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Birth of a Theorem - A Mathematical Adventure, by Cédric Villani, details the author's long struggle to prove (with a colleague) a theorem about Landau damping in the Vlasov equation.
I had read in reviews that many were dissatisfied in that they couldn't understand the mathematics. I arrogantly scoffed, thinking myself more mathematically sophisticated. However, the actual problem is that Villani makes virtually no effort to explain the mathematics (unlike a couple great popular books on the Riemann Hypothesis I've read over the past umpteen years). And yet, will subject the reader to contextless passages of dense LaTeX. These will alternate with musings about his favorite anime series, or a lengthy list of his favorite songs, or how nice it is to flirt with female mathematics students or sit next to an attractive female passenger on a plane (particularly when you leave your wife at home!).
There are a few passages that give a hint of what it's like to be a working mathematician working closely with a colleague and more loosely with a community, but on the whole I found him insufferable.
--
Archivist Wasp, by Nicole Kornher-Stace, alternately intrigued and annoyed me. I think it needed one more go round or a bit more maturity, or something, so I'll keep an eye on her later works for sure. It starts off kind of post-Whoops Canticle of Liebowitz-y, but then no it's more like fantasy and can't be connected to an Earthlike technological past, oh wait but then maybe it is, but now we're in sort of a magic alternate universe, and o bugger it. There's a lot of extreme black and whiteness and Mary Sue-ism. And yet there's some touching stuff and a mystery of sorts. Acceptable for my plane ride to Pittcon.
--
Pittcon. Orlando. My lack of god I'm sick of this shit.
I had read in reviews that many were dissatisfied in that they couldn't understand the mathematics. I arrogantly scoffed, thinking myself more mathematically sophisticated. However, the actual problem is that Villani makes virtually no effort to explain the mathematics (unlike a couple great popular books on the Riemann Hypothesis I've read over the past umpteen years). And yet, will subject the reader to contextless passages of dense LaTeX. These will alternate with musings about his favorite anime series, or a lengthy list of his favorite songs, or how nice it is to flirt with female mathematics students or sit next to an attractive female passenger on a plane (particularly when you leave your wife at home!).
There are a few passages that give a hint of what it's like to be a working mathematician working closely with a colleague and more loosely with a community, but on the whole I found him insufferable.
--
Archivist Wasp, by Nicole Kornher-Stace, alternately intrigued and annoyed me. I think it needed one more go round or a bit more maturity, or something, so I'll keep an eye on her later works for sure. It starts off kind of post-Whoops Canticle of Liebowitz-y, but then no it's more like fantasy and can't be connected to an Earthlike technological past, oh wait but then maybe it is, but now we're in sort of a magic alternate universe, and o bugger it. There's a lot of extreme black and whiteness and Mary Sue-ism. And yet there's some touching stuff and a mystery of sorts. Acceptable for my plane ride to Pittcon.
--
Pittcon. Orlando. My lack of god I'm sick of this shit.
