IN THIS ISSUE

NEW

Humanist

Volume 121 No 4 July/August 2006

EDITOR Caspar Melville

DEPUTY EDITOR Pádraig Reidy

COMMISSIONING EDITOR Laurie Taylor

ASSOCIATE EDITOR Sally Feldman

DESIGNER Paul Anderson

CARTOONIST Martin Rowson

SPECIAL THANKS Meena Chauhan, Judith Walker

EDITORIAL OFFICES 1 Gower Street, London WC1E 6HD Tel 020 7436 1151 Fax 020 7079 3588 Email info@newhumanist.org.uk Website www.newhumanist.org.uk ISSN 0306-512X

Published by the Rationalist Association. Available on microfilm for libraries in the USA from: Proquest,300 Northzeeb Road, Ann Arbour,Michigan,USA

RA ASSOCIATES

VICE PRESIDENTSBaroness Susan Greenfield,Paul Kurtz,Laurie Taylor

HONORARY ASSOCIATESDavid Aaronovitch, Peter Atkins,Lord Birt,Harold Blackham, Colin Blakemore,Alan Brownjohn,Colin Campbell,Philip Campbell,Noam Chomsky, Bernard Crick,Helena Cronin,Richard Dawkins,Sanal Edamaruku,Paul Edwards, Ekow Eshun,Winston Fletcher,Antony Flew, Michael Foot,AC Grayling,Stuart Hall,Tony Harrison,Simon Heffer,James Hemming, Christopher Hitchens,Eric Hobsbawm, Richard Hoggart,Ted Honderich,Linton Kwesi Johnson,Sir Ludovic Kennedy,Richard Leakey,Sir Michael Levey,Sir John Maddox, Haydn Mason,George Melly,Jonathan Miller, Edwin Mullins, Conor Cruise O’Brien,Jack Parsons,John Postgate,Claire Rayner, Amartya Sen,David Starkey,Ralph Steadman,DJ Stewart,Ian Stewart,Hazhir Teimourian,Claire Tomalin,David Tribe, Baroness Turner of Camden,Arnold Wesker, Francis Wheen,Lewis Wolpert

4 NEWHUMANIST

28HOPELESS ROMANTICS Lynda Nead on the perennial appeal of the suffering artist

8DON’T LOOK BACK Stan Cohen sorts through the messy process of reconciliation

©Tate2006

COLUMNS 6DIARY Douglas Rushkoff on his new biblical comic book 10DEATH WISH Would you help a friend die? Jenni Murray would 11FREE SPEECH FOR ALL Sunny Hundal despairs of minority self-censorship 15HAPPY EVER AFTER Carol Smart on her research into gay marriage 19GOODBYE TO ALL THAT Michael Bywater misses his ivory tower 24WISHFUL THINKING Wishing doesn’t make it so,says Jeremy Stangroom 25REASONABLE BOUNDS AC Grayling finds Kant’s humanist side

REGULARS

3 EDITORIAL

7 PARISH NEWS

40 LETTERS

41 CONCRETE REASONING

42 ENDGAME Laurie Taylor’s looking a little flushed