Memory and musing - The Many Loves of Dobie Gillis

The book of short stories, not the series starring Dwayne Hickman and Bob Denver. That I never saw.

Someone gave me this book when I was in high school - I can't remember who. Unfortunately, I stored it with some other things in my mother's attic when I left for college and never got that or the other stuff back before we lost the house. My fault, they were there for decades and I never thought to get them when I was visiting home.

This morning, for no reason I can imagine, I woke thinking about the Dobie Gillis short story "Love is a Fallacy" (I looked up the title. I remember the story, not the name). In it, Dobie desires the a friend's girl. She's beautiful and gracious, good-tempered and beautiful. And dumb as a rock, but she's beautiful. Dobie offers to trade his raccoon-skin coat to his friend if his friend will break up with the girl. Friend accepts, Dobie moves in.

And proceeds on his girl-improvement plan, teaching her how to debate and argue using logic and facts rather than voice and emotion. (Which, to be fair, would be nice if it were taught these days, but I digress.)

At the end of the story, the girl informs Dobie that she's breaking up with him and going back to the friend. Dobie reacts ... emotionally. She counters every one of his arguments with cool logic.

Finally, Dobie demands "Why? What does he have that I don't have?"

"He has a raccoon-skin coat."

I don't like Dobie.

I don't like his attitude toward women ... girls. I don't like that he thought he could buy a beautiful girl and then polish her to make her perfect. I couldn't understand why she put up with him as long as she did - the friend obviously thought she was great the way she was; why would she want someone who projected 'You'd be great if only ...' and set a bar that she didn't want to jump?

But men are always doing this.

That's the message that society sends to women - that they "would be great if only ..."

they colour their hair
they lose weight
they dress better
they use make-up
they have a little nip-and-tuck
they were thinner
they have bigger breasts

they were a younger model

That's what it really comes down to.

Women would be great if only they were the perpetual plastic perfection of a Barbie doll - frozen in their mid-twenties.

{For the record, my dreams this morning were about an Italian family of lighthouse-keepers preparing for an enemy invasion. It was lively, entertaining, loving, and full of diverse personalities. An adventure with no romance. And no Dobie Gillis. I enjoyed it so much that I kept going back to sleep to find out more.}

Sleep Journal - 190116 - Fairge Anma

Index of Entries
Sleep Journal
16 January 2019

Craig returned much more slowly, head down, checking the numbers. He'd tested the ambient electromagnetic field in both test rooms and the hall. He'd had Neil plug the wonky computer in and tested it for fluctuations. The results were inconclusive at best. Almost discouraging but it didn't really matter what the readings were for every separate part of the puzzle but how they all worked synergistically.

He made the effort to remind himself not to get too excited; at the moment it was just a theory. And Justine's theory at that.

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