Rima said firmly, "In the first place, that oracle was a woman, not a man. In the second place, her story was about me. You... fell asleep and obviously dreamed something else." a b c d e f "Alasdair Gray - Literature". literature.britishcouncil.org . Retrieved 6 January 2020. I read Alasdair's part hopelessly biographical, part darkest fantasy Lanark in the spring of 2007. I could not read it again. In those days I'd identified the character(s) Lanark/Thaw to the person I was in love with (especially the artist parts). (I bet I'm the only person who is gonna say that about THIS book.) Those feelings changed (boy did they ever) and I'd not be able to bear being reminded of those feelings (as they probably should have always been) in their new light. I feel kinda crazy sometimes. This is a crazy book, though, so at least I didn't wander into some cookie-cutter sane land. According to the tailpiece present in Canondale’s The Canons edition: “How Lanark Grew” Lanark is both largely autobiographical—a fact made more interesting by the book’s fantastical nature—and was written over the course of thirty years. Alasdair Gray’s early masterpiece definitely has some flaws—weak secondary characters, poorly written female characters—but is such a wild ride that I didn’t mind them too much. Ferguson, Brian (19 May 2013). "Alasdair Gray puts Mor of us in the picture". The Scotsman . Retrieved 6 January 2020.

Settlers and Colonists by Alasdair Gray". Word-power.co.uk. 20 December 2012. Archived from the original on 21 May 2014 . Retrieved 21 May 2014. I wanted very much to love this book, which was probably my first mistake. I had heard a lot of extremely complimentary things about how it was the most unusual, eccentric and meaningful novel various people had read for ages, and I probably came to it with rather exaggerated hopes. Anyway, it's good, but it's also flawed, as to be fair the author himself admits in a rather interesting confessional Epilogue. Gray began writing the novel as a student in 1954. Book One was written by 1963, but he was unsuccessful in getting it published. The whole work was finished in 1976, and published in 1981 by the Scottish publisher Canongate Press. The novel was an immediate critical success. [8] [9] Adaptations [ edit ] He paraphrased it from a poem by the Canadian author Dennis Lee. [75] The original lines were: "And best of all is finding a place to be/in the early days of a better civilization". [76]

The historical originators of Gnosticism were the Manichaeans, Persian followers of the sage Mani, who developed a rather elaborate, and empirically based, theory of human existence. Look up in the night sky, they said, and you will see clearly that there is another world beyond that enclosed by the solid vault of heaven. Those points of light we call stars are actually holes, imperfections, in that vault, the casing of our world, through which we can see bits of the world beyond. That is the realm of light whence we came and to which we are meant, according to cosmic logic, to return. The real mission and spiritual duty of all human beings is to seek the knowledge by which such a home-going can be achieved. Glass, Rodge (2012). Alasdair Gray: A Secretary's Biography. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 978-1-4088-3335-3. Turner, Jenny (21 February 2013). "Man is the pie". London Review of Books. 35 (4) . Retrieved 12 January 2020. But their efforts remain a constant, and something, at least something. Reward, even the effectiveness of the characters in living up to their own high expectations, is not the point, after all: the point and their - our - greatest justification is the striving itself. I could’ve actually done without the four chapters that succeeded the Epilogue. I found them mostly pointless, and the Epilogue itself has a sort of choose your own ending option baked in that I think would’ve worked remarkably well as an ending itself.

a b c d e Cameron, Lucinda (29 December 2019). "Alasdair Gray's creative talents spanned the arts". Belfast Telegraph . Retrieved 6 January 2020. In my travels, as I walked through many regions and countries, it was my chance to happen into that famous continent of Universe. A very large and spacious continent it is; it lieth between the heavens. It is a place well watered, and richly adorned with hills and valleys, bravely situate, and for the most part, at least where I was, very fruitful, also well peopled, and a very sweet air.” Alasdair Gray's Lanark: A World Made on Paper marks the 40th anniversary of the publication of Gray's first novel, Lanark: A Life in Four Books. Published in 1981, it is considered to be one of the greatest masterpieces of 20th-century Scottish literature. Alasdair Gray seriously injured in fall". The Guardian. 18 June 2015. Archived from the original on 11 March 2017 . Retrieved 6 January 2020. Alasdair Gray at Oran Mor, the arts and leisure centre in a converted church in Kelvinside, Glasgow, where he painted the ceiling and murals. Photograph: Murdo Macleod/The Guardian

1934 – 2019

To a reader in a country where resignation is a national pastime, a country where the standard childhood training lists "showing off" as the worst sin of all, a country whose church, family and education systems used once to ring with the hurled accusation, "Who do you think you are - someone special?", this encouragement to strive nonetheless was powerful stuff. And how much, how very much, it touched the heart. I would love it to become an annual event and to use the date to celebrate the breadth and scope of one of Scotland’s most important cultural polymaths,” she says. “Alasdair’s work spans so may mediums and forms that it feels only right to celebrate an aspect of this multi-faceted artist every year.” Craig, Cairns (1981), Going Down to Hell is Easy, review of Alasdair Gray's Lanark, in Murray, Glen (ed.), Cencrastus No. 6, Autumn 1981, pp. 19 - 21

Alasdair Gray". The Guardian. London. 22 July 2008. Archived from the original on 11 May 2008 . Retrieved 6 January 2020.The Unthank parts of the book may be considered as part of the "social-commentary" tradition of science fiction, and Lanark has often been compared with Nineteen Eighty-Four by George Orwell. [6] Goldie, David (2015). "Scottish Fiction". In James, David (ed.). The Cambridge Companion to British Fiction, 1945-2010. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-1-107-04023-6. He had an eight-year relationship with Danish jeweller Bethsy Gray [18] [19] and was married to Morag McAlpine from 1991 until her death in 2014. [4] [20]

Christianity, and consequently Christian culture, is tinged with gnostic influences from its inception; but has always rejected the gnostic mode of thinking as unbiblical in its presumption of the essential evil of the world we inhabit. Christianity does, however, maintain somewhat paradoxically the idea that there is a ‘better place’ which is our true home. This it calls Paradise, a realm close to God with no pain, no disease, and no death; that is a place without evil. From a lesser writer, stygian darkness and baroque structure might see off a mass audience and reduce a book to cult status. In Gray's hands, the simple, direct prose found him a wide readership.

Around 2000, Gray had to apply to the Scottish Artists' Benevolent Association for financial support, as he was struggling to survive on the income from his book sales. [4] In 2001 Gray, Kelman and Leonard became joint professors of the Creative Writing programme at Glasgow and Strathclyde Universities. [35] [56] [57] Gray stood down from the post in 2003, having disagreed with other staff about the direction the programme should take. [58]