{"id":100,"date":"2025-12-30T16:24:33","date_gmt":"2025-12-30T16:24:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/?p=100"},"modified":"2025-12-30T16:24:33","modified_gmt":"2025-12-30T16:24:33","slug":"enacting-and-exploring-ideas-in-fiction-the-overstory-and-the-portable-veblen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/?p=100","title":{"rendered":"Enacting and exploring ideas in fiction: &#8216;The Overstory&#8217; and &#8216;The Portable Veblen&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p>By&nbsp;<strong>Donald Nordberg<\/strong>, manuscript accepted and published in 2024:&nbsp;<em>New Writing<\/em>&nbsp;21(1), 73-93. doi:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/doi.org\/10.1080\/14790726.2023.2222098\">10.1080\/14790726.2023.2222098<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n<blockquote class=\"wp-block-quote is-layout-flow wp-block-quote-is-layout-flow\">\n<p><strong>Abstract<\/strong>: Philosophically engaged fiction often employs ideas in ways that reflect the exploitation-exploration dilemma in developmental psychology: by exploiting well articulated theories by enacting their conflicts, or by exploring the uncertainties of puzzling ontologies or moral complexities. We can see this in action in many works, but some novels of ideas seek to defy such categorization, with lessons for readers and writers. This paper analyzes two recent works \u2013&nbsp;<em>The Overstory<\/em>&nbsp;by Richard Powers (2018) and Elizabeth McKenzie\u2019s&nbsp;<em>The Portable Veblen<\/em>&nbsp;(2016) \u2013 to show how they deal with related concerns and settings through very different approaches. While Powers offers an enactment, its complexity seeks to evade the book becoming a simple polemic. McKenzie\u2019s protagonist explores her muddled identity, philosophy and much else while flirting with the enactment of ideas when she does not comprehend.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/donnordbergwriting.substack.com\/p\/enacting-and-exploring-ideas-in-fiction\">Read more<\/a> at<\/p>\n\n\n\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large is-resized\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1024\" height=\"179\" src=\"http:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DNwriting-banner-large-1024x179.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-94\" style=\"aspect-ratio:5.720948309366499;width:396px;height:auto\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DNwriting-banner-large-1024x179.png 1024w, https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DNwriting-banner-large-300x53.png 300w, https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DNwriting-banner-large-768x135.png 768w, https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/DNwriting-banner-large.png 1204w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1024px) 100vw, 1024px\" \/><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By&nbsp;Donald Nordberg, manuscript accepted and published in 2024:&nbsp;New Writing&nbsp;21(1), 73-93. doi:&nbsp;10.1080\/14790726.2023.2222098 Abstract: Philosophically engaged fiction often employs ideas in ways that reflect the exploitation-exploration dilemma in developmental psychology: by exploiting well articulated theories by enacting their conflicts, or by exploring the uncertainties of puzzling ontologies or moral complexities. We can see this in action in &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/?p=100\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Enacting and exploring ideas in fiction: &#8216;The Overstory&#8217; and &#8216;The Portable Veblen&#8217;<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-criticism"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=100"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":101,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/100\/revisions\/101"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=100"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=100"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.stourbend.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=100"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}