The Economics of...

Of Cabell's short stories, do any of them reveal a grasp of actual economics? I realize that at least one in The Silver Stallion is titled "The Economics of..." but it has been years since I read it.

What do you make of Cabellian "economics"?

At least on some occasions, I think Cabell uses the word in its archaic sense, i.e. "The art of managing a household."

Around the time of Cabell’s education, two American philosophers essayed this territory. Ralph Barton Perry wrote a book called The Moral Economy, the first half of which is brilliant, and George Santayana wrote of ethics as ‘the economy of all values.’ Both had the wit to see in the philosophical discipline of axiology an affinity with the marginalist revolution economists and their efforts to deal with the deals we make in value terms, with cost seen as ‘opportunities forgone.’ In The Realm of Spirit Santayana wanders around Cabell country.

Another philosopher, a contemporary of Santayana, Alexius Meinong, explored this connection, as well as developed a ‘theory of objects’ that explored the realms beyond existence, of objects that cannot exist, but do have meaning. Seems worth mentioning in a group discussing a fantasist.

That puzzled me when I read about in Beyond Life (1919) but I came to assume he just meant using up all possible sources, influences and material, not wasting anything. And he did -- almost every story, poem or essays he wrote was revised and folded onto a larger work. Parts of Beyond Life were revisions of essays he had written while at university in the 1890s.

But speaking of Mr Cabell and Economics, there is an essay by prominent economist Warren J Samuels on C and E in this pricey collection: https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/BookDetailsPL?bi=30369175142&searchurl=kn%3... I've never encountered one cheap enough to buy but I've seen part of the essay using Amazon's 'Look Inside' feature. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Samuels