ShmoopTube

00:01

We speak student!

00:04

[ ding ]

00:05

[ ding ]

00:08

All right, and welcome to Catch-22 a la Shmoop.

00:11

We're here with Dr. Deb

00:13

and we're gonna dive just right in.

00:16

Catch-22 is a war novel unlike any other.

00:20

It's set on a small island off the coast of Italy

00:24

and follows a number of airmen flying missions

00:27

or, more accurately, not flying missions in World War II.

00:31

The title is one of the more famous phrases in all of literature and life.

00:37

It's something that's certainly part of Americana.

00:40

So, Deb, why don't we just start with that.

00:41

What is a catch-22?

00:44

Okay, a catch-22 is a paradoxical law.

00:48

Any sort of paradoxical law.

00:50

That's what it's come to mean.

00:51

And actually, the term "catch-22" comes from this book.

00:55

It's not something that Joseph Heller

00:56

took from somewhere else and made the title.

00:58

The title is the reason we use this term.

01:02

And to interrupt you on the term.

01:03

- Paradoxical? That's two doxicals? - So, it means...

01:06

Yeah. No.

01:06

It means that it is true and untrue at the same time.

01:11

Usually if something's paradoxical,

01:13

it means that it is both true and untrue.

01:15

The main catch-22 is this.

01:18

The rule is that if you are crazy and you're insane,

01:23

you don't have to fly missions.

01:25

So this takes place in World War II in the air force.

01:27

These men have to fly missions.

01:28

So, if you're crazy, you don't have to fly missions.

01:32

But, if you...

01:36

fly a mission,

01:37

that means you're crazy, because who would do that?

01:40

Which means you can't fly missions

01:42

because you're crazy.

01:43

But if you don't want to fly a mission,

01:46

that means you're sane

01:48

because you know enough not to want to fly a mission,

01:51

which means you have to fly a mission.

01:53

So it's basically this thing where you're --

01:54

Another way of putting it is you're between a rock and a hard place.

01:57

You are not going to win.

01:58

[ boing ]

02:00

[ boing ]

02:02

[ boing ]

02:04

[ boing ]

02:08

[ ding ]

02:10

So if someone

02:12

presents you with

02:13

a situation and says it's a real catch-22,

02:15

that's what they mean. That you can't win either way.

02:17

- You're damned if you do, damned if you don't. - Exactly.

02:20

And yeah, the title -- It's funny, too,

02:22

because Heller went through a few options for titles

02:25

before he got to Catch-22.

02:26

One of them was actually Catch-11.

02:28

That was the original.

02:29

But the original Ocean's Eleven

02:31

was coming out at the same time

02:33

so he didn't wanna do that,

02:34

so he doubled it

02:36

to be Catch-22.

02:37

Which actually works out well,

02:37

because there's a lot of doubling in the novel.

02:39

We'll get to that later.

02:41

But imagine if it had been Catch-11,

02:43

- we would be saying "catch-11" instead of "catch-22." - Catch-11. Yeah. Huh. Interesting.

02:46

Wow, that's cool.

02:48

What is a catch-22?

02:50

What is the main catch-22 of the novel?

02:55

[ high-pitched noise ]

Full Transcript