Thursday, December 11, 2014

My favorite sentence in Catch 22

I have been told that it's no good to write long sentences. Given my command or lack of command in the English language, it's for my benefit to shy away from long sentences for fear of grammatical and syntactical errors.

I have to say though that, despite the ineffable agony it took for me to plow through the book while cursing Mr. Heller away for using too many words, I was immensely amused by the sentence in italics even though it was three o'clock in the morning during a time when I was still climbing out of the bottom of my damn depression.

"... Pandemonium broke loose. It took almost a full minute for Appleby to disentangle himself from Orr's flailing arms and legs and grope his way to his feet, with Orr held off the ground before him by the shirt front in one hand and his other arm drawn back in a fist to smite him dead, and at that moment Yossarian stepped forward and took Orr away from him. It was a night of surprises for Appleby, who was as large as Yossarian and as strong and who swung at Yossarian as hard as he could with a punch that flooded Chief White Halfoat with such joyous excitement that he turned and busted Colonel Moodus in the nose with a punch that filled General Dreedle with such mellow gratification that he had Colonel Cathcart throw the chaplain out of the officers' club and ordered Chief White Halfoat moved into Doc Daneeka's tent, where he could be under a doctor's care twenty-four hours a day and be kept in good enough physical condition to bust Colonel Moodus in the nose again whenever General Dreedle wanted him to."

About 30 something supposedly the most humorous and funniest books later, it's time for me to reflect on what good these books are for me.

One thing for sure, I don't have what it takes to construct a sentence, albeit long, hilarious as such (and, of course, many other more lol)!