The New Yorker's cover illustration for its January 19 issue will take on the terrorist attack on French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
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The pencil pointing upward — in this case, in the shape of the Eiffel Tower — has become an important symbol of the protests following the Charlie Hebdo attack. It's meant to tell the world that artists and writers will not be silenced by any violent threats to free speech. As Stéphane Charbonnier, editor of Charlie Hebdo and one of the victims of the attack, told Le Monde in 2012, "I don't feel as though I'm killing someone with a pen. I'm not putting lives at risk. When activists need a pretext to justify their violence, they always find it."
Read more: Photos: Thousands in Europe hold up pens in solidarity after terrorist attack.
