A Convergence
of Convergences:
A Contest.
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For more information
about this contest,
click here.
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Contest Winner No. 15.
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Time's Deliberate Convergence.
By Steve Denyszyn
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This convergence is not at all a subjective one—it's a manufactured one,
courtesy of the folks over at Time magazine's cover-design department. The
first image is the Time cover from May 7, 1945 (the death of Hitler); the
second is that of June 19, 2006 (the death of al-Zarqawi).
The design of the more recent cover raises some interesting sets of questions:
1. Are they really comparing al-Zarqawi to Hitler? As nasty a character as
he was, it seems like a bit of an overstatement to compare his death in
terms of significance to that of the architect of the Holocaust, the man who
sent the whole world to war. Plus, the death of Hitler, announced by the
first cover, brought about Germany's surrender and the end of the war in Europe. Is Time, therefore, declaring the war in Iraq over, and victory for
al-Zarqawi's opponents? Doesn't seem likely.
2. For whom was the second cover designed? Hardly anyone alive today would
remember the Hitler cover, so the "historical resonance" factor is virtually
nil. Only unusually dedicated followers of Time covers (Timeheads?) or Time employees—and even in that case only Time employees who have poked around the archives or who have made studies of past cover designs for their own
work—would "get" this reference.
So it seems like an internal wink, then: a deliberate convergence by Time
magazine for Time magazine. They would have had to wait this long, as
anyone who remembered the first cover would also be pretty outraged at the
comparison. It will be interesting to see who Time decides to X out 60
years from now.
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Weschler Responds.
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Nice catch, Steve: you must be almost as geeky as I am to have noticed it.
But I agree with you completely about the odd misprison involved,
though Time is by no means alone in such tinpot, tin-eared
conflations. For indeed, it is as if the tin-soldier statesmen of the
current era, from Bush through Rumsfeld through Blair, long to swath
themselves in the mantles of the Golden Age Roosevelts and Marshalls
and Churchills, huffing and puffing with all their might to cast their
war of civilizations in a similar light. Though, as you so well point
out, one among many, many crucial differences is that they don't seem
to be winning theirs. Which, alas, as you also point out, may still
be coming as news to those behind that more recent cover.
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OTHER WINNERS.
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1. Evolving, Evolved by Charlie Hopper
2. Primal Forces, Basic Colors by Andy Hunter
3. The End of the Beginning by Holly Dunsworth
Intermezzo by Lawrence Weschler
4. This Is Not an Ad by Jimmy Chen
5. Catskills Vagina by Dan Clem
6. The Antipodes by Chris Zic
7. Self-Made Constriction by Sam Gaskin
8. We Are the Son by Danny Erker
9. Painfully Unaware by Dan Park
10. Gutshot by Jason Torchinsky
Weschler's Second Interlude
11. Love and War by Kim Wood
12. Inside and Out There by Lena Webb
13. The March by Emily Marvosh
14. Feminine Divine Triptych by Margit Christenson
15. Time's Deliberate Convergence by Steve Denyszyn
16. A Rousseau/Hirshfield Convergence by Adam Webb
Beirut/Warsaw by Lawrence Weschler
17. Clothesline Raising Over Carlisle, Indiana by Charlie Hopper
Carnival of Convergences
Weschler's Fourth Interlude
Aftersquib to the Foregoing
18. Pelvises All the Way Down by John Peter Rickgauer
19. Ovary Night? by Maya Muñoz
20. Christ in Space by Jonathan Shipley
A Pair of Convergences Off of Tina Barney
Another Carnival of Convergences
21. Moral Confusion: Iraq, Munich, and Vietnam by Donald Rumsfeld
22. Seeing the Tree for the Forest by Walter Murch
An Addendum to the Foregoing, and a Visitor Challenge
23, 24, and 25. Far Out by Michael Benson, Brian Christian, and Walter Murch
26. Jewish Bunk Beds by Monica S. Bland
Those Damn Swedish Trees, Take 3: Convergence of the Blogs
27. Degenerate Boogie-Woogie by Lisa Lee
Carnival of Convergences No. 3
28. Sand and Moon by Alison Cornyn
Actaeon: An Ovidian Impromptu by Lawrence Weschler
29 and 30. Hoods and Veils by Vero Testa and Lauren Redniss
The Onion/Bickle Convergence by Lawrence Weschler
31. The Lone Figure Against the Armored Swarm by Michele Siegel
32. Muscle and Flow by Benjamin R. Cohen
An Addendum to the Foregoing: Cities, Brains, Orchestras by Lawrence Weschler
Saint and Princess by Lawrence Weschler
Beauty Queen and Baghdad Hummer by Lawrence Weschler
Carnival of Convergences No. 4
Laughing, Clapping, Constantly Forgetting: A Trill of Readerly Associations by Lawrence Weschler
33. Lithographica by R.A. Villanueva
34. Papal Fire (Papa Lux) by Nick Feia
Addendum to "Laughing, Clapping ..." and, More Specifically, to the Stalinist-Applause Anecdote by Lawrence Weschler
35. Disseminations: Internet, Dandelions, Flight Paths by Sarah Daegling
36. Black and White and in Color by Walter Murch
Carnival of Convergences No. 5
Lee Friedlander's Visionary Trees: An Addendum to the Last Chapters of Everything That Rises by Lawrence Weschler
37. Shipwrecked Desperation by Charles Mudede via Matt Haber
38. Life Forms by Ariel Winter
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