| T.R | Title | User | Personal
Name | Date | Lines |
|---|
| 752.1 | First pass answer | SSGBPM::BPM5::KENAH | The stars of Sagittarius | Thu Dec 14 1989 23:15 | 10 |
| Catch 22 is the title of a novel by Joseph Heller.
Lessee, how did it go? There was a character in the story who was
trying to get out of the service by claiming to be insane. He was
told, "According to this list of catches, catch number 22 says `If you
say you're insane, you're not'."
Its meaning has evolved -- not exactly sure what it means nowadays...
andrew
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| 752.2 | | SSDEVO::EGGERS | Anybody can fly with an engine. | Thu Dec 14 1989 23:38 | 16 |
| Re: .1
Milo Minderbinder (??) was trying to get out of the US Army Air Corps
by claiming he was going insane. (He demonstrated this by sleeping in
trees, etc.) The Army psychiatrists claimed that wanting to get away
from the war (WW II in Italy) was proof he was perfectly sane, not
insane at all.
Then what about all those other soldiers? Well, yes; they are insane.
But they don't want to get out.
Therefore, if you are sane enough to want to get out, then you are sane
enough to stay in. And if you are insane enough to want to stay in,
then you won't ask to get out. "Catch 22"!!
The phrase now refers to any inescapable circular reasoning.
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| 752.3 | | SSDEVO::EGGERS | Anybody can fly with an engine. | Fri Dec 15 1989 00:14 | 5 |
| My American Heritage Dictionary says:
"Catch-22 n. A difficult situation or problem whose seemingly
alternative solutions are logically invalid [After "Catch-22", a novel
by Joseph Heller.]"
|
| 752.4 | Right Book - Wrong Character | SED750::GEE | Chris Gee @ESO - 844 3466 | Fri Dec 15 1989 09:27 | 6 |
| Re: .2
Milo Minderbinder was far too busy getting rich from MM Enterprises to want
to get out. Our hero was Captain Yossarian.
"That's one hell of a Catch that Catch-22"
|
| 752.5 | It should have been _Catch 18_! | SUBWAY::KABEL | doryphore | Fri Dec 15 1989 17:02 | 9 |
| The story, as I have heard it from friends of the authors, is that
the working title of Heller's book was _Catch 18_. Heller, however,
has a reputation for being a slow writer, and the book was not
finished until Leon Uris had written and had published _Mila 18_.
Heller had to pick another number, and chose 22.
22 does sound right to me now; catch 18 just doesn't catch my
attention in the same way. Maybe it was a lucky delay, or maybe
just acclimitization.
|
| 752.6 | It's happened before | CHEFS::BUXTON | | Tue Dec 19 1989 18:02 | 6 |
| My great-granfather invented this drink he called 5-UP but it didn't
catch on...He sold it to a guy who renamed it 6-UP but he had no
luck either...Sort of a catch-18 for soft drink inventors I suppose.
Bucko...
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| 752.7 | | TKOV51::DIAMOND | This note is illegal tender. | Tue Jul 03 1990 11:34 | 12 |
| Re .3
> My American Heritage Dictionary says:
> "Catch-22 n. A difficult situation or problem whose seemingly
> alternative solutions are logically invalid [After "Catch-22", a novel
> by Joseph Heller.]"
Yeah, the people who perpetrate Catch 22's don't know the difference
between logic and politics either. The meaning as really invented
and used is:
A situation or problem whose logical solutions are politically invalid.
(By the way, Feynman admitted to being insane, and he STILL didn't get in.)
|