This may be true It has been well documented that the original title was not meant to be Catch 22 but that a different number was to be used Heller first published part of the book as a short story named Catch 18 New World Writing 1955 When the book was about to come out in 1961 somebody pointed out that it may lead to confusion with the book by Leon Uris this is often referred to Other suggestions for the number were 11 14 and 17 maybe even more Heller wanted a repetitive double digit so settled for 22 in the book things are often repeated duplicity and repetition is a common theme for the insanity of the world i e Major Major who is to become Major Major Major Major a commanding officer who did not like to command 22 is 2 duplicity repeated duplicity again There are those who suggest that the fact that the book is called Catch 22 was used by Heller to implicitly suggest that there would be a sequel which appeared as Closing Time which was first published in 1994 33 years later Catch 22 does not exist But is now a commonly used expression for senseless rules or rules which contain a circular argument