Issue No.
11
March 2008
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| Welcome to March’s Review of Books |
 Tim Black
You can wear a red one for AIDS, a pink one for breast cancer, or a blue one to show your concern about the troops still being in Iraq, child abuse, censorship on the World Wide Web, second-hand smoke, or the kidnap victims of Basque separatists (with only so many colours in the spectrum, some ribbons symbolise many different things). If a kitsch, one-quid ribbon doesn't suit your dress sense, how about a wristband instead? There's the white one to make poverty history (which everyone has stopped wearing - does that mean poverty is history, or that its trendiness as a campaign is history?), and the new yellow one to complain about Chinese pollution. Why is everyone tying themselves in knots with technicolour ribbons and wristbands? In this month's spiked review of books, Jennie Bristow explores the relentless rise of the 'ribbon culture' and what it reveals about our morbid and narcissistic society. We also have Richard Reeves talking about his new biography of a dead white male with something stirring to say - John Stuart Mill; Michael Baum on the war against cancer; Philip Cunliffe on the politics of chaos in the Middle East; and much, much more. Enjoy! [Illustration by Jan Bowman.] |
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