Who could have predicted a game improvised at Badminton House could become an Olympic sport?
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03/25/11
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September 01, 2011
Blake Bailey in the New York Times review of Tracy Daugherty's "Just One Catch," about Joseph Heller, quotes a few other well-known writers in their reaction to Heller's death in 1999.
“Oh God, this is a calamity for American literature,” Kurt Vonnegut said.
Then there was John Updike, a pretty decent writer himself, who was less generous:
Heller “wasn’t top of the chart” as a writer, he reflected, though he was “a sweet man” and he did admit his first novel, “Catch-22” was “important.”
A statement that might have said more about Updike than Heller.
Heller was no armchair author as Bailey points out:
"He flew 60 bombing missions between May and October 1944, a feat that should have killed him three times over, statistically speaking, since the average personnel loss was 5 percent per mission."
The result was “Catch-22,” published in 1961.
Nobody has written about the insanity of war with more sanity:
"There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one's own safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions..."
The Great American Novel.
This not "top of the chart" writer may very well have written it.
Catch is one of my very favorite novels and pretty far up there as a movie too. I do not know if...
Sep. 01, 2011 1:19 AM
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03/24/11
Of all Heller's fabulous Writings ... His Book, GOD KNOWS ....... is the absolute Best !!!
Hurtful Funny .......
How many here in the Village have bumped into their share of Catch-22s while trying to write and publish the Great American Novel -- which I always refer to as GAN?
On once such attempt years ago -- when Hector was still a pup -- I adjourned to a mountain cabin to produce a GAN.
I set up a table on a porch, hooked up an electric typewriter and began to pound out my GAN there in a little mountain cabin where the little flowing river passed in front of it.
I put the typewritten pages in a metal cake pan, which I kept beside me.
Did that day after.
The pages piled up in the metal pan.
GAN was being born.
Page one. Page two. Page three. Page . . .
Chapter one. Chapter two. Chapter . . .
More days came and went.
More pages in the metal cake pan.
Progress.
The summer went by.
Life was good there on that porch beside the little flowing river in the cool mountain air.
One afternoon a mountain shower moved in over the little cabin by the flowing river.
I was not too mindful of it.
Kept pounding the electric typewriter.
Had to finish filling the metal cake pan.
Summer soon would turn to autumn and I had to complete GAN and head back to civilization, for other assignments called.
Suddenly, KKKAAAABBBOOOOOOOOOM!
A bolt of lightening struck a few feet away from my electric typewriter and my GAN-filled metal cake pan.
I froze.
When I finally recovered, I sat there laughing.
What if that bolt of lightening had hit a bullseye -- namely, me -- and my electric typewriter and my GAN-filled pan?
It would have fried the lot of us -- lot lot, lot lot's typewriter and lot lot's GAN in the pan.
Fried us all.
Cremated us all.
Why, they probably would have just tossed the ashes into the little flowing river that ran by the little cabin in the mountains and been done with it.
And the world would never have known about lot lot's Great American Novel.
Which sorta was the way it turned out anyhow.
Yes, I know.
Today it is commonly spelled lightning.
But, as I explained above, I am older than dirt and back in the dirt days we spelled it lightening.
Still hard to break old -- really, really old -- habits.
Besides, sleep calls.
Night, all.
Catch is one of my very favorite novels and pretty far up there as a movie too. I do not know if Joseph Heller could have written such a book without the backdrop of his real life/war experience or not. But he sure managed to tear away the cloak of sanity and reason that served as the outer wear of life, death, and especially war; and he revealed the day-to-day hypocracy, insanity, and trajedy that layed beneath...... While making us laugh at our own foolishness in the telling of his story.
My favorite memory of a stay in Senora Mexico was taking a bike ride and wandering around the location where the movie was filmed. It was mountains, desert, rocks, sand, and blinding heat facing east.....and the Sea of Cortez to the west.
more on the honor rollA coffee shop guy got a lot of mileage out of a personal communication from Heller, waving the envelope around.
It turned out to be a terse and chilly demand that the guy cease and desist in presenting unwelcome and incomprehensible ideas to a busy man who would not be interested even if he weren't.
