catch-22

What a fun yet horrible book it is. I'm only about 200 pages in and I'm hooked, but I cannot stand any of the characters. But I must say, there are some great quotes in it. Such as...

People knew a lot more about dying inside at the hospital and made a much neater, more orderly job of it. They couldn't dominate Death inside the hospital, but they certainly made her behave. They had taught her manners. They couldn't keep Death out, but while she was in she had to act like a lady.

Thus far, there has been the obvious theme of the book (Catch-22 and all its various incarnations...the whole "damned if you do, and damned if you don't" mentality), although the general flow of the book feels more like short vignettes about air raids and the various personalities who fly them. Which is probably how it's supposed to feel. My favorite "Catch-22" moment, however, has been where the main character, Yossarian, is arguing with a lover about God. Both are avowed atheists, but when Yossarian begins a tirade against his version of God--calling Him "a county bumpkin, a clumsy, bungling, brainless, conceited, uncouth hayseed", among other things--his lover bursts into tears. "Stop it!" she cries, which completely surprises Yossarian.

"What the hell are you getting so upset about?" he asked her bewilderedly in a tone of contrite amusement. "I thought you didn't believe in God."

"I don't," she sobbed, bursting violently into tears. "But the God I don't believe in is a good God, a just God, a merciful God. He's not the mean and stupid God you make him out to be."

Yossarian laughed and turned her arms loose. "Let's have a little more religious freedom between us," he proposed obligingly. "You don't believe in the God you want to, and I won't believe in the God I want to. Is that a deal?"

I wonder...how many atheists are like that today? Picking and choosing the version of God that they want to disbelieve in....anyhow, just thought it was interesting...