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Chetan Vuppulury (Jul 08 2020 at 04:23):I've heard that a draft of the third volume of Johnstone's 'Sketches of an Elephant' has been circulated. Does anyone know how I can obtain a copy?
সায়ন্তন রায় (Jul 08 2020 at 07:07):@Chetan Vuppulury Why don't you write an email to him?
Chetan Vuppulury (Jul 08 2020 at 08:08):@Sayantan Roy , I did write an email, but I did not receive a response from him.
Emily (Jul 09 2020 at 20:00):@David Michael Roberts do you know something about this topic?
(I apologise in case you find the ping annoying/unwanted. If I recall correctly, you asked here on Zulip before about the third volume of the Elephant, so I thought you might be interested in this discussion, in case you haven't seen it yet)
David Michael Roberts (Jul 09 2020 at 21:59):No! I wish I knew more!!
David Michael Roberts (Jul 09 2020 at 22:01):@Chetan Vuppulury I assume you can't get a copy. Johnstone is extremely guarded about his work being available electronically, forbidding the publisher(s) of his book from making ebook versions for sale. He had a preprint for a topic he gave a talk on once ... in paper form only.
David Michael Roberts (Jul 09 2020 at 22:02):I think just confirming the existence of a complete draft would be excellent. And an ETA for publication would be even better.
Emily (Jul 10 2020 at 23:47):I agree; knowing when it's coming out (or at least knowing how complete the draft is) would be awesome!
Emily (Jul 10 2020 at 23:48):His stance does make me a bit curious though; do you know why Johnstone is so insistent on making his work available in paper form only?
Emily (Jul 10 2020 at 23:49):(I deleted and then re-sent the first message because my messages got sent in the wrong order)
John Baez (Jul 10 2020 at 23:51):By the way, it's possible to actually delete your message, instead of leaving a message that says (deleted). You go to the drop-down menu that appears when you mouse near the date of your message, click on the down-arrow, and click on "Delete message".
David Michael Roberts (Jul 11 2020 at 12:03):He's quite old-school. Also, I imagine spending decades on a book project like that, where the book costs hundreds of dollars, maybe he gets real royalties. Until only a few years back he also didn't want the original Topos Theory book to be republished, preferring people buy The Elephant. Either because it is more complete, or otherwise, I don't know.
Emily (Jul 13 2020 at 23:46):@John Baez Thanks! I had first deleted the message from my phone first, but I followed your instructions and I think that it should now be gone for good :-)
Emily (Jul 13 2020 at 23:49):@David Michael Roberts I see; thanks!
Emily (Jul 13 2020 at 23:49):(still a shame though that things are so :/)
David Michael Roberts (Jul 28 2020 at 08:52):@Théo I happened to have an interaction with Peter Johnstone, so I asked him directly. The Synthetic Differential Geometry and realizability toposes sections are apparently essentially complete, the rest, not so much ("there are large areas of Part E which remain unwritten.") Certain students have access to copies for the purposes of learning the material, the circulation is very limited.
Emily (Jul 31 2020 at 17:50):Thanks for letting me know! :)
Emily (Jul 31 2020 at 17:51):It's nice to know that Part III is slowly getting done, even though it seems it'll take a while for it to be completed overall