Then I Was…

If you have had a chance to read Brennan’s bio on the What We’re Reading page, you know that he has been on a mission to read “the classics” of American literature. Honestly, he’s read books that I never did. I wasn’t much of a reader when I was a kid, I much preferred to practice my clarinet or flute, or tinker on the piano, but like all American high school students I was forced to read dreaded literature books.

A few of them I really enjoyed, like “Catcher in the Rye” (I admit this might have been partly due to the fact that it’s short), but others – like “The Grapes of Wrath” – my 15-year-old self struggled mightily just to read/skim enough of it to pass the quiz.

Recently, Brennan decided to read, “Catch-22”. Certainly a very famous novel – well, for people in my generation it is. It’s a commentary on World War II and the absurdity of war as a whole. When it was published, in 1961, there had never been anything like it written about WW II – or war in general. Reviews say it is one of the funniest, and most celebrated books of all time.

It took me a while to get through this book. Parts of it are definitely humorous, and overall I liked the book and would recommend it, but I did not find it laugh-out-loud funny. A lot of people evidently did. The way author Joseph Heller writes is very repetitive and some of his descriptions are so contradictory I wasn’t sure what to make of them…here’s a taste…

“Colonel Cathcart was a slick, successful, slipshod, unhappy man of thirty-six who lumbered when he walked and wanted to be a general. He was dashing and dejected, poised and chagrined. He was complacent and insecure, daring in the administrative stratagems he employed to bring himself to the attention of his superiors and craven in his concern that his schemes might all backfire. He was handsome and unattractive, a swashbuckling, beefy, conceited man who was putting on fat and was tormented chronically by prolonged seizures of apprehension.”

I realize that he is keeping with the theme of the absurd, but sometimes I found myself thinking – make up your mind already. I guess I’m not a big fan of over-the-top satire. In this case, it bothered me that a lot of what he satirized was probably true, and people like my father – who fought in WWII – were subjected to this thoughtless idiocy. But I enjoyed the main character, Yossarian, found some of the chapters to be very clever, and the book definitely packs a punch. You should read it – at some point in your life.

The thing about telling people when they should read books – like telling 15 year-old teenaged boys that they have to read “Jane Eyre” – is that reading should be something you enjoy; something that transports you to another place, another time, another person’s experience. I understand that a lot of kids would never read any book if they weren’t forced to – never mind a classic like “The Grapes of Wrath” (which I still haven’t properly read – Steinbeck’s sentences are like 3000 words long!) – but if you gave them more choices, that might change.

I am certain that I had the – why am I being forced to read the same stupid books that you were forced to read – discussion with at least two of my sons. The only real answer I had to that question was – because they’re considered classics. And I get that, but there are so many other books in the world that are worthy of being read and studied, I always wondered why they weren’t on the list.

It’s been six years since I had a high schooler, so maybe things have changed. I’m sure a lot of teachers would be on board. Either way, since none of us are in high school any longer – thank goodness – we can choose to read whatever we like. I like mysteries, but a diversion is always good. Catch-22 definitely qualified as diverting, and I enjoyed discussing it with Brennan. If you read it, we’ll discuss it with you too.

Brennan here. I’m going to do a bit of analysis on “Catch 22” and hopefully encourage everyone to read it, then I’m going to touch on the concept of 15 year old dudes reading a shitty book like “Jane Eyre.”

“Catch-22” is a top 5 book for me. It’s entertaining in a few different ways.

First, it’s funny. It has a satirical tone throughout the novel that makes you question almost every character’s sanity. The protagonist seems like the only real person throughout the whole book and the absurdity of the other individuals warrants a smile.

Second, it’s honest. I’ve read multiple war novels in my day and “Catch-22” reads entirely differently. The author is more concerned with expressing the reality of day-to-day living at a military base than romanticizing what it is like to be a soldier. There are limited passages when actual combat is discussed, and I think it’s safe to say that the author did this on purpose to express how little of the time in war is actually spent in the midst of a battle.

Third, the context of the book. My mom touched on this above, but I think that the timing and social climate of the time when “Catch-22” was published is what made it, and still makes it, such a phenomenon. At the time of publication, tens of thousands of American soldiers had not so long ago returned home to their families in America and were praised by the general public as heroes post World War II. Across the board, everyone was stoked to have their fathers and brothers home, but it’s not like everyone was thinking about the daily hardships these men faced while they were overseas. Before reading this book, my viewpoint on war was formed by military TV ads and military homecoming videos that I saw on Instagram. It was nice to read a more pragmatic, truthful book on a soldier’s experiences.

In summary, “Catch-22” provided a reality check on day-to-day wartime life from the eyes of a former WWII bomber in the form of a beautifully written, lighthearted, yet socially important novel. I’d recommend it to pretty much anyone, kind of like how the public school system for the United States does.

Unfortunately, I was not assigned “Catch-22” in high school. I’m sure a lot of you were and you might have hated it at the time, but I’m lowkey kind of jealous of those that were.

When I look back on reading high school English books, it feels like nobody I knew actually read the books (thank you SparkNotes)? Besides “The Great Gatsby” (shout out Becker English class – Ally and Mills ayeee), I don’t think I read any of the books. And as my mom stated, I was forced as a 15 year old dude into “reading” “Jane Eyre”, which is actually, looking back, a crime on my teacher’s part.

If I know one thing about learning, it’s that students learn best about things they are interested in. I doubt 1% of current high school males, if polled, would say that they are interested in reading “Jane Eyre”. Honestly, I’d bet that not many females would want to read it either, even though it is a book that caters more to girls.

The fact of the matter is that 15 year old’s aren’t going to sit down and read “Jane Eyre” and contemplate the implications that it has on women’s suffrage. I’m sure “Jane Eyre” is a well-crafted novel that deserves to be read by many people, but I’ll be the first to say that high school students should not be tied into that audience. It would be sick if 15 year old’s thought about the themes of “Jane Eyre” in depth and took away some greater message from the book, but they simply don’t. I was neck-deep in a World of Warcraft addiction and thinking about growing chest hair and shit. I did not give a damn about some girl whose life sucks in a book from my English class.

All of this to say, I agree with my mom. Reading should be something that we enjoy. High school took that idea and made it really, really hard to live out. The vast majority of my friends do not read any books, and I think that the curriculum in place in high schools around the country has a large part in influencing that.

In my case, I revived my love for reading at the tail-end of college. As a kid, I remember reading the Percy Jackson books and a series called Pendragon and actually having trouble putting the books down. They are real page-turners, if you will. You guys should all read Percy Jackson if you haven’t, very fond memories. Anyway, once I got to high school and was assigned “Jane Eyre”, I made up my mind that reading sucks and took a 7-ish year break from reading books. That’s pretty messed up, no? Mostly thanks to being assigned a book I wasn’t interested in during high school, I was deprived of a thirst for knowledge for much of my teenage years.

So why don’t schools allow their students to read what they want? Or provide a big list of books that they should read? I believe it would be a big step toward better literacy and language skills for students AND it would get people to work towards not having 6 hours of screen time on their phones every day! Sorry, the screen time thing seems like a theme when- ever I write. I’m definitely projecting because I get frustrated that so much of my life is spent on my damn phone. But for real though, don’t you guys wish you spent less time on your phones?

Anyway, I’ve been loving reading literary classics recently. Reach out to me if you want to hear more about them. Oh yeah also, definitely agree with my mom that “Catcher in the Rye” is a fire book and it is short, so if you’re looking to get into the genre, that one is a great starting point. Thanks for reading everyone. Much love.