HOME READING REPORT

Love is a Fallacy
By Max Shulman

St. Josephs Academy

Mandaue City
S.Y. 2015-2016

Home Reading Report No. 1

Max Shulman

Submitted by:
B1 JC Maveryke Alindajao
9D St. Joseph Cafasso
Submitted to:
Ms. Kriza April H. Gallego
English Teacher

I.

Introduction to (Anglo-American) Literature:

The Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections has considerable

holdings in Anglo-American literature from the 17 th century onward, with
notable strengths in the 18th century, Romanticism, and the Victorian and
modern periods. Among the seventeenth-century holdings is a complete set
of Shakespeare folios, and works by John Milton and his contemporaries.
Eighteenth-century highlights include near comprehensive printed collections
of Jonathan Swift and Alexander Pope, and substantial holding on John
Dryden, Samuel Johnson, Joseph Addison, Sir Richard Steele, William
Cowper, Fanny Burney, and others. Related materials include complete runs
of periodicals, such as the Spectator and the Tatler.
The Divisions book holdings are also especially rich in the literature of the
th
19 and early 20th centuries. The Cornel Wordsworth Collection, the second
largest Wordsworth collection in the world, documents the Romantic
movement in detail. All the major standard authors of the Victorian and
modern periods, such as Charles Dickens, George Eliot, T.S. Eliot, W.B.
Yeats, Joseph Conrad, James Joyce, Virginia Woolf, et al., are well
represented. In addition, the librarys holdings in Victorian fiction include
scarce works by many popular women authors of the time, such as Elizabeth
Gaskell, Maria Edgeworth, Marie Corelli, Ouida, and Helen Mathers. The
collection also includes many popular literary genres such as gift annuals,
dime novels, railroad novels, and yellowbacks, as well as the small literary
magazine of the 1920s and 1930s. The modern collection features strong
collections of manuscripts and books by George Bernard Shaw, Rudyard
Kipling, Ford Madox Ford, Wyndham Lewis, and James Joyce. In support of
RMCs Human Sexuality Collection, the rare book collections feature
especially strong representations of literary works by gay, lesbian, bisexual,
and transgender writers, such as Oscar Wilde, Christopher Isherwood, Vita
Sackville-West, Bowen, Jan Morris, and others. The collections strengths in
more recent British literature include the works of Sylvia Plath, Ted Hughes,
Philip Larkin, and Doris Lessing, to name just a few.

II.

Authors Bigraphy
Max Shulman earliest published writing
was for Ski-U-Mah, the college humor
magazine of the University of Minnesota,
in the 1930s. His writing often focused on
young people, particularly in a collegiate
setting. In 1943 he wrote his first novel,
Barefoot Boy with Cheek, a satire on
college life, while still a student.
Shulman's works include the novels Rally
Round the Flag, Boys!, which was made
into a filmstarring Paul Newman and
Joanne Woodward; The Feather Merchants; The Zebra Derby; Sleep till
Noon; and Potatoes are Cheaper.
In 1954 he co-wrote (with Robert Paul Smith) the Broadway play The Tender
Trap starring Robert Preston, which was later adapted into a movie starring
Frank Sinatra and Debbie Reynolds. He wrote the libretto for the 1968
musical How Now, Dow Jones, which was nominated for a Tony Award for
Best Musical.
Shulman's collegiate character, Dobie Gillis, was the subject of a series of
short stories compiled under the title The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis, which
became the basis for the 1953 movie The Affairs of Dobie Gillis, followed by a
CBS television series, The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis (1959-1963).Shulman
was a script writer for the series and also wrote the series' theme song. The
same year the series began, Shulman published a Dobie Gillis novel, I Was a
Teenage Dwarf (1959). After his initial success with Dobie Gillis in the early
1950s, Shulman syndicated a humor column, "On Campus", to over 350
collegiate newspapers at one point.

III.

Elements of a Story

A. Setting:
Law school , room , Kozy Kampus Korner, theatre, restaurant
B. Characters:
Petey Bellows-roommate of the main character who wanted the
raccoon coat.
He- smart (no name)
Minor Characters:
Polly- elegant and gorgeous girl.
C. Plot:
A young man at his eighteenth age who described his brain as a dynamo. He is
studying at a law school and he is living with his roommate named Petey Bellows. His
roommate, Petey, was attracted to the raccoon coat like what the Big Men on their
campus wear. Petey said that he would trade anything as long as he gets the coat. He
remembered that his father had one back at his home so he went there to get it. He
then surprised Petey with the coat and exchanged it for Polly who was the girl that he
liked but Petey had her. He started dated Polly. They went to the movies, ate at a
restaurant, and then he guided her home. He thought that Polly needed to learn logic
because he was not satisfied by her way of thinking when they had their date. The next
night he introduced to her the world of logic. She didn't seem to understand what that
was about, but she was interested as well. She seemed to respond to every fallacy he
introduced, just not the respond he wanted. She didn't seem to understand all he was
saying. But then he kept his patience because he wanted her to be his wife. There was
the time when he taught her about the only fallacy she correctly analyzed, the Poisoning
the Well, he was filled with hopes. Fifth day of their date he confessed to her that he
likes her but Polly answered him with logic. He then asked her that why did she not
chose him and Polly answered him that he promised Petey one day ago that she will
choose him. He asked her that why did she liked his roommate and her answer was
Because he has a raccoon coat.

IV.

Creative Presentation

I chose this symbol (the raccoon coat) because it plays a big role of the story.

V.

Lexis
1. Acme- the point at which someone or something is best
Pizza is an acme for me.

2. Dynamo- machine for converting mechanical energy into electrical

energy
The main character also defined himself as a dynamo.
3. Veered- sudden change of direction
I veered to my back suddenly because an enemy came out.
4. Exquisite- extremely beautiful
He has a exquisite choice of food.
5. Waif- homeless and helpless person
Donking gave the waif a house.
6. Desisted-cease or abstain
He was desisted to go outside.
7. Plunged- push
Somebody plunged Dave into the pool.
8. Indignation- anger or annoyance provoked by what is perceived as unfair
treatment.
The indignation that started resulted into a fight.

9. Exultantly-expressing great joy or triumph

He exultantly screamed after he won the contest.
10. Perspicacious- having a ready insight into and understanding of
things.
The main character defined himself as perspicacious.

VI.

Insights

In this story, Ive learned that you cant always have what you want and
Ive learned that some people value things, not effort. But giving effort to someone you
like is really needed but we also need to respect and understand someones choice and
decision.

VII.

Bibliography
A. http://rmc.library.cornell.edu/collections/anglolit.html
B. http://www.nytimes.com/1988/08/29/obituaries/max-shulman-humorist-isdead-chronicler-of-postwar-life-was-69.html