Thursday, December 21, 2017

Evermore Recent Acquisitions

Featuring:
  1. Linear Algebra and its Applications (Gilbert Strang)
  2. Analysis I (Terence Tao)
  3. Analysis II (Terence Tao)
  4. Asset Pricing (John Cochrane)
  5. The Essential Chomsky (Noam Chomsky) 
  6. Probability and Measure (Patrick Billingsley)
  7. Functional Analysis (Walter Rudin)
  8. Introduction to Topology and Modern Analysis (George Simmons)
  9. The Idea of Justice (Amartya Sen)
  10. Flash Boys (Michael Lewis)
  11. Poor Economics (Abhijit Banerjee and Esther Duflo)
  12. The Blind Watchmaker (Richard Dawkins)

Thursday, November 30, 2017

Inverse TASWOSAW continued

From Tridev (1989), written by Anand Bakshi:

गली गली में फिरता है
तू क्यों बन के बंजारा?
आ मेरे दिल में बस जा
मेरे आशिक़ आवारा

तेरा प्यार है इक सोने का
पिंजड़ा ओ शहज़ादी
मुझको अपनी जान से प्यारी
है अपनी आज़ादी

You roam in streets and alleys
Having become a wanderer
Come live in my heart
My lover philanderer

Your love is but a golden
Confinement o princess
Lovelier than my life
Is my own egress

...

Monday, November 27, 2017

... just not evenly distributed

There is a striking regularity with which the state of science fiction literature in a society could predict its stage of economic development. Modern science fiction appeared in Victorian England post Industrial Revolutiona period of heady growth and technological innovation. The golden age of classical American Science Fiction was during the '50s and '60s (dominated by Asimov, Clark and Heinlein)the halcyon days of the American economy when growth was high, inequality low and (thanks to the Cold War) disruptive technologies swept the nation.

And hence the strides that Chinese Science Fiction has taken in recent times comes as no surprise. The massively acclaimed trilogy: the Three Body Problem by Liu Cixin won him a Hugo recently. Another Chinese macroeconomist-cum-science-fiction-writer (yay!) Hao Jinfang won the Hugo this year, beating Stephen King (yes!) for her book Folding Beijing

The role that online publishing has played in this growth is especially well captured in this Foreign Policy piece published early this year: How China Became a Sci-Fi Powerhouse

Of course, since this is China, every aspect is mega-scale:
Much of the interest in science fiction within China is now driven by film and television companies, say writers and editors. China’s fast-growing media and entertainment industry is already worth about $180 billion, and companies are eager to capitalize on the burgeoning enthusiasm for sci-fi stories. A September 2016 article in Chinese outlet Today’s Headlines speaks of a “science fiction film investment fever.” It mentions that 85 sci-fi related film projects were undertaken in China in the first eight months of 2016 alone.
South China Morning Post also highlighted this issue a while back while featuring Hao Jingfang (among others) in Hong Kong's first science fiction conference. 
Hao Jingfang works as an economic researcher for the China Development Research Foundation think tank, so her research informs and inspires her writing.
“Half of the theme [of my writing] concerns social systems, their history and future development. The other half concerns philosophical aspects, such as human agency and willpower,” Hao says. 
For example, her award-winning novelette Folding Beijing addresses the inequality perpetuated by the social and economic system. The story takes place in a futuristic Beijing that is divided into three time dimensions. Protagonist Lao Dao travels illegally between dimensions to raise school fees for his adopted daughter. The story idea stemmed from a conversation Hao had with a taxi driver in Beijing, who had to spend a whole night queueing to get his child into kindergarten.

Thick at the center of all this action is Ken Liu—the translator of both Cixin and Hao—and is profiled in South China Morning Post's: How novelist Ken Liu is bringing Chinese sci-fi to the Western world.
The conspicuous successes of Liu Cixin and Hao have made Ken Liu the unofficial cheerleader for Chinese science fiction on the global stage. This status will only be enhanced by the recently released Invisible Planets, an anthology of short stories compiled and edited by Liu, from some of China’s leading science-fiction authors.
Here is an explanation why societies experiencing high rates of growth and commotion see growth and innovation in their respective cultures' science fiction literature too. Again, since this is China, everything is mega-scale:
While grappling with cutting-edge technological develop­ment is nothing new, in science fiction or life, what distin­guishes China from the rest of the world is the sheer scale and speed of that change. “The industrial advances that took centuries in Western nations have occurred in roughly 30 years,” he says. “Within the space of two generations, you have families where the parents lived an existence essentially like the 19th century and their children are now in Beijing working at some of the most advanced technological companies in the world.”
Here is the link to Ken Liu's latest offering (Amazon): Invisible Planets, 13 Visions of the Future: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction. Highly recommended of course!

