Newell & Simon’s 1972 book Human Problem Solving continues to influence theories of problem solving. Their theory provides a general framework for specifying how the structure of the problem, strategies, and different sources of knowledge influence progress from the initial state to the goal state. In contrast, discovering solutions for problems studied by Gestalt psychologists typically require a perceptual reorganization to identify the correct relations among the components of the problem. A rapid shift to a correct organization is referred to as ‘insight’. Solving mathematics and scientific problems requires utilizing information learned in the classroom. This information is organized into clusters of knowledge that are typically called ‘schema’. Design problems are usually ill-structured in which the initial, goal, and intermediate states are incompletely specified. There are no right or wrong answers, only better and worse ones. The size and complexity of the problems require decomposition into smaller problems or modules.

Wallace was a writer deeply aware of his debts to other authors. One such was Vladimir Nabokov, whom Wallace referred to as one of “the real geniuses, the writers who weathered real shock and invented this stuff in contemporary fiction.” Brian Boyd’s pioneering work on Nabokov argues that our need to close-read Nabokov’s novelistic puzzle pieces serves as an allegory for how Nabokov felt we should pay attention to the natural world and all its rich patterning. This chapter uses Boyd’s work on Nabokov as a lens to examine how Wallace engages in a similar practice, using reading as a metonymic practice, a dry run of sorts for encountering the world. The chapter identifies key differences between Wallace and Nabokov, specifically Wallace’s ethical commitment to empathy and otherness, but traces the rich and untapped overlaps between the two authors, examining solipsism, self-reflexivity, allusions and an abiding fascination with both the workings of human consciousness and the relationship between author and reader, among other thematic and formal commonalities. Developing a poetics of attention that is taken up elsewhere in the volume, this chapter works to elucidate how Wallace, after and against Nabokov, used practical literary strategies and tools to persuade and teach his readers to practice empathy in and toward the world.

Enigmas make for compelling puzzles because they inspire hope that fresh insights may be found through revisiting an enduring problem from a unique angle or engaging with diverse perspectives. This introduction briefly discusses the theme of 'enigmas' and their prominence across different disciplines and throughout time. Enigmas resonate with the processes and methodologies of research practices across the arts, sciences, and humanities, as is clear from the range of topics covered in the volume's eight chapters. Each of the chapters then receives a short introduction detailing the author's topic and main argument. Although some enigmas can, at first glance, seem to pose insurmountable challenges to humanity, the overall impression provided by this volume is one of hope. Even problems which initially appear overwhelming can be scrutinised, interpreted, and ultimately resolved.

Extending several of the themes explored previously (especially in Chapters 3 and 12), this chapter explores the notion of game-playing (in the widest sense) and its incidence on the conception and reception of Renaissance polyphony. Topics include: hexachord pieces and games involving specifically musical device (e.g. ostinato); pitch-related games, especially cadence; fugal and non-fugal canons; Augenmusik and visual puzzles or paradoxes; and the relationship between music and number. The question to whom these games were directed, and to what end, surfaces once again. It is proposed that much in Renaissance polyphony that was regarded by critics of later periods as self-indulgently abstract or abstruse is attributable to this ludic quality, which was ‘lost in translation’, particularly by writers of the Enlightenment and its aftermath. Yet again, listeners are encouraged to consider what lies beyond the sound-image of Renaissance music, thus deepening their appreciation of the music.