Lanark_ a life in 4 books - Alasdair Gray [252]
KELMAN, JIM
Chap 47. God’s conduct and apology for it is an extended Difplag of the short story Acid:
In this factory in the north of England acid was essential. It was contained in large vats.
Gangways were laid above them. Before these gangways were made completely safe a young man fell into a vat feet first. His screams of agony were heard all over the department. Except for one old fellow the large body of men was so horrified that for a time not one of them could move. In an instant this old fellow who was also the young man s father had clambered up and along the gangway carrying a big pole. Sorry Hughie, he said. And then ducked the young man below the surface. Obviously the old fellow had had to do this because only the head and shoulders … in fact, that which had been seen above the acid was all that remained of the young man.
KINGSLEY, REVEREND CHARLES
Most of Lanark is an extended Difplag of The Water Babies, a Victorian children’s novel thought unreadable nowadays except in abridged versions. The Water Babies is a dual book. The first half is a semi-realistic, highly sentimental account of an encounter between a young chimney sweep from an industrial slum and an upper-class girl who makes him aware of his inadequacies. Emotionally shattered, in a semi-delirious condition, he climbs a moorland, descends a cliff and drowns himself, in a chapter which recalls the conclusion of Book 2. He is then reborn with no memory of the past in a vaguely Darwinian purgatory with Buddhist undertones. At one point the hero, having stolen sweets, grows suspicious, sulky and prickly all over like a seaurchin! The connection with dragon-hide is obvious. He is morally redeemed by another encounter with the upper-class girl, who has died of a bad cold, and then sets out on a pilgrimage through a grotesque region filled with the social villainies of Victorian Britain. (See also MacDONALD.)
KOESTLER, ARTHUR
See footnote 6.
LAWRENCE, D. H.
See footnote 12.
LEONARD, TOM
Chap. 50, para. 3. “In a wee while, dearie” is an Implag of the poem “The Voyeur.”
Chap. 49. General Alexander’s requiem for Rima is a Blockplag of the poem “Placenta.”
LOCHHEAD, LIZ
Chap. 48, para. 25. The android’s discovery by the Goddess is a Difplag of The Hickie.
I mouth
sorry in the mirror when I see
the mark I must have
made just now
loving you.
Easy to say it’s alright
adultery
like blasphemy is for
believers but
even in our
situation simple etiquette
says
love should leave us
both unmarked.
You are on loan to me
like a library book
and we both know it.
Fine if you love both of us
but neither of us
must too much show it.
In my misted mirror
you trace two toothprints
on the skin of your
shoulder and sure
you’re almost quick enough
to smile out bright and
clear for me
as if it was O.K.
Friends again, together in
this bathroom
we finish washing love away.
McCABE, BRIAN
Chap. 48, para. 2. The Martian headmaster is from the short story Feathered Choristers.
MacCAIG, NORMAN
Chap. 48, para. 22. The cursive adder is from the poem Movements.
MacDIARMID, HUGH
Chap. 47, para. 22. Major Alexander’s remark that “Inadequate maps are better than no maps; at least they show that the land exists” is stolen from The Kind of Poetry I Want.
MacDONALD, REVEREND GEORGE
Chap. 17, The Key, is a Difplag of the Victorian children’s story The Golden Key. The journey of Lanark and Rima across the misty plain of Chap. 33 also comes from this story, as does the death and rebirth of the hero halfway through (see also KINGSLEY) and the device of casually ageing people with spectacular rapidity in a short space of print.
MacDOUGALL, CARL
Chap. 41, para. 1. Poxy nungs is the favourite expletive of the oakumteaser in the colloquial verse drama A View from the Rooftops.
McGRATH, TOM
Chap. 48, para. 22. The android’s circuitous seduction of God is from the play, The Android Circuit.
MacNEACAIL, AONGHAS
See Nicolson, Angus.
MANN, THOMAS
Chap. 34, para. 5. “Screeching, shrieking, yowling, growling, grinding, whining, yammering, stammering,