... 

On the basis of all this, could one predict that the stage is set for an inexorable rise in the profile of Indian science fiction? After all, in terms of growth rate and technological disruption, India certainly ranks very high; and in NF's humble opinion, that it will continue to do so in the foreseeable future is an almost mathematical certainty. 

There's certainly some evidence to that hypothesis. It is in this respect that the following HT article assumes some significance. It showcases the rise of digital publishing and its enabling push in helping speed up the expansion of an erstwhile niche maket—in both literary and science fictional capacities. Published early this year and titled A host of new digital literary magazines are giving a boost to India’s literary magazine culture, it profiles the founders of these exciting new voices in Indian publishing.
India has always been in the back seat when it comes to a literary-magazine culture. In fact, Brooklyn borough of New York boasts of more literary magazines than the whole of India.
But lately a host of new digital ventures are trying to change that.
Much like acclaimed literary magazines such as The Paris Review, The New Yorker and London Review of Books, these new online lit-magazines are named after cities or regions -- The Bombay Review, The Bangalore Review, The Madras Mag, Mithila Review, etc.
Visually appealing, these magazines publish high quality work – art, essays, fiction, non- fiction, poetry – merging genres, forms and realities.
In particular, the Mithila Review, published from Delhi, is leading the charge on the science fiction/fantasy front and has received a thumbs up from the mighty Bruce Sterling himself! 

Here is the link to their 9th issue: Mithila Review: Issue 9. Follow the link and salivate!


So given this simplistic model, what's the prognostication regarding the Indian SF scene in say, 10-15 years? NF won't be shy to wager a small sum for the case for a high growth rate in the segment—even more so in the numerous Indian languages than in English. If you can't wait for the future to happen right-friggin'-now, you have company. Bravo you guys!

Tuesday, November 07, 2017

Recent Acquisitions


Featuring:

  1. The Wealth of Nations (Adam Smith)
  2. Lords of Finance (Liaquat Ahmed)
  3. Collective Choice and Social Welfare (Amartya Sen)
  4. Thinking, Fast and Slow (Daniel Kahneman)
  5. Why Nations Fail (Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson)
  6. Who Gets What and Why (Alvin Roth)
  7. Mathematics for Economists (Simon and Blume)

Monday, September 25, 2017

Obverse TASWOSAW

From the Pixies's, Monkey Gone to Heaven (Doolittle 1989).

If man is five if man is five
If man is five
Then the devil is six then the devil is six
The devil is six
And if the devil is six
Then God is seven then God is seven
Then God is seven 
This monkey's gone to heaven

NF's Hindi translation

गर इंसान है पांच गर इंसान है पांच 
गर इंसान है पांच 
तब शैतान है छे तब शैतान है छे 
तब शैतान है छे 
और गर शैतान है छे 
तो भगवान् है सात तो भगवान् है सात 
तो भगवान् है सात 
हुआ ये बन्दर जन्नत को प्राप्त

Wednesday, September 20, 2017

I Too Have a Complaint

Having recently finished the slim volume शिकायत मुझे भी है (हरिशंकर परसाई) (tr. I too have a complaint, (Harishankar Parsai)), NF is even more convinced that Parsai remains almost unconscionably under-read and under-translated. His satire, as is evident in this collection, remains as direct, searing and morbidly funny as when it was penned (1970). Indeed, a lot of commentators have ignored the long historical tradition of satire—especially of the political variety—in Hindi literature of which tradition Parsai was among the finest, most renowned exponents. 

