2023年6月24日发(作者：)

Summary of the Text

This essay surpasses the very informal writing style of Charles Lamb, who was

extraordinarily imaginative and enterprising, and indeed demonstrates the fun and

beauty of logic. It is told by the main character whose name is never revealed.

Though only 18 years old, I was the elite of my peers. One Friday afternoon I

found my stupid roommate Petey Burch lying in bed in great distress. At first I

thought he was ill but then I discovered he was desperate for a raccoon coat, the fad at

that time, declaring he would give anything for it. It occurred to me that I could get an

old raccoon coat from my father and exchange it for "something" I had been coveting

for some time--his girlfriend Polly Espy.

The next Monday morning, I returned to school and showed him the hairy coat.

He went crazy. However, he was not so happy when I told him my request. After long

thought he gave in and allowed me to date the beautiful Polly.

My first date with Polly on Tuesday evening disappointed me so much that I

almost returned her to Petey, for she seemed too foolish to be my wife. However, her

physical charms were irresistible so I decided to teach her to think and to learn logic.

The next time, at the campus trysting place I taught her the fallacies called

Dicto Simpliciter, Hasty Generalization, Post Hoc, and Contradictory Premises, but

her head was logic-proof. Again I wanted to give her back to Petey. Yet, in for a penny,

in for a pound. I decided to teach her Ad Misericordiam, False Analogy, Hypothesis

Contrary to Fact, and Poisoning the Well. At this final fallacy, a glimmer of

intelligence sparked in her eyes. I enthusiastically followed it up with a review of all I

had taught her. My five grueling nights paid well: I had finally made a logician out of

Polly. When next we sat under our oak tree, I tried to change our relationship from

academic to romantic, only to find each of my romantic phrases and proposals refuted

by her as fallacies, finally rejecting me in favor of Petey! At my question for the

reason of her not going out with me, she said that that very afternoon she had

promised to go steady with Petey. I was furious, and asked her for the logical reason

for her preference of Petey over me.

Polly's answer was that Percy had got a raccoon coat! The raccoon coat that I

disliked and abhorred and had given to Petey for the privilege of dating Polly was

now the very instrument of my undoing! Love is delusive and logically unpredictable!

Style & Appreciation

The title of the story, humorous and well chosen, has two meanings: when

fallacy is taken literally, the title means: "Love is deceptive and delusive." When

taken with its logical meaning, the title means: "Love cannot be deduced from a set of

given premises."

The story is satirizing a self-conceited freshman in a law school-- the narrator

of the story. He goes around smugly boasting and praising himself at every chance he

gets. From Para. 4, he begins to employ all the beautiful words he can think of, like

"cool, powerful, precise" and "penetrating" to describe himself. Meanwhile, he takes

every opportunity to run down Petey Burch, calling him "dumb", "nothing upstairs",

"unstable", "impressionable" and "a faddist", and Polly Espy as "a beautiful dumb girl", who might "smarten up" under his guidance.

The purpose of this essay is to demonstrate that logic is a living, breathing thing,

full of beauty, passion, and trauma, far from being a dry, pedantic subject.

Humorously, the writer exaggerates every situation, with the result that logic becomes

an interesting subject. The logical link of passage ideas is "logic-- a living thing" ---

"exchange of a raccoon coat for a pretty but foolish girl"---"teaching her to be logical

and clever”---"a Pygmalion becomes a Frankenstein", thus the theme "Logic is fun;

love is not for love's sake but for fashion's sake, for wealth' s sake."

To achieve his purpose, the writer employs a variety of writing techniques and a

lexical spectrum--from the ultra-learned terms used by the conceited narrator to the

infra-clipped vulgar forms of Polly Espy--to make his story valid, dramatic and

colorful. His figurative language, grammatical inversion for special emphasis, short

sentences, elliptical sentences and dashes throughout the story add to the immediacy

of the story.

For instance, Polly Espy's exclamatory words like "Gee, Oo, Wow-dow and

clipped vulgar forms like "delish, marvy, sensaysh," etc. create the impression of a

simple and rather stupid girl, contrasting strongly with the boasting of the narrator,

and thus increasing the force of satire and irony.

Again, every man has a fool up his sleeve. In Para. 145, the narrator argues that

"the things you learn in school don't have anything to do with life", committing a

fallacy of Dicto Simpliciter himself in his final desperate attempt to make Polly Espy

forget the fallacies he has taught her and convince her that he loves her and that she

should go steady with him.

Topic-centered paragraph writing is also one of the features. Take Para.50 for

example. Its topic sentence is the second sentence—He was a torn man." The writer

develops the paragraph by describing the behavior of the man, using illustrative

examples to develop the theme stated in his topic sentence.

