Caught 22
March 17, 2024 10:27 PM Subscribe
worthy of emphasis:
Heller gave writers permission to be irreverent about the most serious stuff — the stuff of life and death. The Czech novelist Milan Kundera, who went into exile in France after satirizing his country’s Communist regime, told Philip Roth: “I could always recognize a person who was not a Stalinist, a person whom I needn’t fear, by the way he smiled. A sense of humor was a trustworthy sign of recognition. Ever since, I have been terrified by a world that is losing its sense of humor.”
posted by philip-random at 10:52 PM on March 17 [16 favorites]
Heller gave writers permission to be irreverent about the most serious stuff — the stuff of life and death. The Czech novelist Milan Kundera, who went into exile in France after satirizing his country’s Communist regime, told Philip Roth: “I could always recognize a person who was not a Stalinist, a person whom I needn’t fear, by the way he smiled. A sense of humor was a trustworthy sign of recognition. Ever since, I have been terrified by a world that is losing its sense of humor.”
posted by philip-random at 10:52 PM on March 17 [16 favorites]
I flagged myself for redundancy.
Oddly Phillip, Philip Caputo cropped up when the Catch 22 edged back in. I don't know why until Kundera qoate, spot on, the line between humour and laughter, comedy sprouts via trajedy, age old, so vital. While not a novel, The laughter in A Rumor of War robotistic nature serves as a survival mechanism at best. Caputo is a good example to the novel cuz you can't make this shit up but if so would hardly be novel. more a literarie confection. Though, The Short Timers brought to film by Kubrick... always ask myself about that film how many times did I laugh and why.
CW. war.
posted by clavdivs at 11:58 PM on March 17 [3 favorites]
Oddly Phillip, Philip Caputo cropped up when the Catch 22 edged back in. I don't know why until Kundera qoate, spot on, the line between humour and laughter, comedy sprouts via trajedy, age old, so vital. While not a novel, The laughter in A Rumor of War robotistic nature serves as a survival mechanism at best. Caputo is a good example to the novel cuz you can't make this shit up but if so would hardly be novel. more a literarie confection. Though, The Short Timers brought to film by Kubrick... always ask myself about that film how many times did I laugh and why.
CW. war.
"told them what they were to do, but, in my addled state of mind, I was almost incoherent at times. I laughed frequently and made several bloodthirsty jokes that probably left them with the impression I wouldn’t mind if they summarily executed both Viet Cong. All the time, I had that feeling of watching myself in a film. I could hear myself laughing, but it did not sound like my laugh.
“Okay, you know what to do,” I said to Allen, the patrol leader. “You set in ambush for a while. If nobody comes by, you go into the ville and you get them. You get those goddamned VC. Snatch ‘em up and bring ‘em back here, but if they give you any problems, kill ‘em.”
“Sir, since we ain’t supposed to be in the ville, what do we say if we have to kill ‘em?”
“We’ll just say they walked into your ambush. Don’t sweat that. All the higher-ups want is bodies.”
“Yes, sir,” Allen said, and I saw the look in his eyes. It was a look of distilled hatred and anger, and when he grinned his skull-like grin, I knew he was going to kill those men on the slightest pretext. And, knowing that, I still did not repeat my order that the VC were to be captured if at all possible. It was my secret and savage desire that the two men die. In my heart, I hoped Allen would find some excuse for killing them, and Allen had read my heart. He smiled and I smiled back, and we both knew in that moment what was going to happen. There was a silent communication between us, an unspoken understanding: blood was to be shed."
“Okay, you know what to do,” I said to Allen, the patrol leader. “You set in ambush for a while. If nobody comes by, you go into the ville and you get them. You get those goddamned VC. Snatch ‘em up and bring ‘em back here, but if they give you any problems, kill ‘em.”
“Sir, since we ain’t supposed to be in the ville, what do we say if we have to kill ‘em?”
“We’ll just say they walked into your ambush. Don’t sweat that. All the higher-ups want is bodies.”
