In which Yossarian discovers that you can't buy your life insurance cheap if you're Morbidly Obese, because people who are Morbidly Obese are at risk of dying of their obesity (that's what the "morbid" part is about, it turns out.) And yet, if you decide that you do not want to be Morbidly Obese anymore because sunsets are beautiful and your children are adorable, you also cannot buy your life insurance cheap if you have lost too much weight in the previous six months.
One could suppose that Morbid Obesity is a sign of insanity, while movement toward Mere Obesity is a sign of sanity . . . the very thing Catch 22 is designed to punish. However, it's probably a simpler mathematical explanation at work: Morbid Obesity is one sign of impending (sweaty, wheezing) death. However, rapid weight loss is another sign of impending death, possibly from (whispering) The Cancer or very possibly (again whispering) The AIDS.
Sigh. It is to wait.
Oy vey.
ReplyDeleteIt would be a pleasure to see "Catch 22" used so aptly, were it under other circumstances. :(