(Close on the heels of Parsai was another great, somewhat recently deceased satirist: Srilal Shukla, whose massively influential satire राग दरबारी (1968) (tr. Raga Royale) (inspired from his stint as a provincial civil service (PCS) officer in Lucknow) transcended its satirical origins to become a deft, darkly funny commentary of rural provincialism. Its opening sentences are among the most savagely funny NF's ever read: here's his sorry attempt at translation:
शहर का किनारा. उसे छोड़ते ही भारतीय देहात का महासागर शुरू हो जाता था. 
वहीं एक ट्रक खड़ा था. उसे देखते ही यकीन हो जाता था, इसका जन्म केवल सड़कों के साथ बलात्कार करने के लिए हुआ है... 
Corner of the city. The ocean of Indian villages began just beyond.
Right there stood a truck. To see it was to be certain that it was birthed only to commit rape with roads...
Needless to say, the book is highly recommended.)

Most essays in Parsai's collection are shortish—3-5 pages long. His language remains direct, accessible and bereft of literary adornments. Just as is with the great Manto, perhaps this lack of affectation and direct plain-spokenness adds to Parsai's mordant bite. To top it all, the last essay in the collection is Parsai's memoirs of the by-then deceased Muktibodh. Much in Parsai's classic tradition, it's an intense, short portrait of the man—critical, devoid of sentimentality but acutely aware of Muktibodh's towering genius and his massive contribution to the experimental movement of post-independence Hindi poetry (dubbed प्रयोगवाद (tr. Experimentalism)).

It's good to see Parsai finally becoming more well known in translation circles, as is evident in Scroll.in's recent feature on Parsai's essay on Premchand: A literary mystery: Why did Premchand pose for a photograph in a torn shoe?

Insofar as much more of this is needed, I too have a complaint. 

Wednesday, September 06, 2017

More Reverse TASWOSAW

This time, from the poetry editor at the ever excellent 3quarksdaily, Jim Culleny.

Earthy

Religious scripts:
Vedas, Gospels, Surahs,
Qurans, Hadiths, Bibles, Torahs
are tools like any others
which may be used to trip or lift

Not divine in this, but practical as axes,
shovels, guns and drones or verbal tricks
and as earthy as earth's flora and its fauna

Jim Culleny
11/6/16

NF's Hindi translation:

माटी के लाल

धार्मिक लेख:
वेद, गॉस्पेल, सुरा,
क़ुरान, हदीथ, बाइबल, तोराह 
हैं औज़ार औरों जैसे 
जो हो सकते हैं इस्तेमाल गिराने या उठाने के लिए 

दैव नहीं ये, पर व्यावहारिक जैसे कुल्हाड़ी,
खुरपी, बन्दूक और ड्रोन या मौखिक चालें 
और ऐसे माटी के लाल जैसे धरती के पौधे व उसके जंतु 

Sunday, August 13, 2017

Wednesday, July 19, 2017

Begging the Question

Most academic writing is boring, jargon-infested and not for the faint-hearted. This is in addition to the forbiddingly esoteric subject matter on which academics usually expound. One reason for the state of affairs could be that it's hard enough to infuse heavily technical writing with lean clarity, let alone an arresting style; and that writers who combine domain expertise with elegant writing are few among the academic population.

It's easy however to complain too much. After all, not everyone is expected to understand a paper in mathematics or physics and in fact, it's hard to find even top professionals in a field who are able to follow cutting edge work in far away areas. For example, it's hard to find (or indeed to expect to find) a topologist who'll understand contemporary developments in logic; or those in fluid mechanics to know much about string theory. Hence even for the most astute and interested reader, there is an iron wall of incomprehensibility that is sometimes breachable only by great works of pop science.

The fields of economics and finance however, occupy a very interesting position in this respect. While their techniques and methodologies can be highly specialized, since the subject matter isn't so esoteric, there is a chance of meaningful communication with a much wider, disparately skilled audience. Moreover, given their massive influence on policy decisions—both government and corporate—perhaps there is an even more-than-usual reason to reach out to as many interested readers as one can and to ensure that as much as possible, no reader is left behind. 

One way to partially achieve this goal is to make the abstract and introduction of the paper as simple and clear as possible. A casual glance at the state of publishing in economics and finance shows that essays in the top journals are almost always more polished, better written and seem to strive for clarity much more than their merely-ordinary counterparts; and in particular, their abstracts and introductions shine with clarity and insight.

Style and elegance, however, are another world altogether.

Which brings NF to the 2013 working paper "Panhandling in Downtown Manhattan: A Preliminary Analysis", written by Gwendolyn Dordick (City College, CUNY) and Brendan O’Flaherty (Columbia). Their succinct abstract is full of questions and they don't forget to acknowledge "... the anonymous panhandlers of downtown Manhattan who have given us their time and told us about their lives". As expected, their paper is about the (equilibrium) behavior of Manhattan panhandlers (who essentially beg for money from tourists and passers-by) and demolishes the dreary-turgid-boring stereotype of academic writing. 

