#McWatt catch 22

[biggusdichuss]

Circa 1944, Pianosa

[vonlipvig]

catch 22 is really like: the silliest thing you've ever read. gruesome, traumatic, avoidable death. the silliest thing you've ever read.

[cctinsleybaxter]

Kind of want the milo hawking crystals timeline because i feel like pianosa is easily divisible into tiers of Crystal Believers, but that'd be the 70s not the 40s

[hyperbolicfixations]

[unsafecove]

i like knowing i created the major major x mcwatt ship

[audiemurphy1945]

Aarfy would puff reflectively on his pipe throughout the whole chaotic clash, gazing with unruffled curiosity at the war through McWatt's window as though it were a remote disturbance that could not affect him.

- Joseph Heller, Catch-22, 1961

[archerygun]

What annoyed me most about Star Wars Rebels was that there were so many good elements that tbh seemed specifically tailored to appeal to my tastes but then they took all that potential and pissed on it.

But hey, without Star Wars Rebels making me mad and form a slight obsession with how it could be rewritten/improved, we would not have God’s Worst Mistake™️ and by that I mean this poor sod:

His name is Erick Cartel, he is pure condensed bastard energy and the universe refuses to give him a break. I rewrote Rebels so many times that it evolved into a whole separate project that I ended up doing with a few friends, completely unrelated to Rebels in any way. Like this guy was a cross between all my rewritten Ezras and a shitty Biggs Darklighter AU I’d done. Nowadays he’s more of a glorious cross between Rincewind from Discworld, Han Solo and an unholy fusion of McWatt and Yossarian from Catch-22.

He is about as force sensitive as a brick but someone accidentally brought it up to him, then someone else started training him to try and resolve their own trauma and now he’s banned from casinos for life and also wanted by multiple entities in the middle of a mid-life crisis.

The only reason this guy isn’t straight up dead is because he accidentally befriended the people who are being sent to kill him before they were part of organisations that wanted to kill him. He is the dictionary definition of walking disaster and I love him.

[meteorologears]

Milo Minderbinder is Aromantic--A Meta into Milo & Interpersonal Relationships

Happy early milo Monday, the only appropriate day to write this up.

So in Catch-22 I think it's obviously very interesting the way Heller talks about Milo, especially since he's the anthropomorphic version of capitalism--so everything he does has to play through that lens. He obviously has a series of important relationships which define his interpersonal relationships (Yossarian, Ex-P.F.C. Wintergreen... Major Major) through Catch-22 (and--what the hell--Closing Time) but unlike many characters like Yossarian who have 'love' mentioned among their prominent goals, even in Milo-omniscient points of view, there's an absence of his describing anyone like that. (More under the read more...)

Milo is willing to help people, but only if he sees it as personal benefit for himself. He provides 1/4 of McWatt's bedsheet to Yossarian, with his main cause proving to Yossarian that his syndicate is a good idea, and he ought to be given more fruit. He brings Major Major lobsters and food, but only because:

...Milo was by nature opposed to any innovation that threatened to disrupt the normal course of affairs.

Again, this is Milo's interpersonal relationships existing as his way to maintain a status quo or benefit himself in some manner--which, of course, makes sense for someone who's supposed to be capitalism personified. The entire chapter of 'Milo the Mayor' consists of Milo constantly short-sheeting Orr and Yossarian, though despite considering Yossarian someone he "[likes]" and someone who's "trustworthy", Milo never describes Yossarian in the way Yossarian describes half the people on Pianosa and also Luciana--or even the way you hear the chaplain describing people. Even though Milo canonically has sex, we never see him have any romantic interest in the other characters OR his wife (this pervades, actually).

You also get this gem, which has Milo in the spring--which, notabaly, is following a list of things that would probably have alternate effects on the soldiers.

April was spring, and in the spring Milo Minderbinder's fancy had lightly turned to thoughts of tangerines.

