REACTION TO MAX SCHULMAN’S “LOVE IS A FALLACY ”

Max Schulman’s story “Love is a Fallacy” is one of the funniest “love” stories I’ve read so far. Its contents range from dumb to dumber but definitely fun to funnier events where the reader at the end eventually says, “I told you so! or Who’s dumb now?” So how would you describe a stupid or dumb person? Stupid people, as what most of us think, are easy to fool (gullible) and easy to bribe. Looking at these descriptions closely, I realize – wait a minute, a lot of people I know fit these descriptions sometimes (especially now that elections are fast approaching)!

On the other hand, the one taking advantage in the story is known as a man of intellect. He easily thought of a devious way to get Polly, the girl he had long coveted. He wanted this pretty girl to be his girlfriend. Unfortunately, he thought that she has nothing between her ears except looks. His arrogance made him think that he can rub some of his intelligence to the girl he “snatched” from his roommate, make her worthy to become his wife, a proper hostess for his many mansions, and a suitable mother for his well-heeled children. Love has never been in the picture for this intelligent young man. He had “illusions of grandeur” when he thought he can “make” a perfect woman – comparing himself to Pygmalion, the principal character in the Greek mythology ‘Pygmalion and Galatea’.

To begin Polly’s transformation, the intelligent young man introduced to the girl some topics in logic. As expected, the first night was kind of hopeless. He thought Polly had a “logic-proof head”. But then again, he never gave up. I think, he looked at the daunting task of improving Polly’s intelligence as a challenge. At this point in the story, I thought the intelligent young man, was not as intelligent as I thought he was at the beginning of the story. I found myself thinking, “haven’t you got common sense? Stop trying and start quitting!!” His argument that it is easier to make a beautiful dumb girl smart than to make an ugly smart girl beautiful, is quite unintelligent. Why not use his intelligence and look for a pretty as well as smart girl? This way, he did not have to spend a lot of time and energy trying to “transform” her to the perfect woman.

As I read on, I realized it was just as well that he had made up his mind to make Polly his “perfect” girl (instead of listening to my inner ravings) because the events became more interesting and funny. One glimmer of hope I saw was that Polly seemed genuinely interested in the topics. However, as expected, Polly took the teachings in logic quite literally. Based on Polly’s reactions to the examples given by the intelligent young man in trying to explain the topics, I quickly concluded that, ahhh, she’s hopeless and she hadn’t absorbed anything at all.

Then my perceptions about Polly changed when I reached the part of the Poisoning the Well. Hmmm, she’s not as hopeless as it seemed. The more I read on, the more interesting the twists of events. In fact every logic topic that the intelligent young man taught Polly bounced back into his face when he tried to ask her to go steady with him. I thought, ha ha ha, look what you did kid – all the effort you exerted, all the manipulations, still the girl ditched you at the end. Good for you! You got what you deserved! So now, who’s stupid?

The story is really quite funny, seeing the narrator’s efforts wasted. It shows us how different people perceive love differently. I think the most important lesson here is: do not be so arrogant or proud to think that you are the intelligent one and anyone who thinks and acts contrary to what you think and how you act are dumb or stupid. This is because intelligent people may act or think stupid at times and not all “seemingly” stupid people think or act stupid at all times, especially when it comes to affairs of the heart. Another lesson is that: never take advantage of the dumb for you may come out looking dumber in the end. Lesson number three: perhaps having a raccoon coat is not such a bad idea…after all it won Polly’s heart rather than logic! Saying that love is a fallacy is rather, in Polly’s words, a “hasty generalization”. Maybe for Polly, love is equivalent to a raccoon coat. Who are we to decide for her?