witness against him. Major Major's elders disliked him because he was such a flagrant nonconformist." At first that last part didn't seem quite right, but really, it makes sense. Who really lives by the Bible in this time? What worries me is that it would be unrecognized in a time where religion was more important and more a part of everyday life. But the fact that Major Major should be so out of place and thought a nonconformist for taking the Bible's teachings to heart? There's something to be said for society there.
Well, to quote the bit I like on page 170 would be too obnoxious and time-consuming, but basically a group of fliers are talking about how they have things that really belong to other people--"someone else's three hundred thousand dollars", a "dose of the clap", etc. Basically saying that I didn't deserve X, this is what happened to me--and another fighter saying yes, that certainly sounds like my [what I should have, instead of health, etc] case of X or X items. It doesn't sound too great the way I'm describing it, but it's one of my favorite sections. It's page 170 if you pick up the Simon & Schuster Paperbacks edition (with the blue cover).
"It was miraculous. Each day he faced was another dangerous mission against mortality. And he had been surviving them for twenty-eight years."
Now, to back this next bit up: Yossarian tells a woman he's sleeping with that for every good thing she can name, he can probably name two unpleasant things. This is my absolute favorite bit in the whole book. "'Be thankful you're healthy.' 'Be bitter you're not going to stay that way.' 'Be glad you're even alive.' 'Be furious you're going to die.' 'Things could be much worse,' she cried. 'They could be one hell of a lot better,' he answered heatedly."
"'Why in the world did He ever create pain?' 'Pain?' Lieutenant Scheisskopf's wife pounced upon the word victoriously. 'Pain is a useful symptom. Pain is a warning to us of bodily dangers.' 'And who created the dangers?'" Yossarian goes on to bash God, but I think the point is gotten well enough here. The general consensus seems to be that God went quite insane (Kurt Vonnegut, Michael Chabon) and that's what made him think Earth and its contents would be a good idea. Kurt Vonnegut's take is... well, in Breakfast of Champions he describes snakes and then says "Sometimes I really wonder about the Creator of the Universe sometimes". And in Timequake while God is performing his seven-day feat, Satan starts thinking the man's gone mad--how far is this guy planning to go? As for Chabon, a character in The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (I think it was Joe) says something like "I think God went insane just before He, you know. Created the universe." Anyways. I'm backing Kurt Vonnegut with this one. Sure, maybe the first humans failed some divine test, but He would have known, no? So why bother, when everything will play out exactly as you know it will? Poor Dr Manhattan. He can't even kill himself.
And aside from that, what could He have had in mind? A gladiatorial match between animals? I guess He wouldn't even make much of a shipping clerk, either. I roll mad deep with Vonnegut on this one.
Anyways, now that I've alienated the world... I guess I'll make this a two-parter. I'd like to get to bed a little early so 8:30, nine o'clock doesn't seem like too much of a stretch. There's randomly a chain of Twilight Zone episodes on from eight to eleven or so tomorrow, which is AWESOME.
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