Australian literary criticism after “theoryâ€Â�

Let I∗X be the dual symmetric inverse monoid on an infinite set X. We show that I∗X may be generated by the symmetric group SX together with two (but no fewer) additional block bijections, and we classify the pairs α,β∈I∗Xα,β∈I∗X for which I∗X is generated by SX∪{α,β}. Among other results, we show that any countable subset of I∗X is contained in a 4-generated subsemigroup of I∗X, and that the length function on I∗X (and its finitary power semigroup) is bounded with respect to any generating set.