Truth Man, Beast and Zombie

Humans think they are free, conscious beings, John Gray writes in his provocative new book, Straw Dogs, but in truth they are deluded animals. Straw Dogs is a trenchant critique of humanism, the belief that humans can free themselves from the limits that frame the lives of other animals and be masters of their own destiny. For Gray this is an absurd delusion. We do not speak of a time when whales or gorillas will be masters of their destinies, he asks. Why then humans? Only, he suggests, because humanists deny what Darwin taught us: that humans are animals and, like all animals, we are only currents in the drift of genes.

· Straw Dogs [Prospect]


Culture Bad Mistake

Victoria Kaulback crossed the Channel in search of glamour and romance, and found a land of humourless conformity. Like someone who has just read one of those magazine articles entitled ‘What He Says and What It Means’ and has discovered that ‘I want to spend loads of time with you’ means ‘I want to sleep with your best friend’.

· French with tears [Spectator]