Love Is a Fallacy

Max Shulman

Love Is a Fallacy

• About the author

Max Shulman (March 14, 1919–August 28, 1988) is a 20th century American writer, best known for his television and short story character Dobie Gillis, as well as for his best-selling novels.

His writing often focused on young people, particularly in a collegiate setting.

Love Is a Fallacy

• About the author He is one of America’s

best-known humorists. He is a writer of many talents---he has written novels, stories, Broadway plays, movie screenplay 电影剧本 , and television scripts 电视剧本 .

Love Is a Fallacy the story: This text is taken from The

Many Loves of Dobie Gillis(1951). Dobie Gillis, the narrator, is a typical American teenager who frequently suffers from romantic angst (worry, anxiety). The character appeared on a popular television sitcom (situation comedy) during the 1950s .

Love Is a Fallacy

• This story is an interesting and humorous story. In this story the narrator tells his failure to win the heart of a young woman with the force of logic, which proves to him that “Love is a fallacy”.

Love Is a Fallacy• The story:• There are three persons in the story : Dobie

Gillis , narrator, a freshman in a law school , the protagonist of the story; Petey Burch , his roommate whose girlfriend he plans to get; Polly Espy, the girl whom he intends to marry after suitable re-education. The narrator is quite sure of his final success because he is smarter and it is only logical that the girl will choose him. However, the result is a great surprise to him because the girl turns down his proposal and choose Petey Burch, all because of what Dobie Gillis regards as a “silly reason”, thus proving that “love is a fallacy”.

Argument• In order to understand what a fallacy is, one m

ust understand what an argument is. Very briefly, an argument consists of one or more premises and one conclusion.

• There are two main types of arguments: deductive(推论 ) and inductive(归纳 ). A deductive argument is an argument that the premises provide complete support for the conclusion. An inductive argument is an argument that the premises provide some degree of support (but less than complete support) for the conclusion.

Fallacy

• Fallacies are defects in an argument - other than false premises - which cause an argument to be invalid, unsound or weak.

• Fallacy means 1) an idea which many people believe to be true but which is in fact false because it is based on incorrect information or faulty reasoning.2) a weakness and lack of logic or good sense in an argument; Incorrectness of reasoning

• E.g. The belief that women are always weaker than men is just a fallacy.

Teaching aim

I. Learn to appreciate English stories and the development of the stories

• II. Learn to taste and appreciate the humor embedded in this story and the writing techniques

• III. Get to know some features of American colloquial and slangy expressions

Love Is a Fallacy

• Introduction• 1. Warm-up activity• What is your opinion about love? What

does love mean according to you?

Love Is a Fallacy• Introduction• 2. theme : Love is a fallacy---it is inconsistent with

logic. • The author wants to lead readers to the conclusion

that love’ is an error, a deception and an emotion that does not follow the principles of logic. But through this story, he has succeeded perhaps unwittingly in revealing what love may sometimes mean in the affluent society. Girls do not want brilliant, gifted or educated husbands, but want husbands who are rich and wealthy enough to provide all the wealthy things (big mansions, famous brand cars, etc.)

Love Is a Fallacy

• Introduction• 3. What does the name Espy mean?

Espy: to catch sight of ( esp. faults, shortcomings, etc.) , glimpse.

• the author might have deliberately chosen this name, which may allude to her amazing physical attraction.

• 4. In which place does the story reach its climax? The ending when she refuses to go steady with him.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Introduction• 5. The role of raccoon coat: It is the

reason that the girl denies the narrator’s love. It implies that love is not sth. that can be deduced. Love is not a scientific study.

• 6. Language: a lot of short sentences ; elliptical sentences ; inversion ; dashes; metaphor and simile are used ; colloquial sentences , irregular sentences, shortened forms are used (to make the story vivid)

The Title of the Text

• The title of the story “Love is a fallacy” has two meanings .

1) When “fallacy” is taken in its ordinary sense, the title means “there is a deceptive or delusive quality about love”.

2) When taken as a specific term in logic, the title means “love can not be deduced from a set of given premises”

Characters in the story

• There are three persons in the story : • Dobie Gillis , narrator, a freshman in a la

w school , the protagonist of the story ; • Petey Burch, his roommate whose girlfri

end he plans to get; • Polly Espy, the girl whom he intends to

marry after suitable re-education.

Type of writing • This text is a piece of narrative writing. The n

arrator of the story, Dobie Gillis, a freshman in a law school, is the hero or protagonist. He struggles against two antagonists: Petey Burch, his roommate whose girl friend he plans to steal; and Polly Espy, the girl he intends to marry after suitable re-education. The climax of the story is reached in paras 147-150 when Polly refuses to go steady with the narrator because she had already promised to go steady with Petey Burch. The denouement(结局 ) follows rapidly and ends on a very ironic note.

