The Reading List: Jan 2019--Jan 2020

1. Dune (Frank Herbert) (reread)
2. Sapiens (Yuval Noah Harari)
3. Essays (George Orwell)
4. Homo Deus (Yuval Noah Harari)
5. The Futurological Congress (Stanislaw Lem)
6. South of the Border, West of the Sun (Haruki Murakami)
7. Colorless Tsukuru Tazaki and His Years of Pilgrimage (Haruki Murakami)
8. The Blind Watchmaker (Richard Dawkins)
9. Fahrenheit 451 (Ray Bradbury)
10. Essential Chomsky (Noam Chomsky)
11. The Dark Forest (Liu Cixin)
12. Death's End (Liu Cixin)
13. The Map and the Territory (Michel Houllebecq)
14. The Night Manager (John le Carre)
15. Men Without Women (Haruki Murakami)
16. Thinking, fast and slow (Daniel Kahneman)
17. After Dark (Haruki Murakami)
18. English August (Upamanyu Chatterjee)
19. Against Interpretation and Other Essays (Susan Sontag)
20. I married a communist ( Philip Roth)
21. The last samurai (Helen deWitt)
22. Directorate S (Steve Coll)
23. साये में धूप (दुष्यंत कुमार)
24. Pakistan: A Hard Country (Anatol Lieven)
25. The Best of R K Laxman
26. कवि-मन (अज्ञेय)
27. A Beginner's Guide to Japan (Pico Iyer)
28. Speak, Memory (Vladimir Nabokov)
29. The Foundation Pit (Andrey Platonov)
30. The Man who solved the world (Zuckerman)
31. Normal People (Sally Rooney)

अथ उवाच अज्ञेय [कवि मन]

'कितना ही ऊपर चढ़ जाओ, जब बैठोगे तो अपने ही चूतड़ों पर'

'अरे यार तो क्या हुआ? उसी जोड़ का सच तो यह भी है कि कितना ही नीचे धँस जाओ, जब खड़े होगे तो अपने ही पैरों पर!'

Corporations as AI

The observation is due to perhaps Charles Stross but the argument goes as follows: an AI tasked with efficient paperclip manufacturing may (mistakenly) destroy all matter in the universe in order to convert it to paperclips, thereby faithfully carrying out its orders. Somewhat similarly, modern corporations, which have been (legally) tasked with maximizing shareholder value are carrying out their duties faithfully, without worrying about attendant poor effects on the environment etc. From this perspective, corporations are similar to AIs and cannot override their programming (even if made aware) due to the imperative logic of goal/objective function optimization.

Is this a valid characterization of a corporation (or indeed an AI)? Why or why not? Explain in brief. (10 points)

Famous Last Words

"Satire and irony were his favorite modes of expression."

The Reading List: Jan 2018 to Jan 2019

1. 2010: Odyssey Two (Arthur C Clarke)
2. The Vegetarian (Han Kang)
3. The Three Body Problem (Liu Cixin)
4. Invisible Planets (Editor and translator Ken Liu)
5. The Sellout (Paul Beatty)
6. The Competent Authority (Shovon Chaudhary)
7. Who Gets What and Why? (Alvin Roth)
8. मन हिंडोला (विनोद कुमार त्रिपाठी)
9. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaron (Jai Arjun Singh)
10. Every Love Story is a Ghost Story (D T Max)
11. सीन 75 (राही मासूम रज़ा)
12. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (John LeCarre)
13. The World of Hrishikesh Mukherjee (Jai Arjun Singh)
14. Mason and Dixon (Thomas Pynchon)
15. India Moving (Chinmay Tumbe)
16. The Peripheral (William Gibson)
17. करता भूलूं क्या याद करूं (हरिवंश राय बच्चन)
18. The Secret Pilgrim (John LeCarre)
19. Milk and Honey (Rupi Kaur)
20. Atomised (Michel Houellebecq)
21. Vampire in Love (Enrique Vila Matas)
22. The Honorable Schoolboy (John LeCarre)
23. सोनम गुप्ता बेवफ़ा नहीं है (अनिल यादव)
24. A Death in the Family (Karl Ove Knausgaard)
25. My Brilliant Friend (Elena Ferrante)

Further Recent Mega Acquisitions

Featuring:

1. मन हिंडोला (विनोद त्रिपाठी)
2. My Brilliant Friend (Elena Ferrante)
3. The World of Hrishikesh Mukherjee (Jai Arjun Singh)
4. A Death in the Family (Karl Over Knausgaard)
5. Goodbye, Columbus (Philip Roth)
6. I Married a Communist (Philip Roth)
7. Mason and Dixon (Thomas Pynchon)
8. Every Love Story is a Ghost Story (D T Max)
9. The Spy Who Came in from the Cold (John le Carre)
10. सीन: 75 (राही मासूम रज़ा)
11. Jaane Bhi Do Yaaro (Jai Arjun Singh)

The New Arker

Philip Roth died May 22, 2018. With his passing, only a very few American writers of his caliber remain: DeLillo, Pynchon and perhaps Cormac McCarthy; though for sheer readability on a sentence-by-sentence basis, Roth towers over all. 

As ever, the Economist is at its most insightful:

...like all great artists, he inhabited and embodied contradictions. You cannot disagree with him more than he disagreed with himself. He wrote about patriotism and he hated patriots. He wrote about idealism and he despised idealists. He wrote about the family with great love, and yet he railed against the asphyxiation of family. He was a moralist who loathed moralists. He was an atheist locked in lifelong battle with a God who neither cared nor existed. His subject was often no more than ten square miles of New Jersey and therefore the whole world.

