Schatz and The Fallacy of Multiple Analogy

Thomas Schatz commits the fallacy of multiple analogy (Fischer, 253-4) in his chapter on the Zanuck era at Warner Bros. in his book, The Genius of The System. In explaining the philosophy with which Harry Warner oversaw studio production at the time, Schatz writes: ""Harry Warner saw himself in the early 1930s as the Henry Ford of the movie industry, and the studio as a factory that produced consistent, reasonably priced products for a homogenous mass of consumers." (136). This analogy is spread to thin to be taken seriously, asking readers to: 1) Associate a studio boss with another man in a completely different industry; 2) through the basis and alleged strength from the first analogy, compare the film industry with the auto industry; 3) link audiences and car-buyers as a single, uniform consumer with the same mentality when approaching their purchasing decisions. While all of these analogies are independently problematic, Schatz particularly fails in lumping three hastily made comparisons into a single argument. There is no consistent logic in comparing two men from the same era to going on and linking their respective industries' mode of production –let alone their consumers.

Daniel Loría