Milo is thinking of tangerines. Milo additionally does not care whether or not people think he's a jerk (mentioned in chapter 24), regardless of who these people are--as long as they keep using his syndicate. Everything centers around the syndicate, which makes logical sense. Even his relationship with Yossarian is defined by how he sees Yossarian to be a benefit to the syndicate, eventually leading to his abandoning Yossarian in Rome. Additionally, it's from Milo's point of view that Yossarian naked in the tree is seen. Here's Milo's reaction to this:

Milo studied Yossarian diffidently through the corner of his eye, hesitating tactfully. 'I want to ask you something,' he said at last. 'You don't have any clothes on. I don't want to butt in or anything, but I just want to know. Why aren't you wearing your uniform?'

Or even this, after Yossarian leaves to find Nately's girl's kid sister:

Milo did understand and was deeply touched. 'Yossarian, I'm proud of you,' he exclaimed with profound emotion. 'I really am. You don't know how glad I am to see that everything isn't always just sex with you.

What about Milo and Wintergreen--especially whatever the hell happened in Closing Time?

Milo is a character who canonically has sex, which is evidenced by the fact that he has children under the assumption that they're actually his kids. I couldn't get into my Closing Time pdf so bear with me. Here's a little bit of what they've become by Closing Time, as they're almost always featured together in conversations:

So my best theory as to a) what Milo wanted with Yossarian, possibly and what he b) wound up getting with Wintergreen is a relationship that has zero dates and nothing romantic because it's so focused around the syndicate. On the other hand, I do think there's a sexual component to that relationship, though Milo is never the one to initiate it despite consenting--this seems like it would've been the case with Yossarian, and possibly Wintergreen as well, though there's much less Catch-22 canon about him.

At any rate, Milo at no point ever says 'love'--even when talking about his family members. He could be very sparing with it, but he also might not consider his relationships in terms of love. He considers them in terms of how well they benefit him (reason umpteen why Yossarian is his early pick--he sees that incredibly beneficial to himself). While he may care deeply about someone and do a slew of things for them, I don't believe that (from what we see in the book) this is a thing that factors into his relationships at all (ex. he does care about Wintergreen, but frames it around him being his business partner. There is no romantic part of their relationship, though it's more than platonic).

[branchingcrossroads]

Found myself thinking “’Catch-22′ is heavy listening. Maybe I’ll re-listen to ‘Blindsight’ after I’m done.” Which got me thinking, maybe part of the reason I find “Blindsight″ life-affirming is that in it, the characters act intelligently and efficiently and to the best of their ability. It’s a scary but sane world. In “Blindsight”, (most of) the threats are external, the mistakes make sense, the risks and sacrifices and tragedies seem reasonably justified. ((And isn’t that a pretty happy fantasy right there.)) In “Catch-22″, the biggest threats come from those who are “on your side”, from indifference and ineptitude and people being people and doing what people do.

The thought of taking orders from the inscrutable predator Sarasti and facing the inhuman, incomprehensible, technologically superior Rorschach may be daunting. But the thought of taking orders from Cathcart or Peckem, and facing Milo’s friendly fire and McWatt’s practical jokes and Aarfy’s cheerful “I still can’t hear you”, is soul-crushing.

[cominy-kiwami]

catch 22 is quite cool ill have to say. i think its pretty cool how theyll name a chapter McWatt then write one paragraph about him and then dedicate the chapter to Milo. The book is really playful with itself even beyond just having comedy.

but honestly? i dont know to what extent the book just acted as a blueprint for all satire since it came out, but its not especially funny. its PRETTY funny id say (in the lieutenant scheisskopf chapter when clevinger just said "W-" that killed me for whatever reason) but it isnt some kind of knee slapper.

[fingertipsmp3]

One of my favourite hobbies/coping mechanisms is projecting onto fictional characters & also figuring out who all the people I know would be if we were in that universe together

[samwise-the-shitposter]

Catch-22 (1970)

[radioprune]

I can’t read more than one chapter of this book at a time without my brain exploding!!

[cctinsleybaxter]

On a less essay-y note we need more clevinger and mcwatt content they are sooooo emma woodhouse and frank churchill-coded to me but specifically cher and christian in clueless why are they not at the mall right now

[unsafecove]

what if the j.s in mcwatt’s name is Johnny Salvador

Johnny Salvador Mcwatt

[megaclaudiolis]