North Korea! Front page today. Tomorrow? Or by the time you read this? Who knows? But I mention it because I served 13 months in the closest camp of significance to the DMZ where we all knew we were mere cannon fodder (or, at best, speed bumps) if they ever decided to invade again. At the same time, Catch-22 was the hottest book out there. I mentioned it because some guys could quote lines from it the way they normally would’ve from the movies: “Gimme eat…Give’m all eat!” Major De Coverly. And names like Yossarion, Milo Minderbinder, Major Major, Scheisskopf, etc., were household names.
Now, of course, we all knew it wasn’t really a story about World War II, but rather Vietnam, even though it was published in 1961 prior to Vietnam (Prophetic? Mere coincidence? Trend following? – a forerunner of the national mood on war?). Because right after that came the novel Mash, then the movie, and finally, the TV series. All of which paralleled protests and protest songs, which, if anything, caused the demise of the Vietnam cause more than anything – THEN the movies, the books, and finally the soldiers themselves, who, by the scores, were burning their uniforms in the most iconic high profile places of national significance – e.g., the front door of the Pentagon (first done by a boy I went to high school with).
While our hero’s service record is a minor footnote in a much larger epic, it can’t be ignored either since the “greatest generation” were just civilians, too – and that’s what made them heroes. They didn’t want to be there any more than our hero. The only difference is one war we all believed in. You other we didn’t.
And what does all this have to do with Confessions?
Simple.
By the end of the book – page 666 – his world vision and vision of “end times conflicts” is set in stone – if not yet, his paintings. And that’s the whole point. While one person’s certainty is not based on the significant, another person’s uncertainty is. Which one is he? What is he now? (see pages 1- 666) And why?