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• A Survey of Verso's Responses to 9/11

  Sparing no room for nuance, the magazine covers are all reminding us that the United States—and hence the planet—is set to commemorate the ten-year anniversary of 9/11, a day that not only changed the world and signaled the end of innocence and spawned a new greatest generation, but also launched a thousand new slogans with which to label that day, and inspired thousands of speeches intent on inspiring thousands more.

  However, despite the horror, anger, uncertainty—and yes, for some, glee—from the damage inflicted on that momentous day, there remained, in the aftermath and up to now, a limited vocabulary within the mainstream with which to describe the events of that time and the trail of destruction that followed.

  And since we aren’t anticipating a commemorative circuitous flight over the country on Air Force One with the President of the United States, we would like to offer an alternate journey—that is, a survey of Verso’s responses to 9/11:

  

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  By Phan Nguyen / 08 September 2011 / post comment

• Eliot Weinberger on George W. Bush

  Eliot Weinberger takes on George Bush and his Decision Points for the London Review of Books, opening with Michel Foucault and the question, "What is an author?":

  Decision Points holds the same relation to George W. Bush as a line of fashion accessories or a perfume does to the movie star that bears its name; he no doubt served in some advisory capacity. The words themselves have been assembled by Chris Michel (the young speechwriter and devoted acolyte who went to Yale with Bush's daughter Barbara); a freelance editor, Sean Desmond; the staff at Crown Publishing (who reportedly paid $7 million for the book); a team of a dozen researchers; and scores of ‘trusted friends'. Foucault: ‘What difference does it make who is speaking?' ‘The mark of the writer is ... nothing more than the singularity of his absence.’

  Visit the London Review of Books to read the article in full. Eliot Weinberger is the author of several books including, for Verso, What Happened Here: Bush Chronicles, What I Heard About Iraq, and Muhammad.

  By Clara Heyworth / 10 January 2011 / post comment