“Yes, sir,” Allen said, and I saw the look in his eyes. It was a look of distilled hatred and anger, and when he grinned his skull-like grin, I knew he was going to kill those men on the slightest pretext. And, knowing that, I still did not repeat my order that the VC were to be captured if at all possible. It was my secret and savage desire that the two men die. In my heart, I hoped Allen would find some excuse for killing them, and Allen had read my heart. He smiled and I smiled back, and we both knew in that moment what was going to happen. There was a silent communication between us, an unspoken understanding: blood was to be shed."
posted by clavdivs at 11:58 PM on March 17 [3 favorites]
American Psycho is a brave choice for the NYT; but clearly this list's humor tends to the dark, if not black, variety.
posted by chavenet at 2:31 AM on March 18
posted by chavenet at 2:31 AM on March 18
Very lit'ry. Genre clearly doesn't exist here, or Terry Pratchett would be three or four list entries.
posted by humbug at 5:35 AM on March 18 [12 favorites]
posted by humbug at 5:35 AM on March 18 [12 favorites]
Fun list - would have added a Thomas McGuane, a Richard Russo and my semi-annual go-to, A Confederacy of Dunces.
posted by thecincinnatikid at 5:57 AM on March 18 [4 favorites]
posted by thecincinnatikid at 5:57 AM on March 18 [4 favorites]
Confederacy is a glaring omission, as was pointed out by many commenters on the original article.
posted by crazy_yeti at 6:08 AM on March 18 [8 favorites]
posted by crazy_yeti at 6:08 AM on March 18 [8 favorites]
Heller gave writers permission to be irreverent about the most serious stuff
Jaroslav Hašek did so thirty years earlier with The Good Soldier Švejk. (Since we're being lit'ry and all.)
Seconding swapping out (fill in the blank) for A Confederacy of Dunces. And I'd back humbug by noting that Pratchett wasn't just comoedia gratia comoediae.
Since we're being lit'ry and all.
posted by BWA at 6:16 AM on March 18 [7 favorites]
Jaroslav Hašek did so thirty years earlier with The Good Soldier Švejk. (Since we're being lit'ry and all.)
Seconding swapping out (fill in the blank) for A Confederacy of Dunces. And I'd back humbug by noting that Pratchett wasn't just comoedia gratia comoediae.
Since we're being lit'ry and all.
posted by BWA at 6:16 AM on March 18 [7 favorites]
No “Bonfire of the Vanities”?
posted by kerf at 7:43 AM on March 18 [2 favorites]
posted by kerf at 7:43 AM on March 18 [2 favorites]
Leaving out genre fiction makes it weird, because SF/F and mysteries are how a lot of writers have done social commentary for the past 75 years or so. Pratchett for sure should be on the list, but also I’d argue for Douglas Adams. I’m not even that big a fan, but Hitchhiker’s Guide has to be one of the most widely read and influential comic novels since the 60s.
I’d also argue for something from Chester Himes’ Harlem Detectives series, maybe Cotton Comes to Harlem, but you could make the case for a lot of hardboiled detective fiction.
posted by smelendez at 7:52 AM on March 18 [10 favorites]
I’d also argue for something from Chester Himes’ Harlem Detectives series, maybe Cotton Comes to Harlem, but you could make the case for a lot of hardboiled detective fiction.
posted by smelendez at 7:52 AM on March 18 [10 favorites]
Needs some Jasper Fforde; might as well start with his first novel "The Eyre Affair".
posted by DanSachs at 7:58 AM on March 18 [2 favorites]
posted by DanSachs at 7:58 AM on March 18 [2 favorites]
This list doesn't really work for me. So here are five books that I thought were very funny that perhaps not everyone on MeFi has already read, by which I mean no Hitchhiker's or Pratchett:
Three Men in a Boat, Jerome K. Jerome. Three upper class English twits got boating down the Thames. One of those rare books where the narrator is so stupefyingly and unrelentingly dumb, without ever breaking character, that you are convinced the author is an absolute genius.
The Thurb Revolution, Alexei Panshin. Wandering (and insolvent) nobleman Anthony Villiers and his alien friend Torve the Trog fall in with a group of artists. Censors are annoyed. Also, there's an assassin running around.
Sourdough, Robin Sloan. Lois, a computer programmer who lives on an off-brand Soylent, inherits a very odd sourdough starter. She begins baking bread. There are robotic arms that don't know how to beat eggs, the Lois Club, and a section narrated by a fungus.
TIk-Tok, John Sladek. All robots have Asimov circuits that prevent them from harming human beings. A robot finds that his are malfunctioning. Soon after that he finds that he really, really likes hurting people.
Thus Was Adonis Murdered, Sarah Cauldwell. Okay, I haven't actually finished this--I just started it yesterday so there's some recency bias that puts it on the list--but I am guffawing. Murder mystery involving broke barristers, an Inland Revenue audit, and a scholar of unparalleled brilliance and deductive power.
posted by mark k at 8:38 AM on March 18 [14 favorites]
Three Men in a Boat, Jerome K. Jerome. Three upper class English twits got boating down the Thames. One of those rare books where the narrator is so stupefyingly and unrelentingly dumb, without ever breaking character, that you are convinced the author is an absolute genius.