Macro-structure of the text

• Paras.1-3 prelude• Part 1 : (Paras. 4-5) The boasting of himself a

nd downgrading his roommate. • Part II: (Paras. 6-59) The whole process of his

deal with Petey. He succeeded in persuading Petey to exchange his girl for a raccoon coat

• Part III : (Paras 60-120) His dates with Polly / His re-education to Polly

• Part IV (Paras121-154) Love is not logical, but fallacy

Love Is a Fallacy• Para1 the author’s remark or attitude toward

s writing the story : spongy (not firm) and flaccid (lacking firmness/energy) and limp.

• 1.S1 Charles Lamb is the kind of merry and enterprising person you rarely encounter. He wrote the essays, Old China and Dream’s Children, which set free the informal essay. 像查尔斯 兰姆这样快乐和富有创新精神的人物并不常见，他写了《古瓷》和《梦中的孩子》两篇文章，这两篇文章可以说解放了散文。

Love Is a Fallacy

• 2.Charles Lamb(1775—1834): English essayist. He, in collaboration with his sister Mary, Published Tales from Shakespeare in 1867. His dramatic essays, Specimens of English Dramatic Poets (1808), established his reputation as a critic and did much in reviving the popularity of Elizabethen drama. Old China and Dream’s Children are from his collection the Essays of Elia(1823—1833).

Love Is a Fallacy

• 3.Why is Charles Lamb mentioned here? To make a comparison between his writing (spongy or limb or flaccid) and Lamb’s (informal)

• 4.There follows an informal essay that ventures even beyond Lamb’s frontier: Here is an informal essay which is even freer than the ones Lamb wrote.

• 5.Ls. The author is being humorous with his self-mocking tone. This essay of his, of course, is anything but “limp”, “flaccid” and “spongy”.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para2 1. Vague though its category, it is without doubt an essay: Although it is difficult to say which category it belongs to, it is undoubtedly an essay.

• 2. three elements in the essay: argument , evidence/instance , conclusion

Love Is a Fallacy• English author, is consid

ered as one of the most important social critics of his day. Carlyle’s style, called “Carlylese”, is a compound of biblical phrases, colloquialisms, Teutonic (adj. 日耳曼人的 , 日耳曼语的 )twists, and his own coinings, arranged in unexpected sequences.

• Thomas Carlyle (1795—1881)

Love Is a Fallacy

• 5.John Ruskin (1819-1900)

Love Is a Fallacy• 5.John Ruskin (1819-1900): British writer and

art critic and social theorist who considered a great painting to be one that conveys great ideas to the viewer. He put forward the principles that art was based on national and individual integrity and morality and that art was a “ universal language”. Later his art criticism became more broadly social and political. In his works he attacked bourgeois England and charged the modern art reflected the ugliness and waste of modern industry. He also advocated social reform. His works include Modern Painters (1843-1860).

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para3 那么就读读下面这篇文章吧，它将向我们展示逻辑并不是一门枯燥乏味，迂腐不堪的学科，恰恰相反，逻辑是一个活生生的事物，充满美丽 激情和心灵的创伤。

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para4 description of the author

• The author is satirizing a smug, self-conceited freshman in a law school, who keeps boasting at every opportunity. He heaps upon him all the beautiful words of praise he can think of--- This exaggerated self-praise and the profuse use of similes and metaphors help make the satire humorous.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para5 description of Peter Burch.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Paras4—5

• a comparison between the two characters Burch and narrator.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para5 • 1.Impressionable: easily influenced 易受影响的

e.g impressionable young people. Impressive: Making a strong or vivid impression: 给人以深刻印象的

• 2.Faddist: n. 趋于时尚者 , 好新奇的人• Faddish: Having the nature of a fad. 具有追求时尚

的天性的 ; Given to fads. 赶时髦的• Fad : n. stresses the impulsive enthusiasm with w

hich a fashion is taken up for a short time ( 一时流行的 ) 风尚 ; 狂热一时的爱好 ; 癖好 , 嗜好 (craze)

• Fashion: The prevailing style or custom, as in dress or behavior: 风格，时尚

Love Is a Fallacy

• 3. Fads, I submit, are the very negation of reason: I believe following fashion /crazes shows a complete lack of sound judgment.