He was fearlessly engaged with the profane and the repellent; and yet his work is apt on any page to break out into such passages of compassion and sorrow that the reader is ambushed all over again—this time by emotion.

Do read the entire obituary in full: Philip Roth was one of America’s greatest novelists

NF has read only a very few of his books: American Pastoral (1997), The Plot Against America (2004), The Human Stain (2000); and of course, Portnoy's Complaint (1969). Two others were ordered at the news of his passing: Goodbye, Columbus (1959) and I Married A Communist (1998).

The overwhelming power of his writing to amuse, please, astound; and of course to so effortlessly move one, remain unparalleled. His replacement will be hard to find.

Goodbye Columbus!

Upendage

Upon knowing that their adopted son was of Indian heritage the parents decided to name their child 'Susurration-of-the-Whispering-Willows'. It would be only much later that the child would grow up to appreciate the aftereffects of their profound ignorance; find it in him to assume the name 'Devashekhara' and wage a war against ignorant parents everywhere. However, only those closest to him would ever know of his special weakness for gambling, casinos, horseriding, scalp-collecting; and of his vague nostalgia for a distant motherland he would never visit. 

The Reading List: Jan 2017 to Jan 2018

1. The Martian Chronicles (Ray Bradbury)
2. Ratner's Star (Don Delillo)
3. In Other Rooms, Other Wonders (Daniyal Mueenuddin)
4. The Human Stain (Philip Roth)
5. Prelude to Foundation (Isaac Asimov) (reread)
6. मोहन राकेश की यादगारी कहानियां (मोहन राकेश) (tr. Memorable Stories of Mohan Rakesh (Mohan Rakesh))
7. Never Let Me Go (Kazuo Ishiguro) 
8. Attack on Titan: Vol 1 (Hajime Isayama)
9. Attack on Titan: Vol 2 (Hajime Isayama)
10. Boomerang (Michael Lewis)
11. Forward the Foundation (Isaac Asimov)
12. Falling Man (Don DeLillo)
13. दाग़ देहलवी: ग़ज़ल का एक स्कूल (सं: निदा फ़ाज़ली) (Daagh Dehalvi: A School of Ghazal (Ed. Nida Fazli))
14. Foundation's Edge (Isaac Asimov) (reread)
15. Foundation and Empire (Isaac Asimov)
16. Foundation and Earth (Isaac Asimov)
17. शिकायत मुझे भी है (हरिशंकर परसाई) (tr. I Too Have A Complaint (Harishankar Parsai))
18. The Caves of Steel (Isaac Asimov)
19. Complete Fictions (Jorge Luis Borges)
20. Nemesis (Isaac Asimov)
21. दोज़ख़नामा (रबिशंकर बल (अमृता बेरा)) (tr. Chronicles of Hell (Rabishankar Bal (Amrita Bera)))
22. 2001: A Space Odyssey (Arthur C Clarke)
23. Lords of Finance (Liaquat Ahmed)
24. Why Nations Fail? (Daron Acemoglu and James Robinson)
25. Flash Boys (Michael Lewis)
26. Portnoy's Complaint (Philip Roth)
27. अभी, बिलकुल अभी (केदारनाथ सिंह) (tr. Now, Just Now (Kedarnath Singh))
28. Man Tiger (Eka Kurniawan)
29. Submission (Michel Houellebecq)
30. Horse Walks Into a Bar (David Grossman)

Megamore Recent Acquisitions

Featuring:

1. Submission (Michel Houellebecq)
2. R Packages (Hadley Wickham)
3. The Competent Authority (Shovon Chowdhary)
4. Analysis of Financial Time Series (Ruey Tsay)
5. R for Data Science (Hadley Wickham and Garrett Grolemund)
6. Convergence of Probability Measures (Patrick Billingsley)
7. क्या भूलूँ क्या याद करूँ (हरिवंश राय बच्चन) (tr. What to remember what to forget (Harivansh Rai Bachchan))
8. सोनम गुप्ता बेवफ़ा नहीं है (अनिल यादव) (tr. Sonam Gupta is not a cheat (Anil Yadav))
9. आकारों के आसपास (कुंवर नारायण) (tr. In the vicinity of shapes (Kunwar Narayan))
10. A Horse Walks Into A Bar (David Grossman)
11. If On A Winter's Night A Traveler (Italo Calvino)
12. The Sellout (Paul Beatty)
13. The Vegetarian (Han Kang)
14. On Anarchism (Noam Chomsky)

The Child is Grown, The Dream is Gone. Not.

Featuring:

1. The Three-Body Problem (Cixin Liu)
2. Portnoy's Complaint (Philip Roth)
3. Invisible Planets: Contemporary Chinese Science Fiction in Translation (tr. Ken Liu)
4. Man Tiger (Eka Kurniawan)
5. Vampire in Love (Enrique Vila-Matas)
6. अभी, बिलकुल अभी (केदारनाथ सिंह) (tr. Now, Just Now (Kedarnath Singh))
7. खिलेगा तो देखेंगे (विनोद कुमार शुक्ल) (tr. Will See When Blooms (Vinod Kumar Shukla))
8. तट पर हूँ पर तटस्थ नहीं (कुंवर नारायण) (tr. On The (Shore)Line But Not Neutral (Kunwar Narayan))
9. The Peripheral (William Gibson)

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)

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

...

... 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 Revolution—a 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.

Do read the whole at: Science fiction’s new golden age in China. 

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!

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)

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

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. 

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 

Hontoni Muchos Arigatos

Namma Bengaluru beckons. Yay!

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!