A couple of decades ago, "Amendment-22" was listed in my university list of mandatory reading literature. The options "Amendment-22" and "Catch-22" were equivalent, and I, for the life of me, do not remember in which translation I eventually read the novel. A couple of years ago, realizing that I don't remember the text at all, only the positive impression that I have left of it, I decided to reread it.
Then I came across an article with an analysis of two existing translations, I realized that the voengiz version ("Catch-22") is not something that is not kosher, but just an otsebyatina from the category "we will replace all words unfamiliar to the Soviet reader with some other words", and then a serial film adaptation loomed on the nose, so the rereading took place.
The novel is set during the Second World War. The American squadron is located on the territory of Italy, on the island of Pianosa. The main character of the novel-the leading bombardier, Captain John Yossarian, has already made the number of sorties necessary to send home, but the regimental authorities, spitting on everything, repeatedly increases their number.
The clever Yossarian in every possible way shirks flights in the hospital and even asks to be recognized as crazy, but here's the bad luck: according to amendment No. 22, anyone who wants to evade a combat mission is normal...
"Amendment-22" is definitely one of my three favorite books about the war. And here's what I thought: all three are pretty crazy, sarcastic and absurd. The war in them is such a senseless absurdity that you really start thinking that only completely crazy types can want a war, start it and lead it, who have a monkey with timpani doing "bom-bom-bom"in their head instead of a brain.
Hasek, Heller, Vonnegut turn the war into a carnival-a farce, a set of ritual actions, behind which there is nothing meaningful, but at the same time the most valuable thing that a person has is at stake - his life.
The madness of the heroes of "Amendment-22" is born out of the fear of death. When people around you are dying like flies, you gradually go crazy and it begins to seem that all this is not for nothing, death creeps up on you specifically, making very unambiguous hints over and over again.
This paranoid fear is the core of the whole novel, Heller first makes his reader laugh at him, perceive the" crazy " Yossarian as a madman, and then gradually reveals the root causes of such behavior, forces him to literally stand behind the hero and see everything that he saw. And the sight is, to put it mildly, unpleasant.
Laughter at the behavior of the characters slowly becomes quieter, and then it turns out to be completely inappropriate. I will not say that I am impressionable, at least not when it comes to books and films, but several times, reading "Amendment-22", I put the book down not because I fell asleep or my free time was over, but because I simply could not read further.
And it's not about tears or disgust... it's like a tub of cold water was poured out in the summer heat, and here you are, still flapping your mouth like a fish, not understanding how it happened at all, that only you were dry and warm, and now at least squeeze it out.
The novel is perceived by many as banter over the American army, but, of course, the story described in the "Amendment-22" is not local at all. And not only in the American, I will say more, not only in the army. That is why the expression "Catch-22" has become so common, it seems to me that these amendments are tricks everywhere, from clinics to sales plans in stores.
It's just that it is in the war that the moronism of the leadership, of some comrades who dream of their funny regiment and marching to patriotic music, leads to the death of those who have to carry out their orders. We have an image of the army as a clear hierarchical system in which everything is thought out, everything is according to the charter, Heller destroys this image so that even fragments of the foundation do not remain from it.
What is the use of what distant generals broadcast, if everyone in his regiment does what he wants? What's the point of being a war hero if you'll never even sleep properly now? What's the use of your forty-four flights if tomorrow the norm will increase to fifty, and you will always chase the implementation of the plan like a donkey after a carrot suspended in front of his face?
Some readers are asking questions: how can you admire SUCH a book about the war, when there was Stalingrad and Auschwitz, and there is serious literature about them, without any jokes and follies? For me, the answer is obvious: war is chaos, it is the destruction of not just peaceful life, but the destruction of life in general, and it is the absurdist texts that show this in a way that others cannot.
If war is a different state of reality, then it is necessary to talk about this reality in a different way, looking for not only suitable words, but also intonations, showing that when there can be no normal life, there can be no "normal text".
After the "Amendment-22", not the most heartwarming, not the saddest, not the most piercing text about the war, nevertheless, no reader will definitely want to stick "can we repeat it?" on his car, because the very idea of repeating the war will seem wild. You will not want to take revenge or repeat it, and the blurred line about the peaceful sky above your head will become more meaningful.
427.478 SRY