polite and honourable and following allthe Christian virtues (p. 83). The effect of his experiences in the military was to lead him to sign the name Washington Irving on all censored letters, thus evoking aninvestigation by the CID which continues throughout the novel and finally lands on an innocent and incompetent chaplain, who is as undeserving of persecution as themajor. Nevertheless, he is interrogated and found guilty in a chapter reminiscent of Kafka's The Trial (ch. 36). Major Major also evolved the perfect strategy ofcommand. He instructed his orderly that all visitors should be told that he is in when he was out and out when he was in. This approach almost always obviatedadministrative worries.A commander who would not command was complemented by a doctor who responded to all patients' complaints by telling them his troubles. Everyone who cameto Doc Daneeka's dispensary was dealt with by his orderlies, Gus and Wes, who painted their gums purple with gentian violet. Doc Daneeka was a decent manwhose rise to financial security had been cruelly destroyed when he was drafted, and he never tired of complaining about his financial losses. He drew extra flight payby getting himself signed onto the records when ever McWatt flew, but this killed him when McWatt flew into mountainside for a reason I'll mention anon, and theinexorable paperwork declared him dead and it was just too complicated to unscramble, not to mention too profitable for his wife. So he became an un-person, oneof a number who lived in the woods near the base and did not officially exist.This theme of bureaucracy being more real than flesh and blood could have its compensations, as happened when the book's hero, Yossarian, moved the line on themap which showed the forward point of the allied troops so as to make it unsafe to bomb Bologna, a notorious death trap because of flak. It took a long time for thehigher-ups to figure out that they were suffering from the falla...
