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> I looked at Gray again and thought, yes, I was pulling a long bow there -
> but still, he does ask prose to do unexpected things which challenge the
> assumption of narrative, a safe house for most prose which doesn't do
> much else with its language.
Well, at least it's made me drag _Unlikely Stories, Mostly_ from the
shelves. And _Lanark_ as a whole as well as in parts could be considered
metaphorical (or a metaphor).
Memories of an evening in Philip Hobsbaum's flat in the early seventies,
when a group of us including AG were sitting around watching a play Alasdair
had written for STV being broadcast. Gradually, he hunched over more and
more with his head in his hands, then half-way through gave a stiffled sob,
got up and left. At least _Lanark_ liberated him from that. ***
Maybe the edge with AG isn't the prose/poem boundary but the prose/visual
art one. All the books he's had a strong hand in are crafted as visual as
well as verbal objects.
It's late at night (early in the morning) so more considered comments on
your mail anon.
Cheers
Robin
*** The only thing I remember from the play is that there was a man and a
woman (or was it two women?) and the woman throws a vase into the fireplace
and it breaks and the man bends over the shards and says, "Feelings can be
mended, vases can't."
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