How's this for an opening sentence?
“If I’m going to panhandle, I’m going to do it on the richest street in the world.”
 ---[Eugene], who works on Wall Street.
Panhandling however, is in a way, a very unusual profession, which suffers, in particular from two paradoxes. The first is the use of space in the very tightly packed Manhattan:
Downtown Manhattan panhandlers use some of the most valuable land in the US, but they pay nothing for using it, and they have no legal right to exclude anyone else from using it... But how panhandlers solve the land allocation problem is an open question...
Panhandlers also suffer from credibility problems:
The paradox is that while panhandlers in general have low credibility, their livelihoods depend on having high credibility, since donors have no obvious way of learning, even ex post, whether their donations accomplished the intended purpose. Panhandlers are like used car salesmen whose customers never get to take possession of the cars they buy; they just get reports from the salesmen about how well the cars are supposed to be running. It’s amazing that panhandlers can make any money at all.
As any serious study demands, one first needs to define terms:
Our working definition of panhandling is asking passersby for money for oneself in a public place without offering anything of ostensible value In return. We therefore exclude musicians (however awful), trinket vendors, mendicant nuns and friars, solicitors for recognized charities, and the costumed characters like the Naked Cowboy and Weedman who pose with tourists for a fee. 
While the blood-and-guts of the paper are understandably harder-to-follow for nonspecialists, the eminently readable introduction shines with many other terrific sentences, which NF heartily recommends for all to read.

Here is the link for the full working paper: Dordick and O'Flaherty (2013) Panhandling in Donwtown Manhattan, (Working Paper). Bravo you guys!

Monday, June 19, 2017

Evermore Miniscule Musings

(Universal) Basic Income for the Soul

In a fabulous longread at reason.com, Peter Suderman observes the expansion of a new demographic in the US:
Since 2000, men in their 20s without a bachelor's degree are working considerably less and spending far more time engaged in leisure activities, which overwhelmingly means playing video games. Over the same time frame, this group of men has also grown more likely to be single, to have no children, and to live with parents or other family members.
The surprising thing about the stereotypical aimless young man, detached from work and society, playing video games in his parents' basement: He's actually happier than ever.
The unemployment rate in the US is quite low however, but it merely masks this effect:
The economy has rebounded since the great recession, and national unemployment now sits below 5 percent. But that figure only counts people who are actively seeking work. Even as the unemployment rate has dropped, labor force participation—the number of people who either work or want to work—has dwindled.
One would expect that such a lifestyle exposes its adherents to a lifetime of dissatisfaction and extreme unhappiness. 
You might think that this would be demoralizing. A life spent unemployed, living at home, without romantic prospects, playing digital time wasters does not sound particularly appealing on its face.
Yet this group reports far higher levels of overall happiness than low-skilled young men from the turn of the 21st century. In contrast, self-reported happiness for older workers without college degrees fell during the same period. For low-skilled young women and men with college degrees, it stayed basically the same.
And further...
Research has consistently found that long-term unemployment is one of the most dispiriting things that can happen to a person. Happiness levels tank and never recover. One 2010 study by a group of German researchers suggests that it's worse, over time, for life satisfaction than even the death of a spouse. What video games appear to do is ease the psychic pain of joblessness—and to do it in a way that is, if not permanent, at least long-lasting.
A vast army of young, unemployed males hardly bodes well for social stability of a country, in particular since males exhibit more extreme behavior more frequently than females. 
... men are more likely to exhibit extremes of character and behavior, both positive and negative. A whole generation of men obsessively playing video games during their prime decades of life may not be ideal, but most would agree that it is preferable to riots.
Indeed, a lot of commentators are now floating ideas about universal basic income (UBI) in anticipation of large numbers of people who will presumably be displaced from their jobs by advanced AI. As Suderman remarks, the main conflict lies in human notions of joblessness and its economic and social consequences. Some economists suggest that many such displaced people may turn to video games since they instill a sense of purpose, progress and accomplishment. 
Even the most open-ended games tend to offer a sense of progress and direction, completion and commitment. In other words, they make people happy—or at least happier, serving as a buffer between the player and despair. Video games, you might say, offer a sort of universal basic income for the soul.
Such novelty features make gaming a complex social phenomenon since they increase the opportunity cost of both work (since jobs need to be "good enough" for people to quit gaming) as well as revolution (organizing against your meatspace overlords is far harder than nuking fictional ones).

