Anderson, Carol and Norquay, Glenda (1983), Interview with Alasdair Gray, in Hearn, Sheila G. (ed.), Cencrastus No. 13, Summer 1983, pp.6 – 10, ISSN 0264-0856

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.

As far as spiritual theories of the world go this is relatively plausible. Little wonder then that its principle tropes - Light and Freedom - appear periodically in European literature. Lanark is an example. Its characters are obsessed with light, either finding it or avoiding it. Lanark‘s goal is to escape from the realm of artificial light into that of pure ‘heavenly’ light. Gray'in entellektuel birikimi, Lanark ve Thaw ikilisinde kendisini birçok farklı şekilde okura göstermesi ve mizah anlayışı kendisine hayran bıraktı. Özellikle kapitalizm ve entellektüeller üzerine getirmiş olduğu eleştiriler, kitabın tartışılması ve sunduğu çok katmanlılık açısından da kitabı son derece değerli kıldı. Cameron, Lucinda (29 December 2019). "Tributes to 'master of creativity' Alasdair Gray". Belfast Telegraph . Retrieved 7 January 2020.

This is the premise and issue of an ancient style of thinking called Gnosticism, the essential presumption of which is that we thinking, reflective beings actually don’t belong here. We have been exiled from elsewhere and are condemned to wander aimlessly in this universe of hopelessness, pain, disease, death, and... well evil until we are rescued from it and returned to whence we came. This view is expressed in too many diverse ways to be called a philosophy; but it does have an historical continuity that reflects its intellectual and emotional power. Gray’s work on a larger scale, beyond the images associated with the making of Lanark, is also represented through works such as ‘Blossom and Diane’, ‘The Artist’s Family and Friend’ and his portrait of Scots Makar Edwin Morgan, ‘Portrait of EM (Edwin Morgan) (1920-2010)’. a b c d Gray, Alasdair (1981). Lanark: A Life in Four Books. Edinburgh: Canongate Books. ISBN 978-1-84767-374-9 . Retrieved 27 July 2017. a b c d e f g h i j k Campbell, James (29 December 2019). "Alasdair Gray obituary". The Guardian . Retrieved 29 December 2019. She re-read it recently. Has anything changed? “I had a very different response to it having known and worked with Alasdair, made more poignant by the fact that he’s no longer here,” she admits. “I’ve been immersed in Alasdair’s life and work for so many years that the book resonates in a different way. I can make links across space and form with other books and art works he has made, so the book now feels richer as a result. I also appreciate his clarity of language and how he strived to do this with word and line, to distil words and images into their purest form.”

Nicola Sturgeon, first minister of Scotland, remembered him as "one of the brightest intellectual and creative lights Scotland has known in modern times." [100] Tributes were also paid by Jonathan Coe, Val McDermid, Ian Rankin, Ali Smith and Irvine Welsh. [100] [101] The Guardian referred to him as "the father figure of the renaissance in Scottish literature and art". [4] His works are archived at the National Library of Scotland. [102] Lanark, subtitled A Life in Four Books, is the first novel of Scottish writer Alasdair Gray. Written over a period of almost thirty years, it combines realist and dystopian surrealist depictions of his home city of Glasgow.

Gray was a Scottish nationalist. He started voting for the Scottish National Party (SNP) in the 1970s, as he despaired about the erosion of the welfare state which had provided his education. He believed that North Sea oil should be nationalised. He wrote three pamphlets advocating Scottish independence from England, [nb 5] noting at the beginning of Why Scots Should Rule Scotland (1992) that "by Scots I mean everyone in Scotland who is eligible to vote." [71] [72] In 2014 he wrote that "the UK electorate has no chance of voting for a party which will do anything to seriously tax our enlarged millionaire class that controls Westminster." [73] Gray described English people living in Scotland as being either "settlers" or "colonists" in a 2012 essay. [71] [74] Caroti, Simone (2018). The Culture Series of Iain M. Banks: A Critical Introduction. Jefferson, North Carolina, United States: McFarland. ISBN 978-1-4766-2040-4. Of course the extended metaphor of Lanark communicates the secret gnostic knowledge of the light, but such knowledge is in itself insufficient: “Metaphor is one of thought’s most essential tools. It illuminates what would otherwise be totally obscure. But the illumination is sometimes so bright that it dazzles instead of revealing,” as one of the characters points out. Lanark knows that what’s necessary above all is a very specific sort of courage: “‘Admit!’ he told himself, ‘You watched the sky because you were too cowardly to know people.’” Alasdair Gray seriously injured in fall". The Guardian. 18 June 2015. Archived from the original on 11 March 2017 . Retrieved 6 January 2020.

Benim açımdan ise, Lanark'ı fikir olarak ve Gray'in selam çaktığı birçok yazar ve eser doğrultusunda değerlendirdiğimde elimden bırakmak istemediğim bir kitap oldu. Gray'in her bölümü ustalıkla sonlandırması, yapmış olduğu betimlemeler- ki beni kendimden aldı-estetik anlamda cidden tatmin etti. In 2014–2015 Dallas devised the Alasdair Gray Season, a citywide celebration of Gray's visual work to coincide with his 80th birthday. [29] The main exhibition, Alasdair Gray: From the Personal to the Universal, was held at the Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum [30] with over 15,000 attending. [5] A History Maker (1994) is set in a 23rd-century matriarchal society in the area around St Mary's Loch, and shows a utopia going wrong. [54] The Book of Prefaces (2000) tells the story of the development of the English language and of humanism, using a selection of prefaces from books ranging from Cædmon to Wilfred Owen. Gray selected the works, wrote extensive marginal notes, and translated some earlier pieces into modern English. [55] Alasdair Gray set for first London exhibition". BBC News. 27 July 2017. Archived from the original on 3 January 2018 . Retrieved 6 January 2020.