1. Love Is a Fallacy by Max Shulman
Lesson 5
Love Is a Fallacy
by Max Shulman

2. Teaching Objectives
To understand logic fallacy and how the author proves love is a fallacy;
2. To appreciate the writer’s style and the humor in the essay;
3. To learn to adapt it to a short movie.

3. About the story What is fallacy?
2. How does the author prove that love
is a fallacy?

4. Fallacy
Fallacies are defects in an argument - other than false premises - which cause an argument to be invalid, unsound or weak.
A logic fallacy is, roughly speaking, an error of reasoning. When someone adopts a position, or tries to persuade someone else to adopt a position, based on a bad piece of reasoning, they commit a fallacy.

5. 1. Dicto Simpliciter (绝对判断）
The fallacy is committed by an argument that applies a general rule to a particular case in which some special circumstances make the rule inappropriate.
Examples:
1. Car is fast. Therefore every time we hang out, we should drive a car.
2. Dog is a pet. Everyone likes it.

6. 2. Hasty Generalization（草率结论）
The fallacy argues improperly from a special case to a general rule.
Examples:
1. A sports program is interesting. An entertainment program is interesting. A TV series is interesting. Therefore every TV program is interesting.
2. I haven’t seen a UFO; Jason hasn’t either; Ms Yan hasn’t probably; so no UFO at all.

7. 3. Post Hoc（牵强附会）
This fallacy assumes that if event Y happened after event X, then X must be the cause of Y.
Examples:
1. Don’t sing this song. Every time you sing this song, the baby gets sick.
2. I never drink purified water, each time I do I’ll get diarrhea. [daɪə’ri:ə] （腹泻）
3. His eyes are very big, so he must have good eyesight.

8. 4. Contradictory Premises（矛盾前提）
The conclusion is contradictory to the premise
Example:
1. This is the mightiest sword which is able to shatter any shield, and that is the most indestructible shield which is capable of enduring any stroke.

9. 5. Ad Misericordiam （诉诸同情，文不对题）
The fallacy of irrelevant conclusion is committed when the conclusion changes the point that is at issue in the premises
Examples:
1. “He was late to the class today.” “Because he was scolded by his mother yesterday.”
2. “ Have you had lunch?” “ I got up late this morning, and unfortunately I fell down from my bike when riding to school.”

10. 6. False Analogy（错误类比）
two objects (or events), A and B are shown to be similar. Then it is argued that since A has property P, so also B must have property P. An analogy fails when the two objects, A and B, are different in a way which affects whether they both have property P.
Examples:
1. Since we have moon cakes in the Moon Festival, why don’t we have spring cakes in the Spring Festival?

11. 7. Hypothesis Contrary to Fact（与事实相反的假设）
It is to draw any supportable conclusion from a hypothesis that is not true. 
Examples:
1. If the gunpowder hadn’t been invented, there wouldn’t have been so many wars in the world.
2. How could you have passed the exam if I hadn’t told you the answer in advance?

12. 8. Poisoning the Well（投毒下井）
“speaking against the man”: This fallacy makes a personal attack on a person who holds some thesis, instead of offering grounds showing why what he says is false.
examples:
1. Don’t listen to any word from him, for he is most shameful cheating around the world.
2. The defendant killed the victim cruelly, I suggest Lord sentence him guilty.

13. How does the author prove love is a fallacy?
The narrator (Dobbie):
a law school student with logical reasoning and general intellectual capability; having a bright future
Petey Burchy:
a faddist with nothing upstairs and a “silly reason” without a good future
Polly Espy:
A beauty with limited intellectual capacity but trained to be smart by Dobbie
But the final choice of Polly is Petey.

14. Style appreciation What is the style of the text?
How does the writer achieve the effect of humor?
What are the language features of the text?

15. About the Style of the Text
Max Shulman has a style quite his own:
a very fast pace with a racy dialogue (para.6-21)
American colloquialism and slang (casual kick,
nothing upstairs)
a whole variety of writing techniques (inversion in para. 2, 4 etc.; paragraph parallelism in para.24, 25and 26; hyperbole in para.4; etc.)
vivid, dramatic and colorful

16. About the Style of the Text
2. The lexical spectrum is wide:
— from the ultra learned terms used by the conceited narrator (perspicacious; of no small dimensions; examine; etc.)
to the clipped vulgar forms of Polly Espy (delish; marvy; gee; etc.).

17. About the Style of the Text
3. profuse figurative language (My brain was as powerful as a dynamo, as precise as a chemist’s scales, as penetrating as a scalpel.)
4. grammatical inversion for special emphasis (Vague though its category, it is without doubt an essay);

18. About the Style of the Text
5. The speed of the narration is maintained by:
short sentences (Cool was I and logical.);
elliptical sentences (however, not to Petey);
dashes (and – think of it – I was only eighteen)

19. The effect of the Style
This mix adds to the realism of the story. One would expect a freshman to talk like this.

20. The Chief Attraction of the Text -- humor
The whole story is a piece of light, humorous satire, satirizing a smug, self-conceited freshman in a law school.

21. The Chief Attraction of the Text -- humor
1. the title
The title is humorous. The writer wants the readers to conclude that “love” is an error, a deception and an emotion that does not follow the principles of logic.
2. the author’s note
“spongy”, “limp”, “flaccid” are specific characteristics of his essay. He is joking, which indicates that the whole story is humorous.

22. 5. the clever choice of the names
3. the contrast
the law student & the girl & Petey
boasting himself V.S. downgrading the others
4. the ending of the story
The raccoon coat which the law student despises and give it to his roommate for the exchange of his girl friend has finally become the rootcause of his losing his girl friend.
5. the clever choice of the names
Petey: pity
Espy: I spy

23. Extension
Movie-making

24. THANK YOU!