Yet, one doesn't need to peer too hard to see the irony: "A game provides the sensation of mastery without the actual ability."
"It's a simulation of being an expert," Wolpaw says. "It's a way to fulfill a fantasy." That fantasy, ultimately, is one of work, purpose, and social and professional success.
What's happening in the US is yet-another by-product of technology reorganizing the marketplace in ways no one anticipated. Indeed, in a way, this isn't a new phenomenon at all  just like the Simpsons, Japan already did it  witness the continued relevance of the otaku and hikkikomori subcultures over there.

A fascinating read overall  do read the whole piece in full! Highly recommended.

Master of None: The Soundtrack

Much ink has been spilt on the excellent new show Master of None on Netflix and Aziz Ansari has richly deserved the tall praise heaped on both him and on the show. For the recently concluded second season in particular, the ending of "The Dinner Party" (S2 Ep5) stands out for being a stunning scene in itself. It's a single long continuous take of Aziz's solitary cab drive set to a killer background melody weaving itself seamlessly into the narrative of his dejection.

And so it's really gratifying to see Zach Cowie  the DJ cum music producer get such good press recently for an incredibly eclectic soundtrack that is in many ways, the soul of Master of None.

Here are some recent interviews with Vulture and the BBC. Even the impossible-to-please Pitchfork applauds

Bravo!

Wednesday, May 17, 2017

Reverse TASWOSAW

From Robert Graves's To Read a Poem (tr. पढ़ना कविता का)

In Broken Images

He is quick, thinking in clear images; 
I am slow, thinking in broken images.

He becomes dull, trusting to his clear images; 
I become sharp, mistrusting my broken images,

Trusting his images, he assumes their relevance; 
Mistrusting my images, I question their relevance.

Assuming their relevance, he assumes the fact, 
Questioning their relevance, I question the fact.

When the fact fails him, he questions his senses; 
When the fact fails me, I approve my senses.

He continues quick and dull in his clear images; 
I continue slow and sharp in my broken images.

He in a new confusion of his understanding; 
I in a new understanding of my confusion.

NF's Hindi translation:

टूटी छवियों में 

वह है तेज़, सोचता हुआ स्पष्ट छवियों में;
मैं हूँ धीमा, सोचता हुआ टूटी छवियों में.

वह होता है कुंद, आश्वस्त अपनी स्पष्ट छवियों से; 
मैं होता हूँ प्रखर, आशंकित अपनी टूटी छवियों से.

आश्वस्त अपनी छवियों से, वह मानता है उनकी प्रासंगिकता; 
आशंकित अपनी छवियों से, मैं प्रश्न करता हूँ उनकी प्रासंगिकता पर. 

मान कर उनकी प्रासंगिकता, वह मान लेता है तथ्य, 
प्रश्न करते हुए उनकी प्रासंगिकता पर, मैं प्रश्न करता हूँ तथ्य पर. 

जब तथ्य उसे त्याग देता है, वह प्रश्न करता है अपनी इन्द्रियों पर; 
जब तथ्य मुझे त्याग देता है, मैं करता हूँ अनुमोदन अपनी इन्द्रियों का. 

वह बढ़ता है तेज़ और कुंद अपनी स्पष्ट छवियों में; 
मैं बढ़ता हूँ धीमा और प्रखर अपनी टूटी छवियों में. 

वह अपनी समझ के एक नए भ्रम में;
मैं अपने भ्रम की एक नयी समझ में. 