Love Is a Fallacy

• 4. Craze n. A short-lived popular fashion; a fad. 短暂的时尚：流行一时的狂热

• Acme: The highest point; Summit 最高点，极点

the acme of perfection 完美无缺 the acme of good behavior 最崇高的行为

the acme of science 科学尖端 the acme of one’s hope 最高的愿望

Love Is a Fallacy

• Not, however, to Petey: Ellipsis.

This was not the acme of mindlessness to Petey. Petey did not consider such behavior as the acme of mindlessness.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para6. One afternoon, ---• One afternoon, when I went back to my

dorm, Petey was lying on his bed. He wore such a depressed look that I came to the conclusion at once that he was suffering from appendicitis.

“I want a raccoon coat”

raccoon

Love Is a Fallacy• Para11 Charleston n. A fast lively bal

lroom dance in 4/4 time, characterized by a twisting step and popular during the 1920’s. 查尔斯顿舞 , 一种流行于 20世纪 20 年代的快节奏的 4/4 拍舞厅舞

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para16 quality of raccoon

• Petey, Why? Look at it rationally.: Petey, why must you have a raccoon coat? “it” is a vague pronoun, standing for the whole issue of owning and wearing a raccoon coat.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para20 my brain, that precision instrument, slipped into high gear: My brain, which is as precise as a chemist’s scales, began to work at high speed.

• “anything?” ellipsis. Would you really give anything for a raccoon coat? Are you indeed willing to give anything away for a raccoon coat?

• “anything.” He affirmed in ringing tones( 他毫不含糊地大声说道 ): ellipsis. Yes, I’m willing to give anything for a raccoon coat.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para22 1. It so happened that I knew where to get my hands on a raccoon coat: Luckily I happened to know where I could get hold of a raccoon coat.

• 2.He did not have it exactly, but at least he had first right on it: He did not really own Polly Espy, or Polly Espy didn’t really belong to him. They were not married or going steady. But Petey got to know her before him, therefore he had the first claim.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para23-24 Why was the narrator interested in Polly Espy? What kind of girl was she?

• According to the narrator, he was interested in Polly “for a shrewdly calculated, entirely cerebral reason”. He wanted Polly to further his career as a lawyer. Polly was beautiful, gracious; only she was not intelligent. The narrator considered “Polly” a beautiful dumb girl”. who would smarten up under his guidance to become a suitable wife for him.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para23 she was a girl who excited the emotions. But I was not one to let my heart rule my head: She was beautiful and attractive enough to arouse the desires and passions of men, but I would not let feelings and emotions get the upper hand of reason or good sense.

• Metonymy is used

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para24 I was well aware of the importance of the right kind of wife in furthering a lawyer’s career:

• I knew very well how important it was for a lawyer to have the right kind of wife. The right kind of wife would help promote a lawyer’s career.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Pin-up: (American colloq. ) n. a girl whose sexual attractiveness makes her a subject for the kind of pictures often pinned up on the wall. 钉在墙上的漂亮照片 ; 漂亮女人

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para25 1.She was not yet of pin-up proportions, but I felt sure that time would supply the lack: She was not yet fully developed like pin-up girls but I felt sure that , given time, she would fill up and become just as glamorous/charming.

• Not yet of pin-up proportions: not yet as attractive as the picture pinned up on the wall .

• Time would supply the lack: given time, she would develop in right direction. Time will give her a perfect figure.

Love Is a Fallacy

• 2.She already had the makings: She already had all the physical qualities needed for developing into a very beautiful woman.

Making: The abilities or qualities needed for development: 素质发展所需的能力或性格。 She has the makings of a fine teacher. 她具备做一个优秀教师的素质

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para26 S2 她婷婷玉立 体态优雅，这一切都表明她出身高贵。

• Ease: Freedom from constraint or embarrassment; naturalness. 不拘束，不拘谨；自然

• Bearing: The manner in which one carries or conducts oneself: 举止 / 风度 , 一个人的行为方式：

• poise: The bearing of the head or body; mien. 姿势，样子 the poise and bearing of a champion. 冠军泰然自若的风度

• breeding: Training in the proper forms of social and personal conduct. 教养

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para26 gravy: n. The juices that drip from cooking meat. 肉汁 , 烹肉时滴出的肉汁

• sandwich

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para26 Ls. the implied humor is that the woman had an usually good appetite. She wolfed down everything.

• Without even getting her fingers moist: Her fingers did not even get slightly wet. Showing her dainty and refined table manner

Love Is a Fallacy

• para27 In fact, she veered in the opposite direction: In fact, she went in the opposite direction. This is a sarcastic way of saying that she was rather stupid

• Paras 25—27 The author elaborates the three qualities that he believes to be important to a good wife 1) beautiful 2) gracious 3) intelligent

Love Is a Fallacy• Para30 go steady [American colloq] date someone

of the opposite sex regularly; be sweethearts 成为关系相当确定的情侣 , 经常只和某一异性朋友约会出游

• Para 34. if you were out of the picture, the field would be open: If you were no longer involved with her( if you stop dating her) others would be free to compete for her friendship/love.

