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INTERVIEWER
What is your own feeling about Slocum [the protagonist in Something Happened]?
HELLER
I told several people while I was writing the book that Slocum was possibly the most contemptible character in literature. Before I was finished, I began feeling sorry for him. That has happened to me before. That’s why there are two generals in Catch-22. General Dreedle certainly had bad qualities, but then there were certain characteristics I liked (he was straightforward, honest, not a conniver), and I found I didn’t want to attribute certain unsympathetic qualities to him. So I invented General Peckem as a sort of substitute scapegoat. Very hard to like him. But as for Slocum, many of my friends to whom I showed the book found not only compassion for him but strong identification. That surprised me, but I suppose it shouldn’t have. He is very human.
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| Related Links |
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| Authors Mentioned |
| Norman Mailer, Henry James, Herbert Marcuse, Friedrich Nietzsche |
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