Friday, April 21, 2017

Post Doc Ergo Propter Doc

Remember, that's a fallacy too. #neverforget

Saturday, April 15, 2017

Inverse TASWOSAW

Featuring Anand Bakshi in Mohra (1994); verse: सुबह से लेकर शाम तक (tr. From morning to evening)

सुबह से लेकर शाम तक 

सुबह से लेकर शाम तक 
शाम से लेकर रात तक 
रात से लेकर सुबह तक 
सुबह से फिर शाम तक 
मुझे प्यार करो 
ओओओ...
मुझे प्यार करो 

शहर से लेकर गाँव तक 
धूप से लेकर छाँव तक 
सर से लेकर पाँव तक 
दिल की सभी वफ़ाओं तक 
मुझे प्यार करो 
ओओओ...
मुझे प्यार करो 

NF's English translation:

From morning to evening

From morning to evening
From evening to night
From night to morning 
From morning again to evening
Love me
Ooo...
Love me

From cities to villages 
From swelter to shade
From head to toe
To all heart's faith
Love me
Ooo...
Love me

Tuesday, February 28, 2017

Goodbye Blue Sky

Sayonara Suzuki Sensei

Seijun Suzuki passed away recently on Feb 13, 2017 and was known for his zany yakuza films including his two most famous works — Branded to Kill (1967) and Tokyo Nagaremono (1966) (tr. Tokyo Drifter). NF has very pleasant memories of encountering Tokyo Nagaremono in the New York Film Festival a few years back where a retrospective of his films was being hosted. His idiosyncratic style and subversion of B films' genre expectations were certainly exceptional as was his unusual fanbase, comprising some seriously accomplished arthouse directors. 

Here is the eminently melodious, surprisingly catchy title song from the trailer of the very enjoyable Tokyo Drifter.




Sayonara!

The Meeruthiya Gangster

Hindi genre fiction loses a stalwart after the demise of Ved Prakash Sharma on Feb 17, 2017. He remained an extremely prolific genre writer, writing several books a year, for his entire career. Bus stands and railway stations were where you'd encounter his fare most. NF distinctly remembers his most famous book Vardi Wala Gunda (tr. Hoodlum in Uniform) populating wheeler stands all over Uttar Pradesh all through the '90s.

Manik Sharma writes a very well rounded, informative obituary in Firstpost where he remembers the impact of Ved Prakash Sharma in particular, and pulp fiction more generally during the '90s. Here's the excellent closing paragraph:
Sharma, in an interview before he passed away, said that he believed pulp fiction would come back in a big way through television and film. And it makes sense, because while the reader is upwardly mobile in his or her aesthetic pursuits, and the marketing model shows no signs of evolving, only the visual can embody the audacity of a pulp novel’s opening, like that of Sharma’s Vardi Wala Gunda: 
लाश ने आँखे खोल दी. ऐसा लगा जैसे लाल बल्ब जल उठे हैं. 
(tr. The corpse opened its eyes. It felt like red bulbs being switched on.)

An Arrow a Day...

Kenneth Arrow, the colossus who in NF's opinion was the greatest of all time (GOAT) economist passed away on Feb 21, 2017. There's hardly anything a nobody like NF has to add to the volumes of perceptive tributes about Arrow's work readily available elsewhere. On his very deep Impossibility Theorem, to his work with Debreu on general equilibrium, to the theorems on welfare economics, and many, many other immense contributions, NF highly recommends the ever-amazing blog A Fine Theorem, which is adumbrating Arrrow's impact in four posts suitable for (quasi-)laymen. (Part 1, Part 2.) For those more mathematically savvy, NF heartily recommends the five page paper by John Geanakoplos, offering three very simple, alternative proofs of Arrow's Impossibility Theorem (John Geanakoplos (2005), “Three Brief Proofs of Arrow's Impossibility Theorem,”. Economic Theory 26(1), 211-215).

Here is great obituary from Stanford News.

Keynes once said:
The master-economist must possess a rare combination of gifts .... He must be mathematician, historian, statesman, philosopher—in some degree. He must understand symbols and speak in words. He must contemplate the particular, in terms of the general, and touch abstract and concrete in the same flight of thought. He must study the present in the light of the past for the purposes of the future. No part of man's nature or his institutions must be entirely outside his regard. He must be purposeful and disinterested in a simultaneous mood, as aloof and incorruptible as an artist, yet sometimes as near to earth as a politician.
Arrow was all this and more. People have remarked on his inhuman level of depth as well as breadth of knowledge not just in economics but in mathematics, statistics, philosophy and several other disciplines. Here is a well-circulated story recounted by Eric Maskin and featured in Arrow's New York Times obituary where his colleagues once tried to artificially test him on breeding habits of grey whales, to their eventual woe of course. (His brother-in-law was the other GOAT contender: Paul Samuelson. He was also uncle to Lawrence Summers. He also appeared in an Errol Morris short film.)

