02.17.06 :: A thought

It will be important for me to make the distinction between Gray's text as schizophrenic and not merely non-chronological. I think I'll base this argument around this interview excerpt:

MA: The notion of a "Life in Four Books" presupposes a linear progress, yet Lanark is not constructed in a traditionally linear way, moving as it does from book 3 to prologue to book 1 to interlude to book 2 to book 4 and an epilogue. How do you harmonize the artificially constructed life of the novel with the "real lives" of Lanark and Thaw?

AG: I felt no need to harmonize them. I yoked the bits together and expected the reader's interest to flow over all, as my imagination had done.

The word usage here -- particularly "flow" -- is perfectly suited to my argument.