Should have known better but there were chinese leftovers in the fridge and in wonton disregard of common sense, I ate them… too many, too late.
Off topic but amusing:
http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2011/08/31/140082418/mucho-congratos-to-elbloombito?ft=1&f=1001
East Coast weather patterns are interesting for the frequent mentions of that Welsh-sounding wonderland near New York City: Lon Gyland.
years back, I wrote a Mother's day card, in the form of a poem,a children's story in rhyme,and it just kind of fell out of my pencil....the first draft was certainly good enough for my Mom- - she still has it in that drawer of stuff....I copied it to a notebook, and some years later,polisihed it a little and submitted it to Vanguard Press...they said they would illustrate it,and if I gave them a few monies, they would print a run....everyone I showed it to said "DO IT!!"...but, life has its moments...and it never got done...some where I have that polished rewrite, and if I cannot find that, Mom has the original....in MY mind, it is still relevant and good...a children's story,with a moral, and my own GAN....
One of my all time favorite reads.
TO THE VILLAGE: CHEFDEB sent to say that she and the rest of her Grid are still without Power, in the aftermath of Irene, and she is off the air computer-wise ... No idea how long the situation is gonna last ...
CHEFDEB sends Greetings and Good Wishes, and she hopes to be back in among us soon ...
This to me via Cell Phone some time last evening .......
lotlot~ So glad Odin missed!
Ivan~ Thanks for the update on ChefDeb. Was wondering.
True Gen. Good philosophy I say. But as JH himself would say every writer he knows has trouble writing. Write what you know and truth isn't always about the facts.
Ivan,
please send ChefDeb my regards and good wishes!
Ivan ~
Good work. I was worried but now, a bit less so.
Life without juice is tough, ugly and not very safe. Good luck CD.
Years ago, when at least our side of town was blacker than the inside of your hat, we had power.
There was no reasonable explanation for it and the few who were out and noticed, assumed we had a generator. We did and do but it was/is still in the box in the garage.
A blue jay was just out on the deck rail sounding a lot like rusty hinge on a cupboard door and being answered by another.
Probably not such a big deal where you are but we have not had any in residence in many years and it is good to see and hear them again.
A friend from my college days is in the startup phase of a new biz. Her years of service at a university are about to come to an end due to the budget/ economy.
This is worth a peek.
http://www.writnow.com/service-menu.html
IVAN.................thanks for letting us know about CHEFD...................I was really worrying.
MISS BLUE................. So good to see you, glad all is well. Did you get any damage?
Where is JAX? I wish she would/could check in..................I know PAOLOS said she was blogging & that is a good thing.
STONEY...................I always love your coffeshop stories.............they make me marvel at life & how some people see it....................................
IVAN & PL......................I have never read H. Now after reading your posts I pretty much have no choice, but to read one of his books.......................
RY.....................there's something very wistful about seeing things we created when we were young and that after all these years our mothers hung onto them and will cherish them forever. Surely after they pass on those childhood things will also become heartbreaking......................
JANE, JANE, JANE...................yippee! Your post about your sister was fascinating..............
"You have a morbid aversion to dying. You probably resent the fact that you're at war and might get your head blown off any second."
"I more than resent it, sir. I'm absolutely incensed."
"You have deep-seated survival anxieties. And you don't like bigots, bullies, snobs, or hypocrites. Subconsciously there are many people you hate."
"Consciously, sir, consciously," Yossarian corrected in an effort to help. "I hate them consciously."
"You're antagonistic to the idea of being robbed, exploited, degraded, humiliated, or deceived. Misery depresses you. Ignorance depresses you. Persecution depresses you. Violence depresses you. Corruption depresses you. You know, it wouldn't surprise me if you're a manic-depressive!"
"Yes, sir. Perhaps I am."
"Don't try to deny it."
"I'm not denying it, sir," said Yossarian, pleased with the miraculous rapport that finally existed between them. "I agree with all you've said."
