I wasn't sure whether to title this as I did, or about how annoying I think Marcus du Sautoy is. I am listening to a podcast of In Our Time, which is absolutely the best thing about our much-degraded Radio 4, hosted by Melvyn Bragg. Marcus d S is the just the sort of mathematician I hate. Like a wine buff, trying to transfer experience from one mode to another, he trivialises it to the point of uselessness. I cannot believe I am listening to this drivel about bagels and the earth. It just does not convey the real experience of doing mathematics.
I am reminded of "Hikaru No Go" which is a truly wonderful anime series about a young boy who is entered by a Go-playing spirit from a previous time. The anime is full of the human drama of playing Go, and truly exciting, but after watching it you will still know very little about how to play Go. To do that you have to do the hard work and learn how to calculate and read out positions. Mathematics is like that: you have to do the hard work. Lots of funny arm waving and humanising it is just doing mathematics an injustice.
I saw M du S talking about the Music of the Primes once before and his idea of getting us enthused about mathematics - oh god - icosoahedral space is like ..we're back to football - anyway his idea was to show us an excerpt from The Cube. Please.
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