Word: daneeka
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Joseph Heller gets more miles per novel than any other American-made author. Consider the phenomenal efficiency of Catch-22, a book that continues to run on one joke. It is the old switcheroo, best expressed by Doc Daneeka when he tells Yossarian "that a concern for one's own 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...
Eighteen years and one angst-guzzler later (Something Happened), Heller re-styles old reliable. Daneeka's catch-22 is now Potomac newspeak and the Doc himself is reincarnated as Ralph Newsome, a presidential aide who attempts to lure Bruce Gold, Ph.D., into Government service. Gold, a college professor, has caught the President's eye by favorably reviewing the Chief Executive's book, My Year in the White House, You can do and say anything you want, says Newsome, "as long as it's everything we tell you to say and do in support of our policies...
...face. He begs Doc Daneeka (Jack Gilford) to ground him as being insane with fear. But the flight surgeon dutifully recites the Air Force manual's imaginary Catch No. 22: Naturally, anyone who wants to get out of combat isn't really crazy. So supernaturally, anyone who says he is too crazy to keep flying is too sane to stop. On such circular reasoning rests the plot, the dialogue, and indeed the film's essence...
Wozzeck, Good Soldier Schweik and Private Hargrove. Bone-tired from flying endless missions (the required number is always raised every time he becomes eligible for Stateside shipment by the evil Colonel Cathcart, who wants to be a general), Yossarian decides one day to go crazy. Doc Daneeka, the flight surgeon, agrees that he has to ground anyone who's crazy; all one has to do is ask. "And then you can ground him?'' Yossarian inquires. "No. Then I can't ground him." "You mean there's a catch?" "Sure there's a catch...
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