A Reflection on Satire

I have read as far as chapter six of this strange book.

The story begins in a hospital ward for American soldiers during World War II. Slowly, we begin to learn that every single soldier in the hospital is only staying there to avoid the war. Though the story is clearly meant to be satirical (which it most definitely is) I can’t decide if this concept is actually sad. Are they saying the war is so horrible these men go as far as to fake an illness just to escape it? I started to think again about the things I had learned about satire this summer. Then I remembered the most important aspect of satire: the writer takes on a very serious tone when writing, therefore saving the humor only for a very smart, mature audience. I like to think of myself as a mature audience, which means I am under obligation to read this book from a satirical point of view.

After coming to this conclusion (and feeling very happy with the outcome of it) I came across something very interesting. The winter play this year is a very serious drama about women who went to work as nurses in Vietnam during the war and their experiences. The men, for their auditions, have to choose a piece of literary work that speaks to them about the difficulties of war and perform it. One book title on the list of suggestions caught my eye. It was, of course, Joseph Heller’s Catch-22!

Wait a minute. Slow down. Didn’t I just come to the conclusion that any mature audience would realize this book was meant to be funny, not dramatic? Could these directors really not realize it? Have they fallen into that dangerous trap of satire by interpreting this work as serious instead of humorous? I find it very hard to believe the directors are an immature audience. Of course, this would mean they were correctly interpreting the book when they said it was a serious description of war. Which would mean I was back to where I started.

Oh well, at least I’m enjoying the book.