— Joseph Heller (Catch 22)
Which reminded me a little of the 1950's transcript of proceedings against a local man wherein he took the opportunity to speak in his own defense:
"You people accuse me of prejudice against spades and spics, nips and wops, beads and beaners, hebes and krauts, fools and fairies but you didn't mention I don't like anybody else either. My best friend is a damn moron and he hates me back. Just to be clear, I'm not biased."
Phew! Glad to hear CD is OK. Thanks, Ivan for letting us know.
A GAN was never my goal. I wanted to write a book on American History, but I guess not enough to find time among the other things I either wanted or had to do. Sorting priorities has probably put many a would be writer's aspirations aside and sometimes probably for the best.
"Catch 22" and (to a lesser extent) "Hobson's Choice" have entered the English language as descriptions of some of the precarious dilemmas that conflict modern men. Furthermore it seems that technology, instead of making life simpler, has merely facilitated the complexity of our diverse & ongoing series of existential predicaments. No wonder so many are addicted to anti-depressants......
Lotlot, RY...I’m envious, the thought of ever writing a novel has never ever crossed my mind, but I could help type! Ivan, thanks for the update on ChefDeb, it’s good to hear. And I couldn’t stop laughing at H’s God knows too! It is so funny!. Jax has responded to my Facebook query and says the family is fine, says it felt they were in a “pocket of protection and missed the brunt of it. Minor loss of power + no damage=huge gratitude”
Stoney,
"Everywhere is freaks and hairies
Dykes and fairies..."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jzrUqAtUcpU
Chefdeb, in case you are listening... ; )
Mr. Peterman, have you or anyone here seen an article this week on the Wall Street Journal by Joseph Epstein titled "What killed American literature"? http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424053111903999904576468011530847064.html#printMode
I confess I don't know many of the authors mentioned in the article but in reviewing the book "The Cambridge History of the American Novel", Epstein has delivered a blistering attack on English departments, fount of all future literature. Do the villagers agree? Does anyone here teach literature?
To quote.."English departments are less concerned with the consideration of literature per se than with what novels, poems, plays and essays-after being properly X-rayed, frisked, padded down, like so many suspicious-looking air travelers-might yield on the subjects of race, class and gender......
A stranger, freshly arrived from another planet, if offered as his introduction to the United States only this book, would come away with a picture of a country founded on violence and expropriation, stoked through its history by every kind of prejudice and class domination, and populated chiefly by one or another kind of victim, with time out only for the mental sloth and apathy brought on by life lived in the suburbs and the characterless glut of American late capitalism. The automatic leftism behind this picture is also part of the reigning ethos of the current-day English Department"
One of Ivan's pet peeves.....
http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2011/08/31/arizona-us-agencies-reach-pact-on-teachers-speech/#ixzz1WhXjzAkf?test=latestnews
Hello all. I'm new to your community. Miss Blue mentioned me earlier. As a product of an English Dept., albeit in rhetoric not literature, I have to concur with Mr. Epstein. Although I confess my own leftist leanings, I object to the overt "reigning ethos" of the contemporary English Dept. Job #1 is not teaching students how to think, but teaching them what to think. IMO, we need no more funds allocated to literary "research." Miss Blue mentioned that I am launching my own little business. I'm not hoping to write the next Great American Novel, but I'd be thrilled to "ghostwrite" it!
welcome bwb1952 !
Hi bwb1952! Welcome!
Am sorry to hear about the cutbacks in the university which has affected you. I wish you the best in your startup business.
I'm wondering, the hallmark of the American has always been his individuality, his ability to stridently offer views and thoughts separate and unique from the next. How did your society drift into such a situation? I can understand your concern as such are the same concerns that affect some of us asians - where, sameness (read: kinship and clanship) is preferred to an "outside" view
SF, in my humble opinion
Unintended consequences ....we did the wrong things for the right reasons.
In an attempt to make the playing field a little more even and fair to all, we pandered to the lowest common denominator. We should have pulled those we wished to elevate, kicking and screaming if necessary, to the top.
The fetid, inflexible, caste like structure of many Asian societies is not found in American society ( no matter what some may claim) .
I am optimistic that some will think us out of the box we are currently in.
Spring Fragrance, thanks so much for the WSJ link, somehow I managed to miss that story altogether......too much to do, too little time to do it!!!