• Out of the picture: not considered as involved in a situation

• Open: free to take part in or compete in ( the games being held in the field)

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para.40• I said with a mysterious wink.• A transferred epithet. He said mysterio

usly with a wink. ( the wink was not mysterious)

• Paras41—59 He succeeded in persuading Petey Burch to exchange his girl friend for a raccoon coat with him.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para45 Mince: To moderate or restrain (words) for the sake of politeness ( 由于礼貌或礼节而 ) 委婉或限制使用（词语）；委婉地说

• Don’t mince words: say what you mean. 不要忌讳 , 把你的意思直说出来

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para50 1.He was a torn man: He was tormented, not knowing what was the right thing to do.

• 2. he looked at the coat with the expression of a waif at a bakery window: simile

Comparing his longing for the raccoon coat with the expression of a hungry homeless child looking longingly at the bread at a bakery window.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para50

• 3. Back and forth his head swiveled, desire waxing, resolution waning: 1)His head turned back and forth (looking at the coat then looking away from the coat). Every time he looked, his desire for the coat grew stronger and his resolution not to give away Polly became weaker.

• 2) desire waxing, resolution waning: antithesis. “desire waxing” is balanced against “ resolution waning”

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para.51

• “It isn’t as though I was in love with Polly,” he said thickly. “ Or going steady or anything like that”

• Petey is trying to rationalize his action. He is trying to find an excuse for finally deciding to accept the coat and give up Polly.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para. 53 • “What Polly to me, or m

e to Polly”• A parody from Shakes

peare’s Hamlet, act II, scene 2

• “ What Hecuba to him or he to Hecube that he should weep for her ?”

• It’s a deal

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para. 57

• The coat bunched high over his ears and dropped all the way down to his shoe tops.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para60 1. How did the narrator’s first date with Polly Espy go?

• The narrator had his first date with Polly Espy to find out how dumb she really was. The result was disheartening. Polly was more ignorant than he had expected. The narrator realized that he had to make a great effort to make Polly smart enough to be his wife.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para 60• 2. How does the language used by Polly

strike you? Find some examples in the text.

• Espy : delish—delicious; marvy—marvelous; sensay—sensitive. (simple—minded girl) these words create the impression of a simple and rather stupid girl. These words increase the force of satire and irony.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para61 What is the level of speech in para61? What purpose does it serve?

• The language is very formal. The narrator felt very depressed after the first date with Polly. To bring this feeling out, and to create a humorous effect, the writer uses formal phrases such as---

• This loomed as a project of no small dimension: To teach her to think appeared to be a very big task, and at first I even thought of giving her back to Petey.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para62 Why did the narrator teach Polly Espy logic? Did he succeed?

• The narrator wanted a wife who would help to further his career as a lawyer. Polly was pretty, but the problem with her was that she did not know how to think, so he decided to teach her logic, the science of thinking. He succeeded only too well for in the end Polly refused to go steady with him and used all the “logical fallacies” she had been taught to reject his offer.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para 75 it will be better if you stop tugging at my sleeve: Polly, in her excitement , was tugging at the narrator’s sleeves and urging him to explain more logical fallacies. The narrator told Polly rather brusquely to stop this.

• It will be better: a request showing displeasure.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para77 I hid my exasperation: The narrator was greatly annoyed by Polly’s stupidity when she did not understand that she was only making a supposition. He managed to control his temper.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para79 I fought off a wave of despair: For a moment a feeling of hopelessness came over me, but I managed to keep it off.

• Para97 –proof: (often used in combination) resistant to; unaffected by 耐…的，防…的 , 不能穿透的。 Waterproof watches防水表； a fireproof cellar.防火地窖

• The girl simply had a logic-proof head: Logic never has sense to her. She can never understand/grasp logic. Polly had a head that was resistant to ( would not be affected by) logic.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para98 1. Who knew? A rhetorical question, expressing some doubt or some hope. He might still succeed in teaching Polly some logic. Nobody could tell for sure.

• 2. maybe somewhere in the extinct crater of her mind, a few embers still smoldered: Perhaps there is still some intelligence left in Polly ‘s empty or stupid mind. Here Polly’s mind is compared to the extinct crater of a volcano and some sparks of intelligence is compared to embers(metaphor).