The Thurb Revolution, Alexei Panshin. Wandering (and insolvent) nobleman Anthony Villiers and his alien friend Torve the Trog fall in with a group of artists. Censors are annoyed. Also, there's an assassin running around.
Sourdough, Robin Sloan. Lois, a computer programmer who lives on an off-brand Soylent, inherits a very odd sourdough starter. She begins baking bread. There are robotic arms that don't know how to beat eggs, the Lois Club, and a section narrated by a fungus.
TIk-Tok, John Sladek. All robots have Asimov circuits that prevent them from harming human beings. A robot finds that his are malfunctioning. Soon after that he finds that he really, really likes hurting people.
Thus Was Adonis Murdered, Sarah Cauldwell. Okay, I haven't actually finished this--I just started it yesterday so there's some recency bias that puts it on the list--but I am guffawing. Murder mystery involving broke barristers, an Inland Revenue audit, and a scholar of unparalleled brilliance and deductive power.
posted by mark k at 8:38 AM on March 18 [14 favorites]
Though, The Short Timers brought to film by Kubrick... always ask myself about that film how many times did I laugh and why.
aka Full Metal Jacket -- I must have seen it at least three times and no, don't recall much (if any) in the way of laughter. Maybe a bit in the first part, at the sheer overwhelming intensity of the drill sergeant.
posted by philip-random at 9:06 AM on March 18
aka Full Metal Jacket -- I must have seen it at least three times and no, don't recall much (if any) in the way of laughter. Maybe a bit in the first part, at the sheer overwhelming intensity of the drill sergeant.
posted by philip-random at 9:06 AM on March 18
Pratchett for sure should be on the list, but also I’d argue for Douglas Adams. I’m not even that big a fan, but Hitchhiker’s Guide has to be one of the most widely read and influential comic novels since the 60s.
From the article's intro:
Here, you will not find books stuffed with jokes. For the most part, our picks will not induce knee slapping.
Pratchett and Adams are both guilty of being knee slappingly funny (or they certainly were in their time -- it's been a while since I've read either). So yeah, 22 Funniest Novels is rather not a good title for the list, as given this this ground rule, one immediately wonders what their definition of "funny" is, or perhaps "novel". Definitely some highbrow lit'racy in play.
I'm thinking the word they wanted (and maybe an editor told them no) is satire. Which, by definition (mine anyway), imposes a seriousness of purpose beyond (and above) just tickling funny bones. Or as the wiki puts it: "Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society."
Though that said, fourteen year old me laughed himself into the pain realm on first reading of Catch-22. But it also changed me, I think. Whatever notions I may have had toward war being anything but a profound clusterfuck of failed humanity -- they didn't survive. But then, I'd argue that watching Monty Python stuff at pretty much the same age did the same thing to my overall sense of everything/anything that involved rules, regulations, authority, and the humans that took it upon themselves to impose them.
Bottom line: it's a list which has given me a few titles to look out for as cruise the local used book stores. So that's good.
posted by philip-random at 9:31 AM on March 18 [7 favorites]
From the article's intro:
Here, you will not find books stuffed with jokes. For the most part, our picks will not induce knee slapping.
Pratchett and Adams are both guilty of being knee slappingly funny (or they certainly were in their time -- it's been a while since I've read either). So yeah, 22 Funniest Novels is rather not a good title for the list, as given this this ground rule, one immediately wonders what their definition of "funny" is, or perhaps "novel". Definitely some highbrow lit'racy in play.
I'm thinking the word they wanted (and maybe an editor told them no) is satire. Which, by definition (mine anyway), imposes a seriousness of purpose beyond (and above) just tickling funny bones. Or as the wiki puts it: "Although satire is usually meant to be humorous, its greater purpose is often constructive social criticism, using wit to draw attention to both particular and wider issues in society."
Though that said, fourteen year old me laughed himself into the pain realm on first reading of Catch-22. But it also changed me, I think. Whatever notions I may have had toward war being anything but a profound clusterfuck of failed humanity -- they didn't survive. But then, I'd argue that watching Monty Python stuff at pretty much the same age did the same thing to my overall sense of everything/anything that involved rules, regulations, authority, and the humans that took it upon themselves to impose them.
