Fallacy (Misleading Notions) Notes:

- Affective Fallacy (Impressionism)

• confusion between play and results
• looking at end result instead of plot points
• emotional detachment
• play is not about you
- Relativist
• Only the world in the play, not society
• Nothing is relative to anything else
- Faulty Generalization
• all/never
• broad generalizations
• reduce to “just” something
• there will be contradictory evidence.
- Reductiveness
• reduce play to one theme
• Difference btwn FG: FG no evidence and smaller scale, R has evidence and tackles
larger concepts

- Genetic
• fallacy of origins
• reduce to historical sources
• don’t assume there’s connection between play and time-period
• work isn’t necessarily reflection of historical period
- Half-Truth
• same explanation for everything w/ negative implications
• discredits author, play, characters
- Frigidity
• not having sympathy for characters
• not humanizing play
• not treating them as real
- Imitative
• assuming style of play is a deliberate choice to explain topics of the play
- Intentional
• find author’s intentions? nope.
 • does nothing for you as artist
• play as a whole is more important
- Biographical
• belief that events in the play were inspired by an event in the author’s life
• YOU WILL KNOW IF A PLAY IS AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SO DON’T ASSUME IT IS
• plays are fiction
- Literal-Mindedness
• plays don’t necessarily reflect real life
• authors create a world for reader/audience
• suspend disbelief
- Secondhand thinking
• relying too much on other’s opinions
• think for yourself, bitch
- Stage Directions
• every. word. is. important. to. performers. don’t. cross. out. stage. directions. thank.
you.
• authors have final approval of published scripts
• used as evidence, nothing more than that.

*PAPER REMINDERS*
-1st person
-recognize fallacies, describe fallacy, describe experience, work through it?
-more journal-y than a formal essay
-double spaced, 1 inch margin, page numbers (Gonzalez 2), 12 pt font
-STAPLED!!
-Also, send emailed copy. Don’t submit on blackboard. Don’t share on Google Docs.
-understanding of fallacies and experiencing them relevant to oedipus, what discovery
happened because of that.