The Logic of Bureaucracy

We were talking about the Civil War, and the teacher mentioned Uncle Tom’s Cabin. He then noted that this was a book that everyone still heard about in school, but hardly anyone actually read. I was puzzled; if people had heard about the book and knew it was important, why hadn’t they read it? I toyed with the idea of getting my mom to drop me off at the Tyler Mall some afternoon so I could do a survey asking people if they had heard of the book and if they had read it. (I really could not imagine my teacher was right.) I think that remark is the source of the vague guilt I feel about all the books that people know about that I have not yet read.

Catch-22 is even further out on the Uncle Tom’s Cabin scale. The title is now a common phrase, but I am not sure everyone knows it is the title of a book, let alone has read the book. (Indeed, there are undoubtedly people who now think it is just the title of a series on hulu.)

The book is certainly highly praised. From the back cover: “To my mind, there have been two great American novels in the past fifty years. Catch-22 is one.” That was Stephen King. Norman Mailer called it “the rock and roll of novels,” which is presumably praise, though I have no idea what it means.

It’s a World War II story. A bomber squad on a small island in the Mediterranean. The plot? Uh… Good luck with that one. The book is episodic—42 chapters’ worth of episodes. The episodes are not in chronological order. But, that makes no real difference; the point of the book is not to watch a plot unfold. What is the point? Well, let’s take an example.

Yossarian, the closest thing to a protagonist in the book, is an American bombardier. Clevinger is another American at the base.

“They’re trying to kill me,” Yossarian told him calmly.
“No one’s trying to kill you,” Clevinger cried.
“Then why are they shooting at me?” Yossarian asked.
“They’re shooting at everyone,” Clevinger answered. “They’re trying to kill everyone.”
“And what difference does that make?”
[…]
“Who’s they?” He [Clevinger] wanted to know. “Who, specifically, do you think is trying to murder you?”
“Every one of them,” Yossarian told him.
“Every one of whom?”
“Every one of whom do you think?”
“I haven’t any idea.”
“Then how do you know they aren’t?”
“Because…” Clevinger sputtered, and turned speechless with frustration.
Clevinger really thought he was right, but Yossarian had proof, because strangers he didn’t know shot at him with cannons every time he flew up into the air to drop bombs on them, and it wasn’t funny at all.

Multiply that over 500 pages and you have Catch-22. That is not really an exaggeration. It is easy to imagine a 50 page version of Catch-22 which would convey the entire message of the book. It really wouldn’t matter which 50 pages you excerpted. So, another way to think about Catch-22 is that it is ten nearly identical 50 page novels strung together.

It’s a rather funny novel, but it is the same joke over and over and over and over. The same stylistic tricks (“The Texan turned out to be good-natured, generous and likable. In three days no one could stand him.”). The same basic punchline. Reading the book from beginning to end is thus a bit of a chore. Is it worth it? If you had asked me that question two weeks ago, I would have said, “No. Just pick a few chapters and enjoy.” But, after discussing the book at a conference I was just at, I realized that answer was wrong. It is, indeed a book you should read.

Why the change of mind? Over the course of a couple of days, talking about the book (and other books) with a dozen people, assorted episodes from the book were brought up on a regular basis. What fascinated me was that the same episode was never brought up twice. While reading through the book it seemed like the same joke over and over, when people would bring up a particular episode, it was always obvious that the episode brought up was indeed the perfect one to illustrate a particular idea. Instead of being exactly the same joke over and over, it is a set of slight variations of the same joke, and the variation is important. Catch-22 is really a thesaurus; you use it to find the equivalent of the mot juste, the perfect word.

What is the general theme? Bureaucracies are crazy. Once you enter the world of the bureaucracy, nothing makes sense anymore. It is a bewildering array of incoherent and internally contradictory rules and action. Bureaucracies are full of bureaucrats, people who are using the vast bureaucracy to attain smaller, individual goals which may or may not aid the larger goals the bureaucracy is supposed to be working toward.

In other words, Catch-22 has an obvious sequel: Dilbert. It’s the same thing. Dilbert also endlessly mocks the bureaucracy by repeating the same basic joke over and over. Imagine reading straight through 500 pages of Dilbert cartoons, and you have the same basic experience as reading  Catch-22. The difference is Dilbert is doled out one strip at a time. I suspect if you read one chapter at a time of Catch-22 spread out over 42 weeks, you’d get exactly the same joy from it that you get from reading Dilbert. (You do enjoy reading Dilbert, right?)

So, if you would like to join me is the Sisyphean quest to read all the books you have heard about, I am happy to recommend Catch-22 as a good place to start.