Bottom line: it's a list which has given me a few titles to look out for as cruise the local used book stores. So that's good.
posted by philip-random at 9:31 AM on March 18 [7 favorites]
Sarah Caudwell's books are wonderfully funny.
posted by Gadarene at 9:38 AM on March 18 [3 favorites]
posted by Gadarene at 9:38 AM on March 18 [3 favorites]
M*A*S*H, Richard Hooker, was the book I kept going back to for what seems to be this kind of humour. I feel it's important to mention it even if it's not on the list, what with it's huge legacy and all.
posted by seanmpuckett at 10:07 AM on March 18 [4 favorites]
posted by seanmpuckett at 10:07 AM on March 18 [4 favorites]
I really wish the NYT would stop trying to make Junot Diaz happen.
posted by pxe2000 at 11:14 AM on March 18 [8 favorites]
posted by pxe2000 at 11:14 AM on March 18 [8 favorites]
I'm annoyed by the number of books I left off my list of five so going to bring it up to an even ten. Not pretending it's a ten best list. And P.G. Wodehouse isn't here on the you've-all-already-read-him rule, not that I could remember the difference between "Right Ho, Jeeves" or "Carry On, Jeeves" or "Thank You, Jeeves" anyway.
Puddn'head Wilson, Mark Twain. The opposite of Three Men, in that here the narrator is so much smarter than everyone that no one gets his jokes and he gets the nickname Puddinghead. A wry opening anecdote starts off a story of murder, forensic science, and the evils of slavery.
The Phoenix Guard, Stephen Brust. I picked this Three Musketeers homage up almost randomly--I hadn't read any Brust before--and during the first chapter I thought "This idiot doesn't realize Dumas is already funny without needing to add in more jokes." The joke was on me; Brust knew exactly how funny Dumas was, both the intentionally funny and the unintentionally funny parts, and ups the ante in both cases.
Let Your Mind Alone!, James Thurber. Early self help books are read, friends are not won, people are not influenced. Indeed, overall they are found to be somewhat lacking in efficacy. If Books Could Kill, the 1920s edition.
The Spellman Files, Lisa Lutz. Private detectives in San Francisco; the narrator works for her parents at the family agency. She is not, perhaps, the most mature or professional of detectives but neither are they.
Nine Goblins, T. Kingfisher. A squad of goblin misfits ends up behind enemy lines. All goblins are misfits, of course, but this squad has (for example) an engineer who is demoted because he hasn't killed himself in a horrible accident yet. You know that's a sign of incompetence: if a goblin engineer can't even hurt themselves, how could they possibly be dangerous to the enemy?
posted by mark k at 11:18 AM on March 18 [6 favorites]
Puddn'head Wilson, Mark Twain. The opposite of Three Men, in that here the narrator is so much smarter than everyone that no one gets his jokes and he gets the nickname Puddinghead. A wry opening anecdote starts off a story of murder, forensic science, and the evils of slavery.
The Phoenix Guard, Stephen Brust. I picked this Three Musketeers homage up almost randomly--I hadn't read any Brust before--and during the first chapter I thought "This idiot doesn't realize Dumas is already funny without needing to add in more jokes." The joke was on me; Brust knew exactly how funny Dumas was, both the intentionally funny and the unintentionally funny parts, and ups the ante in both cases.
Let Your Mind Alone!, James Thurber. Early self help books are read, friends are not won, people are not influenced. Indeed, overall they are found to be somewhat lacking in efficacy. If Books Could Kill, the 1920s edition.
The Spellman Files, Lisa Lutz. Private detectives in San Francisco; the narrator works for her parents at the family agency. She is not, perhaps, the most mature or professional of detectives but neither are they.
Nine Goblins, T. Kingfisher. A squad of goblin misfits ends up behind enemy lines. All goblins are misfits, of course, but this squad has (for example) an engineer who is demoted because he hasn't killed himself in a horrible accident yet. You know that's a sign of incompetence: if a goblin engineer can't even hurt themselves, how could they possibly be dangerous to the enemy?
posted by mark k at 11:18 AM on March 18 [6 favorites]
Pleased to see The Sellout on here, a book that's not just good satire but often genuinely funny (though not necessarily in a Prachettian mold).
posted by Jeanne at 11:40 AM on March 18 [2 favorites]
posted by Jeanne at 11:40 AM on March 18 [2 favorites]
I’d also argue for something from Chester Himes’ Harlem Detectives series, maybe Cotton Comes to Harlem, but you could make the case for a lot of hardboiled detective fiction.
