Lanark: A Life in Four Books - Interpretation

Interpretation

Lanark could be viewed as Thaw in a personal Hell (Thaw drowns in the sea; Lanark arrives in Unthank with the same belongings, and seashells and sand in his pockets). However, the connection between the two narratives is ambiguous. Gray has said that -

• "One is a highly exaggerated form of just about the everyday reality of the other" (for example, Thaw's eczema is mirrored by Lanark's skin disease 'dragonhide')

- and writes in the novel itself:

• "The Thaw narrative shows a man dying because he is bad at loving. It is enclosed by narrative which shows civilization collapsing for the same reason" (page 484)
• (spoken to Lanark) "You are Thaw with the neurotic imagination trimmed off and built into the furniture of the world you occupy" (page 493)
• "The plots of the Thaw and Lanark sections are independent of each other and cemented by typographical contrivances rather than formal necessity. A possible explanation is that the author thinks a heavy book will make a bigger splash than two light ones" (page 493).

One of the most characteristically postmodern parts of the book is the Epilogue, in which Lanark meets the author in the guise of the character "Nastler". He makes the first two remarks about the book quoted above, and anticipates criticism of the work and of the Epilogue in particular, saying "The critics will accuse me of self-indulgence, but I don't care". An Index of Plagiarisms is printed in the margins of the discussion. For instance, Gray describes much of Lanark as an extended 'Difplag' (diffuse plagiarism) of Charles Kingsley's The Water Babies. However, some of the supposed plagiarisms refer to non-existent chapters of the book.

Gray added an appendix to the 2001 edition of the novel in which he included a brief biography and elaborated on some of the influences on and inspirations for the novel. He cited Kafka as a major influence on the atmosphere of the novel. He also referred to his own experiences in the media industry which he states is reflected in Lanark's numerous encounters in labyrinthine buildings with individuals talking in jargon. The Institute he describes as a combination of Wyndham Lewis's conception of Hell in Malign Fiesta along with three real-life structures: the London Underground, Stobhill Hospital in Glasgow and BBC Television Centre in London. More immediately evident inspiration can be seen in the cathedral and necropolis episodes in Unthank, whose proximity to an urban tangle of roads is mirrored in Glasgow's real-life Townhead area. Glasgow Cathedral is yards away from the Necropolis to the east and the M8 motorway (and aborted Inner Ring Road) to the north and west. Gray said Glasgow Cathedral was the only location he purposefully visited to make notes about during the writing of the novel; all other locations he wrote about from memory. A hellish encounter in a decaying underpass not far from "New Cumbernauld" is redolent of the under-road pedestrian thoroughfares common in the 1960s New Town design of Cumbernauld and others.