Also, his allusions are aptly chosen. The narrator refers to Pygmalion and

Frankenstein because he courts Polly and Polly refuses him. He gets the same result

as Frankenstein did. He is destroyed by the monster he has created, whereas

Pygmalion was loved by the statue of Galatea.

The conclusion is ironic in that the whole thing backfires on the narrator when

Polly refutes all his arguments as logical fallacies before finally rejecting him. He has

become the victim of his own cleverness; he is too clever for his own good. Affluence

has replaced love, thus there is no question of taking brilliance, talent, or education

into consideration when choosing a boyfriend and a husband. It has reduced the

search to a matter of seeking wealth and keeping up with the Joneses. Indeed, this

kind of love is a fallacy!

An introduction to the text: Love is a Fallacy

The purpose of the essay, according to the writer, is "to demonstrate that logic, far

from being a dry, pedantic subject, is a living, breathing thing, full of beauty, passion,

and trauma." The story is set in a law school at the university of Minnesota, U.S.A.

The protagonist, a self-conceited freshman in a law school, is made the narrator of the story, who goes on smugly boasting and singing praises of himself at every

conceivable opportunity. From the very beginning, he starts to heap on himself all the

beautiful words of praise he can think of --- "cool", "logical", "keen", "calculating",

"perspicacious", "acute", "astute", "powerful", "precise" and "penetrating." At the

same time, the narrator takes every opportunity to downgrade Petey Burch. He

considers him "dumb", "nothing upstairs", "emotional", "unstable", "impressionable",

and "a faddist". What is more, he regards Polly Espy as "a beautiful dumb girl", who

would smarten up under his guidance. In order to smarten her up, the narrator decides

to give her a course in logic. Unfortunately, he succeeds too well because the whole

thing backfires on him when Polly refutes all his arguments as logical fallacies before

finally rejecting him. In desperation the narrator argues that "the things you learn in

school don't have anything to do in life."(para.145)This appeal does not move Polly

because she does not reject him on logical grounds. She rejects him because he does

not own a raccoon coat as Petey Burch does. At the end of the story, the reader feels

the narrator has got what he deserves: love cannot be deduced from a set of given

premises.

The writer employs a whole variety of techniques to make his story vivid,

dramatic, and colorful. This can be shown by having a closer examination of the

original text from the following four aspects ---lexical devices, syntactic devices,

figures of speech, and discourse analysis.

General idea of the text:全文概述

This text is a piece of narrative writing．The narrator of the story，Dobie Gillis，a self-conceited

freshman in a law school，is the protagonist．He struggles against two antagonists：Petey Burch，his stupid roommate whose girl friend he plans to steal，and Polly Espy，the beautiful dumb girl he

intends to marry after suitable re-education．Petey，a faddist，is eager for a raccoon coat，and he

decides to exchange his girl friend Petey for it with Dobie．Dobie has affection for Polly for long

out of practical as Polly is，she has the makings to become a suitable wife of

a lawyer．In order to smarten her up，Dobie decides to give her a course in logic．He teaches her

how to recognize the common fallacies of logic．He succeeds too well because the whole thing

backfires(造成相反结果) on him when Polly refutes all his arguments as logical fallacies before

finally rejecting him．In desperation Dobie argues that“the things you learn in school don't have

anything to do in life．”The appeal does not move Polly because Dobie does not own a raccoon

coat as Petey Burch does．Ironically，the raccoon coat which Dobie gives to Petey for the privilege

of dating his girl，the raccoon coat which Dobie dislikes and abhors，is the instrument of his own

undoing(毁灭)．

美文欣赏及写作特点

The whole story is a piece of narration of light，humorous satire．Its theme is stated in the

title：“Love is a fallacy”，which can be understood in two ways．When“fallacy”is taken literally，the title means：“Love is deceptive or delusive”．When taken as a specific term in logic，it means："Love cannot be deduced from a set of given premises．"The story reaches its climax in

paragraphs 147-150 when Polly refuses to go steady with Dobie because she has already promised

to go steady with Petey Butch．The denouement(结局)follows rapidly and ends in a very ironic note．Dobie ignores the fact that love is the sincere attachment which arises naturally from both

hearts,and he fails to win Polly because he has been too clever for his own good．

Max Shulman has a style quite of his own．The story which is full of American colloquialism

and slang goes forward at a very fast pace．He employs a whole variety of writing techniques to

make his story vivid，dramatic and colorful。such as a large lexical spectrum，figurative language，inversion for special emphasis，and many figures of speech like simile，metaphor，hyperbole，metonymy，and antithesis．The speed of the narration is maintained by the use of short

sentences,elliptical sentences and dashes throughout the story．This mix adds to the realism of the

story．