Not a lot of social messaging, but for sheer comic crime entertainment, get thee to Donald Westlake
(All post 1961, as stipulated by the article.)
posted by BWA at 12:14 PM on March 18 [7 favorites]
Not a lot of social messaging, but for sheer comic crime entertainment, get thee to Donald Westlake
(All post 1961, as stipulated by the article.)
posted by BWA at 12:14 PM on March 18 [7 favorites]
I just read Nick Harkaway's new (2023) novel "Titanium Noir" and it's the funniest novel I've read in years.
posted by neuron at 12:52 PM on March 18 [3 favorites]
posted by neuron at 12:52 PM on March 18 [3 favorites]
Adding a vote for Pratchett - probably Small Gods although there's so many to choose from - but also definitely downvoting the proposed inclusion of Confederacy. I really never did get what the fuss was all about with that at all.
posted by onebuttonmonkey at 2:58 PM on March 18 [3 favorites]
posted by onebuttonmonkey at 2:58 PM on March 18 [3 favorites]
New Nick Harkaway? Excellent!
posted by doctornemo at 4:27 PM on March 18
posted by doctornemo at 4:27 PM on March 18
Genre humor... from sf, we'd be remiss to lack:
-the very great Stanislaw Lem
-Phil Dick
-Robert Sheckley
posted by doctornemo at 4:28 PM on March 18 [2 favorites]
-the very great Stanislaw Lem
-Phil Dick
-Robert Sheckley
posted by doctornemo at 4:28 PM on March 18 [2 favorites]
I seem to recall hurting myself reading How Much for Just the Planet by John M Ford.
posted by seanmpuckett at 6:57 PM on March 18 [2 favorites]
posted by seanmpuckett at 6:57 PM on March 18 [2 favorites]
M*A*S*H, Richard Hooker, was the book I kept going back to for what seems to be this kind of humour. I feel it's important to mention it even if it's not on the list, what with it's huge legacy and all.
Definitely the book was both funny and satirical, as was the TV series. But both were slightly ruined for me by watching the original movie which, while satirical and very darkly funny, just felt mean, particularly in the treatment of Houlihan by Hawkeye and Trapper. That probably made it more realistic, but it took away some of the innocence of the TV series. It's still one of my favourite series ever, though and I still get something in my eye every time I watch 'Goodbye, Farewell and Amen'.
This list (of which I've read about 1/3) seems to be more a list of books that are humorous without being funny.
posted by dg at 10:58 PM on March 18
Definitely the book was both funny and satirical, as was the TV series. But both were slightly ruined for me by watching the original movie which, while satirical and very darkly funny, just felt mean, particularly in the treatment of Houlihan by Hawkeye and Trapper. That probably made it more realistic, but it took away some of the innocence of the TV series. It's still one of my favourite series ever, though and I still get something in my eye every time I watch 'Goodbye, Farewell and Amen'.
This list (of which I've read about 1/3) seems to be more a list of books that are humorous without being funny.
posted by dg at 10:58 PM on March 18
The Good Soldier Švejk
BWA, thank you for mentioning this! What a great book.
Also, Švejk happens to be on my profile page enjoying an ice cream.
My missing hilarious book on this list is Gaddis’ JR but I don’t know if that’s a popular take.
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 1:23 AM on March 19 [2 favorites]
BWA, thank you for mentioning this! What a great book.
Also, Švejk happens to be on my profile page enjoying an ice cream.
My missing hilarious book on this list is Gaddis’ JR but I don’t know if that’s a popular take.
posted by Ice Cream Socialist at 1:23 AM on March 19 [2 favorites]
The Milagro Beanfield War, John Nichols
The Mouse That Roared, Leonard Wibberly
posted by JohnFromGR at 7:08 AM on March 19 [1 favorite]
The Mouse That Roared, Leonard Wibberly
posted by JohnFromGR at 7:08 AM on March 19 [1 favorite]
Enjoyed this post (and will be hunting down several new books today--Thank you)!
In the spirit of Take-a-penny-Leave-a-penny, I contribute:
Florence King's Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady
posted by applemeat at 9:56 AM on March 19
In the spirit of Take-a-penny-Leave-a-penny, I contribute:
Florence King's Confessions of a Failed Southern Lady
posted by applemeat at 9:56 AM on March 19
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posted by philip-random at 10:50 PM on March 17 [6 favorites]