Conduct: Very Good
Attendance: Very Good
Responsibility: Excellent <--- Wow.
Teamwork: Very Good
Work Attitude: Excellent <--- Wow.
Hope to improve. Things are looking good.
"Catch-22 n. 1. a situation in which a person is frustrated by a paradoxical rule or set of circumstances that preclude any attempt to escape from them. 2. a situation in which any move that a person can make will lead to trouble [C20: from the title of a novel (1961) by J. Heller]" [Collins]
"The only freedom we really have is the freedom to say no"
"Orr would be crazy to fly more missions and sane if he didn't, but if he was sane he had to fly them. If he flew them he was crazy and didn't have to; but if he didn't want to he was sane and had to".
"That's some catch, that Catch-22". The doctor, whose job is to save lives only so that they can be put in danger again, can only agree that "it's the best there is".
"Joseph Heller began work on Catch-22, the story of a US airman's attempts to survive the madness of the Second World War, shortly after returning from the conflict himself.
The son of Russian Jewish immigrants to the United States, Heller had joined the US Air Force in 1942 at the age of 19, going on to fly 60 bombing missions against enemy targets over Southern Europe.
After the war, while working as an advertising copywriter, he spent seven years writing a novel that reflected his experience, and what he saw as the insanity of military life.
The book - which was originally titled Catch-18 - tells the story of Captain Joseph Yossarian, a member of a US bomber crew stationed on the Mediterranean island of Pianosa. Yossarian is convinced that the military is trying to get him killed, and that those around him are insane, and he spends the book trying to get out of flying any more seemingly suicidal missions.
Yossarian is surrounded by a cast of bizarre characters, including Colonel Scheisskopf, obsessed with winning military parades at the expense of just about everything else, the newly promoted Major Major, who spends most of the war trying to hide from his men, and the profiteer Lieutenant Milo Minderbinder, a pure capitalist whose only ambition is to make money out of the war, and who ends up charging a commission on every military engagement.
Using satire, black humour and seemingly undefeatable logic, the book argues that war is insane, that the military is insane, and that, quite probably, modern life itself is insane too.
As the US's involvement in Vietnam grew, however, Heller's exploration of the insanities of both war and the "military-industrial complex" gradually caught the public imagination, and the book became a word of mouth success.
Stickers declaring "Yossarian Lives" started to appear among other anti-war slogans. A new generation of Americans - many of them facing the prospect of being forced to fight a war they didn't understand - found themselves identifying with Yossarian's situation and the phrase "Catch-22" soon became a part of the popular consciousness.
Speaking about the nerve he had touched, Heller would later say "a large part of the public sentiment was my own. They saw an absurd quality, a mendacious quality in many of our political leaders and business leaders".
Summing up his intentions in writing the book - which has now sold more than 10 million copies - he pointed out that "everyone in my book accuses everyone else of being crazy. Frankly, I think the whole society is nuts - and the question is: What does a sane man do in an insane society?"
Anyway, on to the real entry:
So I once again found myself rushing for time on Thursday night. The school newsletter needs to be out next Tuesday, and printing's scheduled on Saturday. Therefore, I needed the 'prototype' ready by Friday morning for final editing. Bah. Worst part was, I needed to hand in one more article.
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note: I did not write this and I am not accepting any credit for this at all. Props to him, and I'd really like to know who you are by the way.
All for one, one for all?
Imagine yourself in this situation: it’s the final year exams, you’re struggling with Geography, you just don’t get how volcanoes erupt, it’s almost time, the exam begins in five minutes, you’re in school grovelling from friend to friend begging for help. They, however, downright refuse you, giving a horrid excuse for an excuse just to escape from teaching you.
Infuriating isn’t it?
One minute they’re your best buddies, and the next, their toenails are worth more of their time than you are.
Those who can and should help you but would rather fight tooth and nail just to get away from you – these are the kind of people I deeply resent.
I have classmates who would simply make up a rather pathetic dodge just to excuse themselves from helping you with a problem. Suddenly, they appear to be stone deaf and deeply immersed in doing their work even if you’re yelling your lungs out into their ears. Apart from them actually being deaf, the only other reason I can come up with is that they are selfish to the extent that just sharing a little bit of their knowledge with you would result in disaster world-wide. They are so insecure about their intelligence and are so terrified of the prospect of you achieving better results than them if they were to teach you, and thus, would take every measure to ignore you.
I feel utterly disgusted to admit that yes, I do know a wide majority of classmates who are guilty of doing just that.
I am sad to say that majority of those insecure and selfish brats are usually from a ‘typical Singaporean family’ where ‘kiasuism’ is but as normal as breathing.
It is not that I have anything against Singaporeans. Heck, I’m as pureblooded a Singaporean as anyone else. It’s only those who believe that ‘kiasuism’ is law, those who would go to the ends of the world just to ensure that they remain at the top.
These cut-throat, cold blooded creatures are what many of us live with day in and day out and it’s depressing to think that this evil would always and forever be around, especially in the working world.
If you are really as good as you think you are, shining apart from others, sharing what you know with them would not threaten your exalted position in any way. If you were truly as great as you believe, even where there are others who know the things you do, you would always be able to remain superior to them. This is because you are, as you might call yourself, the sovereign of that very subject or line of work.
Yet, there are those who would come to your aid. However, there are some of these ‘rescuers’ who would regard you condescendingly when they teach, believing that you have an intellectual capacity of a teaspoon, and would never match them in their ‘superiority’.
Still, when all seems lost, along come the last vestiges of hope, your white knight – the near extinction minority of classmates who do and always will help you in any way they are able to. Ever ready with a listening ear, a pencil and a textbook, these are the remnants of a struggling species of saviours.
My respect and gratitude these heroes would always have.
To: the Editor-in-chief
I feel really strongly about this and I would really appreciate it if you were to publish this in the next issue of the Catalyst.
I would prefer remaining anonymous.
Thank you
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Who are you Mr. Anonymous? The weirdest thing is, you made a new email account just to send this! Who are you?
Sunday, March 7, 2004
'Catch-22' by Joseph Heller
Thursday, March 4, 2004
Lets have a short update before my actual entry:
1. Got accepted into a Singapore Day of Defeat (DOD) clan. Now playing as |SB| SoulRider |*| on Day of Defeat online servers. Hit me with an email if you wanna take me on -typicaldarylgrin-
2. I failed English Compre. ! Nearly passed Malay! Got full marks for Physics! Nearly got punched in the face again! I'll just post my grades next time.. Ha
So then, I punch in the password to the newsletter's email and check to see who won the quiz I put into the last issue. Lo and behold! Someone had sent in an essay. And my God. It's good.
So my friends, Before it even appears in the school newsletter, here you have it. Complete,raw, and unedited. Props and thanks to Mr. Anonymous. Or Miss.