• 也许，在她死火山般的脑袋里，还有一点余火仍在闪烁冒烟。

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para 98 • 3. Maybe somehow I could fan them into

flame: Perhaps I could develop the little intelligence still existing in Polly’s mind. Metaphor

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para111 plate : A light-sensitive sheet of glass or metal on which a photographic image can be recorded. 感光版 , 在其上能记录摄影图像的一片感光玻璃或金属

• Pitchblende: A massive variety of the mineral uraninite . 沥青铀矿 ,铀矿的一种

Love Is a Fallacy

• From para61—112. the narrator’s reaction to Espy : with a heavy heart---gently---hid his exasperation---fight off a wave of despair---sigh deeply---consult my watch---keep from screaming---testily---coldly

• Para120 pshaw interj. Used to indicate impatience, irritation, disapproval, or disbelief. 哼，啐 , 用来表示不耐烦，生气，反对或怀疑

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para122 She said with an airy wave of her hand: She waved her hand in a gay manner. This showed that she was pleased with the praise she received.

• Para123 1. Over and over and over again I cited instances, pointed out flaws, kept hammering away without let-up: Over and over again I gave examples and pointed out the logical mistakes involved. I kept emphasizing all this without stopping.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para123• 2.at first everything was work, sweat, and

darkness--- all was bright: At first it was very hard work (sweating and working in the dark) but finally he saw the light at the end of the tunnel and knew he had succeeded. When he went out at the other end of the tunnel he found the sun shining brightly. (After a lot of hard work he managed to make Polly think logically.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para124 She was a fit wife for me, a proper hostess for my many mansions, a suitable mother for my well-heeled children: Here the author describes the role, which he thinks, a wife should play. First she should be a proper hostess of a rich man who owns many mansions. In other words she should be good at entertaining his rich friends and clients and thus further his career. Second, she should be a good mother and properly look after his rich and prosperous children.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para125 Did the narrator love Polly Espy? How did he try to “acquaint her with his feeling”?

• The narrator claimed that he loved Polly. Just as Pygmalion loved the perfect woman he had fashioned, the narrator now loved Polly as his creation. Now he was ready to propose for marriage.

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para125• Pygmalion n. (Greek mythology) A king of Cy

prus, and a sculptor, who carved and then fell in love with his own statue of Galatea, Lovesick, Pygmalion goes to the temple of the goddess Venus and prays that she give him a lover like his statue; Venus is touched by his love and brings Galatea to life.

• 希神】塞浦路斯国王（热恋自己雕的少女像） ,他雕刻了一个妇女的塑像 , 然后陷入对她的爱恋中，爱神阿芙罗荻特赋予了她生命。

Pygmalion

Love Is a Fallacy

• Para131 How can you say that we are well matched on the basis of only five dates: How can you come to the conclusion that we’d make a good couple when we’ve been out together only five times. Your conclusion is hasty because it is not based on enough facts.

Love Is a Fallacy• Para138 Frankenstein the Swiss medical

student Frankenstein ( whose name serves as the title of Mary Shelley’s novel, published in 1818)created from parts of corpses a monster that destroyed himself later. People have persisted in calling the monster Frankenstein; The word has gone on to refer to 1)“ monster” having the appearance of a man; 2) and a creation or an agency that slips from the control of and ultimately destroys its creator.

Frankenstein• 瑞士学生弗兰肯斯泰因（此名

成为 1818 年出版的玛丽 ·雪莱小说的书名）用部分死尸器官造了一个怪物，后来被这个具备了自己的生命力的怪物所杀害，从某种意义上说，弗兰肯斯泰因创造的怪物已经毁灭了他本人。人们坚持将那个怪物称作弗兰肯斯泰因； 此词后来演变为指“人形怪物”和“脱离创造者的控制并最终毁灭其创造者的媒介”。

Love Is a Fallacy

• Why does the narrator mention Pygmalion and Frankenstein?

• These two allusions are well chosen. He planned to be Pygmalion, to fashion an ideal wife for himself; but he became Frankenstein because Polly (his student) ultimately rejected him (her teacher).

Love Is a Fallacy

• How did Polly respond to the narrator’s argument for going steady with her? Why did she reject him? What does it show? As the story progresses, Polly turned out to be smarter than the narrator had previously thought.

Love Is a Fallacy

• How does this contrast contribute to the humor of the piece?

The narrator taught Polly how to recognize the common fallacies of logic. He succeeded too well because the whole thing backfired on him. Polly refuted all his arguments as logical fallacies and finally rejected him. She rejected him because he didn’t own a raccoon coat as Petey Burch did.

Love Is a Fallacy

The End