MISS BLUE: "Consider whether or not the Teachers are fluent, not HOW they speak the Language ..."
WHAT ????????????????????????
BEBE: Start with any of Heller's Books, but don't miss GOD KNOWS ... It is funnier to a Yid, who will be familiar with subtle nuances, but Riotously Funny for anyone ... The Book is about David ... who is all that David was ... but with a Cary Grant delivery ...
And Blessings upon you all, I am sending ChefDeb y'all's Best ... I'm guerssing she has still got some juice left in her phone .......
Finally got to take a break from studio work. Good to read all the posts. Wish I had time to post more than a quick hi but enjoy reading yours. Now back to the recording grind for the day. Do have Catch 22 and signed by author. Treasure it.
I borrowed Catch-22 from my brother's book
shelf in 1964. He told me it was a good read.
During a recent visit to the local library I picked
up God Knows and Closing Time,
blew the dust off each, leafed through
them and returned them to the shelf for another day.
That day will come soon.
I hear the phrase Great American Novel and I am not
really sure what it means.
We have had our share of great American
novelists.
I think that Catch-22 particularly
qualifies if the term American refers to the identity
of the characters and not so much to our national
identity.
I don't know that each great American
novel will always capture the flavor of the nation and the time
period.
Most have a very distinct regional taste. That's
not a bad thing. It is part of our heritage.
The great Spanish, Italian, French, Polish, German
and even Russian novel
will mostly capture the essence or identity of each
country and its people
perhaps because that cultural essence envelopes the
people.
I don't think you can do that with our literature
and I hope that we never can.
I cherish our regional cultural heritage. I like
to find Chicago in Chicago, New Orleans in New Orleans, Miami in Miami,
San Antone in San Antone, LA in LA, Seattle in
Seattle and everything in New York.
I think the best we can expect from a novel is
to extract a handful of Americans from each of those pockets,
throw them back on to the pool table and bounce
them around in a given situation, like Heller did in Catch-22.
WW II was the perfect chaos for Mr. Heller to
discover who we are, who we become.
If any one knows what I mean by any of this and can
recommend a great American novel that captures and transmits our national
identity, I would love to read it.
I admit that I have not read every GAN but I am
working on it..
IVAN ~ Why is it that all the ladies have YOUR number?
PAOLOS: You should read, THE MILAGRO BEANFIELD WAR ...Great Book ... Speaks of the Determination that certainly was part of what made America Great ... One Hint; Amarante's Pig is the smartest one of the bunch ...
IVAN ~ I did read it many years ago. Shortly after The
Sterile Cuckoo. I like John Nichols. I have not read the other two that
comprise his New Mexico Trilogy. Thanks for the reminder. I will put them on
my list. There are one or two by Saul Bellow that also need to have the dust
wiped away.
MISS BLUE ~ I think we dodged the bullet.
SF- I would rather die than "not be" the American you beautifully described. I would rather be respected than liked. Unity is not uniformity unless you are lemmings marching single file into the sea. Thank you for noticing what most Americans can't or won't. Blessings!
In my opinion, it is our freedom of our individuality, strengths and short-falls, that equips us as a nation to also be successful contributors, i.e., part of making or accomplishing something much bigger and greater than ourselves; and becoming the great society that is still a dream of many American
Not because we were told to, but because we can.
It is the best of both worlds, warts and all. It is also how our greatest innovations have been accomplished.
It is easier to just pass down or dictate ideas and how to think than to work and
earn buy-in to an idea or a cause. That is how dreans come true. That is how a society can accomplish that which could not otherwise be imagined
'This is my viewpoint and it based on my observations and expieriences' he says as he picks up his orange crate pulpit and wanders over to a park bench........
Paolos, T.T and Peter.
The GAN, written in 2060 and set in our present time, will be an interesting read.I wonder, what language it will be written in; will we recognize it if it's English?
(That is a rhetorical "we"....since most of us will be over the century mark.)
Poalos, I'm not ready to sound the all clear....
"well" said the local to the traveler,"You can't get there from here...."
