“Catch-22” by Joseph Heller (post 2): Author says that virtually none of the attitudes in the novel are based on his experiences as bombardier in World War II.

Pausing halfway through my 50th anniversary edition to read the appendix, I find the following reflections by the author:

“The concept of the novel came to me as a seizure, a single inspiration…My mind flooded with verbal images…I don’t know were it came from…the unconscious element was very strong…I deliberately looked for contradictory situations…Catch-22 became a law: ‘they’ can do anything to us we can’t stop ‘them’ from doing…

“Virtually none of the attitudes in the book—the suspicion and distrust of the officials in the government, the feelings of helplessness and victimization, the realization that most government agencies would lie—coincided with my experiences as a bombardier in World War II…

“It is the anonymous ‘they,’ the enigmatic ‘they,’ who are in charge. Who is ‘they’? I don’t know…” (1).

1. Joseph Heller. “Reeling in Catch-22.” From The Sixties, ed. Lynda Rosen Obst (New York: Random House/Rolling Stone Press, 1977, pp. 50, 52). Reprinted in appendix of Joseph Heller. Catch-22 [1961]. New York, Simon & Schuster Paperbacks, 2011, pp. 474-476.