“Catch-22” by Joseph Heller: On the same page “Catch-22” is defined, it is mentioned, in passing, that everyone has lied to the protagonist his whole life.

I just started reading Catch-22. The protagonist, Yossarian, who flies air-combat missions in WWII, is told that you can ask to be excused from flying these dangerous missions if you claim to have gone crazy. But the catch—“Catch-22”—is that asking to be excused from flying these suicidal missions proves that you are not crazy.

At the bottom of the same page is the following, mentioned in passing: “…Yossarian’s mother, father, sister, brother, aunt, uncle, in-law, teacher, spiritual leader, legislator, neighbor and newspaper, had…lied to him about anything crucial…” (1, p. 46).

Thus, in fact, or at least in Yossarian’s opinion, the lying in his military life is a continuation of the lying by everyone in his civilian life. People have lied to Yossarian his whole life.

Truth is often spoken as if in jest. However, as I just started this novel, I don’t yet know what truth, if any, is behind these jests.

1. Joseph Heller. Catch-22 [1961]. New York, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2011.