And, if not exactly in the letter, but, definately in the spirit, "You can only run half way into a forest"
Miss Blue,
It depends on holding on to and passing the torch.....
The hard-wired link between our individuality and accountability...
Be well....
Belatedly ~ Spring ~ A brave telling it like it is!
I'm not American, I have read loads of what might be classed as Great American Novels without knowing it. I just enjoy a good read. I'm hopeless with remembering names so don't ask me who wrote them. The only one I can think of is Grapes of Wrath, which really touched me. And the wonderful Tom Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn who were childhood kindred spirits. Eeeew, childhood books. Uncle Tom'sCabin, White Fang .....
Yes, Miss Blue ~ a speculative leap into the future .... I hope books will not be written in txt spk.
Oops..... I even try to answer hypothetical questions....
As to the next GAN, i'm certainly not qualified to anoint any book as such.
It is my habit to choose and read many novels from the 'new voices' section and have been treated to some very good, thought provoking/evoking literature.
In Philly on a 737 thinking about the GAN and finding that whatever it is it ain't. I suspect like most really great things it will be a product of overthink, overdrink, and overstink.
O well, my dear friends, I have a dose of the Black Glooms today, so off early under the duvet. Doggy treats for Floyd on the train. Nos Da. xxx
I have to agree with Paolos and Peter Lake. One novel can not contain the diversity of the USA. BUT for an era, for a section of the country, for a specific culture Hazel has hit on a few. My reading right now is Uncle Tom's Cabin. A group of friends, well educated and from diverse backgrounds get together once a month and discuss a particular book. This one was chosen because of it's impact on it's time. Remember Mr. Lincoln's remark to Mrs Stowe. "So this is the little lady who made this big war." I think one could say that for her time, with the focus on one particular part of the culture of the States, Mrs. Stowe wrote the Great American Novel.
TT, being retired has pretty much lead me down the path of 'if I likes it, I reads it.
Lately I've been taking a tour of Norwegian, Swedish, and Icelandic Mystery novels. Even though they are set in recent/current times.....they have a real noir feel about them. I visualize them in black-n-white and sepia tones.
The greatest novels, regardless of country,......... Are quite probably the ones that were not/will not be published because some pretentious snobs rejected them.
My attention span needs a little stretching so i'll shut it down for a while.
Peace out....
If it's in English, I don't give a whole lot of thought the country of the author. If it isn't, I wouldn't crack it open in the first place.
A great novel is more than a snapshot, less than a symphony.
If Americans are alike it is probably in our intense unhappiness at being told that we are an ordinary culture. We are a bit more feral than sheep.
Bebe ~
I was thinking about elementary school and remembered hop-skipping down a street about a block from home when Miss W. the second grade teacher I was soon to have recognized the problem, called me up on her porch and pointed out her bathroom door.
I was grateful and washed up extra carefully so as not to mess up her white hand towel.
Which, now that I think about it, was what every towel I had ever seen was or was meant to be.
I thanked her and she said: "I know my little men. You're welcome."
It would be hard to say how old she was but there was some gray in her mustache and nobody knew when she had got there. She was well liked and respected.
Shortly after school began, I saw something while retrieving a red ball that someone had kicked across the street and under someone's porch.
I was shushed when I tried to tell her about it… more than once.
Then, someone came in and handed her a note: "I hit your car. Sorry. If that kid saw me, then, you might track me down. Otherwise, not."
It was a big black shiny car and her pride and joy. Panic set in.
As it happened, I knew a thing or two about the event: the man was about fifty, five-ten and one sixty or so. Had a special shoe on his left foot, a college parking card and a cut on his forehead and I remembered his license number… still do.
"That's what I was tryin' to tell you!"
She was weepy, embarrassed and apologetic and I'm pretty sure that I imagined that there was some kind of point in there... somewhere.
Hazel, I didnt mean to be telling anyone anything; it was an article brought up for discussion as I thought it appropriate.
