Catch-22: Ch. 22-26

Chapters read:
twenty-two. MILO THE MAYOR
twenty-three. NATELY’S OLD MAN
twenty-four. MILO
twenty-five. THE CHAPLAIN
twenty-six. AARFY

Closest to these defectiveyeti posts:
ch. 22-23
ch. 24-32

Progress:
through page 301 / 463 = 65%

The chapters are getting longer, I swear. I delayed the entry yesterday to give myself another day to catch up; the plan today was actually to have figgy in day care and I’d have the day free to fix the garage door opener (just quit about a week ago, and last Sunday, I was too lazy to do anything about it) and run other errands, which honestly would have taken the form of checking out the University Avenue thrifts and possibly taking a bike ride up to some local park for a picnic snack with Catch-22.

Five minutes later, just as I was trying to decide between a nap or a movie, theVet comes back bearing both figgy and the news that the day care was closed. “Well, the doors were closed, no cars in the parking lot, and no kids there either, so I made an assumption. I guess I could have left her there but thought this would be better.” I don’t mind taking care of the figgy, but so much for those plans; after yesterday’s extreme excitement of meeting (again) so many relatives on theVet’s side of the family, much of today was spent in down-time, with figgy taking a couple of two-hour naps.

I begin to identify with the chaplain, A.T. Tappman, who we’re initially introduced to as the victim of Yossarian’s duplicitous censorship efforts. After reading through his chapter, though, you begin to understand why he’s so universally disliked: his quixotic quest is to please everyone, all the time.

Wherever he went in the Army, he was a stranger. Enlisted men and officers did not conduct themselves with him as they conducted themselves with other enlisted men and officers, and even other chaplains were not as friendly toward him as they were toward each other. In a world in which success was the only virtue, he had resigned himself to failure.

I too have that yearning LIKE-MEEEE thought running through my head some times, but I’m starting to get a thicker skin about it; I remember that if I was doing nothing, then there’d be nothing to criticize, so the amount I get is in direct proportion to what I do. The chaplain’s problem is that with that as his sole motivation, he ends up manipulated into situations he wouldn’t choose (often by his assistant/enemy Whitcomb, too).

When I first read the novel, I didn’t realize that the narrative takes place in discontinuous chunks; the beginning few chapters are chronologically towards the end; you see the results but not the reasons, and that makes it a little difficult to follow. We learn about how Milo can sell eggs for an ostensible two-cent loss at a profit; we learn the origins of Nately’s love for his whore. The further you read in the novel, the better the rewards, story-wise.

And so it goes, these baby-sitting days. The first few months, when it’s all they can manage to eat and poop between naps, well, the charm of the new keeps it interesting, even if the tasks may be mundane. Later, even now, watching her explore her world (mainly tasting, at this point) becomes the reward. And it’s better now, and it keeps getting better.

Huh. One week left, sixteen chapters; a little more than two a day. I can make it.