Was the novel from Joseph Heller “Catch-22” the book that really made this phrase famous?
Heller created the phrase for the book. There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. 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. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle. “That’s some catch, that Catch-22,” Yossarian observed. “It’s the best there is,” Doc Daneeka agreed. From Wikipedia: “A magazine excerpt from the novel was originally published as Catch-18, but Heller’s publisher, Candida Donadio, requested that it change the title of the novel so it would not be confus
In fact, it was originally going to be “Catch-18”, but another book was using the number 18 in its title and Heller didn’t want to be thought derivative. Heller had just made the expression up, so changing the number was easy. The fact that it’s a number at all is a joke by itself. It implies the existence of a set of other “catches” in the massive, entrenched system the characters find themselves in, so many and so well codified that they need numbers. Even if you somehow found a way out of catch-22, the implication is that you’d find yourself stuck in, say, catch 9-3/4. (Which would, itself, be a form of catch-22).
Heller created the phrase for the book. There was only one catch and that was Catch-22, which specified that a concern for one’s safety in the face of dangers that were real and immediate was the process of a rational mind. Orr was crazy and could be grounded. All he had to do was ask; and as soon as he did, he would no longer be crazy and would have to fly more missions. 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. Yossarian was moved very deeply by the absolute simplicity of this clause of Catch-22 and let out a respectful whistle. “That’s some catch, that Catch-22,” Yossarian observed. “It’s the best there is,” Doc Daneeka agreed. From Wikipedia: “A magazine excerpt from the novel was originally published as Catch-18, but Heller’s publisher, Candida Donadio, requested that it change the title of the novel so it would not be confus