I can't find another article which would have backed up Miss Blue's 1104 post; but it was about a teacher/lecturer who was being interviewed for a position in an American institution of learning, the mandate being to raise the bar. She was told there were 12 mentally challenged students whose marks were zero but had to be included to mark the range. She exclaimed it crazy but as Miss Blue succinctly put it, "In an attempt to make the playing field a little more even and fair to all, we pandered to the lowest common denominator".....a catch-22 situation no doubt. This is a challenge not only to literature but to every aspect of our life, do we settle for mediocrity in the face of political correctness, an issue (often discussed here) that has crept into other global societies too.
I hear what Paolos, Peter Lake and Rusty are saying about the "distinct regional taste" and if it brings enjoyment that's fine by me. In fact, everyone has a story to tell, including you and I. But personally I think a great novel, American or otherwise, must be able to possess qualities like universality and timelessness, not to be confused with locality and time setting. A great book , distinct from a good book, is a journey to the centre of the soul even if it takes you to the ends of the earth
PL- The feeling at dusk when the colors of the day become indistinguishable awash in grays. I get that and find it to be an interesting layered canvas.
Miss Blue and Ivan ~ How awful, that teachers don't need to, well, uh, teach. That is what it amounts to. Bad enough that the kids are lost without calculators and other aids, not they need not use proper language -- oy vey!
The real question of the day is: "Why is that B-24 up there flying bass ackwards?"
Uh, Jax, let me field that one. They are returning from a mission.
{{laughing}}
You still have a sense of humor after last week? Has your town dried out yet? I heard it took quite a bath. { {gaaaa-roan} }. I hope you were able to celebrate and enjoy your birthday.
PL ~ me too!
The Great American Novel strikes me as a category-error. American college English departments still haven't purged themselves of Stanley Fish-style deconstructionist thinking, although they will given world and time enough.
It's just my (strong) opinion, so please no one get their knickers in a twist. Up until the recent past, there were only two American authors that mattered: David Foster Wallace, and Mary Gaitskill. The former committed suicide by hanging himself in his parents' garage. That leaves us with Gaitskill, who is fabulously talented. I would put Tobias Wolff in a category as a great American writer, but his strength is as a short story writer, not as a novelist.
I am not necessarily an Anglophile (I am a HazelLeesephile), but our best active writers are Martin Amis, Salman Rushdie, James Hamilton Paterson, and Will Self. (Sorry, Julian Barnes, I once would have put you on that list, but you have become stodgy and haven't written anything interesting in 15 years. You also need to beg Martin Amis to forgive you for boorishly awful you treated him). Also, the astoundingly brilliant Haruki Murakami.
For those not familiar with Joseph Epstein, author of the WSJ article questioning the validity of the American canon, Epstein for decades was editor of The American Scholar, the Phi Beta Kappa quarterly. He has heavily written essays under the name "Aristides," and his collection of essays "Narcissus Leaves the Pool" is the best and most thoughtful such work I have ever read.
I missed out on yesterday's discussion, but wanted to add a clarifying fact, lest there be any doubt about Jamie Lee Curtis. Jamie Lee Curtis is NOT an hermaphrodite. Her karyotype is XY (male), but in terms of anatomy she is utterly female. She has testicular feminisation syndrome, which means that her body is totally unresponsive to elaborated testosterone. People with TFS grow up phenotypically as female by default, and anecdotally have larger than average breasts. They generally have little or no libido, as testosterone is responsible for this even in women.
Sure glad Jaxz back!
It still seems to me that the determination of whether a novel is just really good or great is still very subjective and up to each individual reader. Its like our neighborhood here at the EyE, the day we have a consensus of opinion is when i will truly be worried and a tad dissapointed.
Viva la difference.
Peace out
Paolos you will always make me laugh. My birthday was quiet but cozy, thank you! :)
PL, I'm never far from you.
xo
: )
Our village is really a wonderful community of caring folks.....thanks to Ivan for letting us all in on the welfare of ChefDeb and all week we've witnessed the concern we've all had for MissBlue, JaxZ, ChefDeb, Captain Neptune and all the others that we either know or visualize are in the affected areas. I've often thought that more than one of you/us are frustrated authors....Here's to a relaxing Labor Day weekend to all!
It's fine folks like you that help make this a grand place Carol...