In academia one encounters several freakishly intelligent people somewhat regularly. However, the ones who leave behind the greatest legacy are those whose students also manage to continue in their great tradition. And indeed, it is in this particular respect that Arrow leaves behind everyone in the dust, with five of his students going on to win Nobels of their own! (And that's not counting Amartya Sen.)

Alvin Roth described him as the Einstein of economics. NF couldn't agree more.

Sayonara.

Saturday, January 28, 2017

The Reading List: January 2016 to January 2017

  1. The Lathe of Heaven (Ursula K Le Guin)
  2. The Savage Detectives (Roberto Bolaño) (reread)
  3. 2666 (Roberto Bolaño) (reread)
  4. The Diamond Age (Neal Stephenson)
  5. Wolf Hall (Hilary Mantel)
  6. Virtual Light (William Gibson) (reread)
  7. Norwegian Wood (Haruki Murakami)
  8. Cosmopolis (Don Delillo)
  9. बदन सराय (मुनव्वर राना) (tr. Badan Sarai, Munawwar Rana)
  10. Shame (Salman Rushdie)
  11. सृष्टि पर पहरा (केदारनाथ सिंह) (tr. Nature Under Watch, Kedarnath Singh)
  12. Roadside Picnic (Arkady and Boris Strugatski)
  13. Herzog (Saul Bellow)
  14. Diamond Dogs and Turquoise Days (Alaistair Reynolds)
  15. काशी का अस्सी (काशीनाथ सिंह) (tr. Kashi's Assi, Kashinath Singh)
  16. Idoru (William Gibson) (reread)
  17. Purity (Jonathan Franzen)
  18. All Tomorrow's Partys (William Gibson) (reread)
  19. The Plot Against America (Philip Roth)
  20. 51 अनमोल कहानियां (प्रेमचंद) (tr. 51 Invaluable Stories, Premchand)
  21. The Name of the Rose (Umberto Eco)
  22. The Windup Bird Chronicle (Haruki Murakami)
  23. By Night in Chile (Roberto Bolaño)
  24. Nazi Literature in the Americas (Roberto Bolaño
  25. The Return (Roberto Bolaño)
  26. दीवार में एक खिड़की रहती थी (विनोद कुमार शुक्ल) (tr. There Lived a Window in a Wall, Vinod Kumar Shukla)
  27. The Amazing Adventures of Kavalier and Clay (Michael Chabon)
  28. The Life and Times of Michael K (J M Coetzee)
  29. The Agent Esmerelda: Nine Stories (Don DeLillo)
  30. The Aleph and Other Stories (Jorge Luis Borges)
  31. The Long Goodbye (Raymond Chandler)
  32. पैंसठ लाख की डकैती (सुरेंदर मोहन पाठक) (tr. The Sixty Five Lakh Heist, Surender Mohan Pathak)
  33. क़त्ल की दावत (सुरेंदर मोहन पाठक) (tr. The Feast of Death, Surender Mohan Pathak)
  34. अभेद आकाश (मणि कॉल से उदयन वाजपेयी की बातचीत) (tr. Impenetrable Space, Udayan Vajpeyi's Conversation with Mani Kaul)
  35. एक गधे की आत्मकथा (कृशन चन्दर) (tr. A Donkey's Autobiography, Krishan Chandar)
  36. Conversations with Economists (Arjo Klamer)
  37. Ghosts (César Aira)
  38. An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter (César Aira)
  39. The Literary Conference (César Aira)
  40. कालजयी कमबख्त (अमित दत्ता) (tr. The Damned Classic, Amit Dutta)

Tuesday, January 03, 2017

Further Acquisitions


Featuring:
  1. 3 Novels by Cesar Aira (Ghosts, An Episode in the Life of a Landscape Painter, The Literary Conference)
  2. कालजयी कमबख्त (अमित दत्ता) (tr. The Damned Classic, Amit Dutta)
  3. दोज़ख़नामा (रबिशंकर बल) (बांग्ला अनुवादक: अमृता बेरा) (tr. Chronicles of Hell, Rabishankar Bal, translated from Bengali by Amrita Bera)
  4. अभेद आकाश: मणि कॉल से उदयन वाजपेयी की बातचीत (tr. Impenetrable Space: Udayan Vajpeyi's conversation with Mani Kaul)