John Gray: preference

Transcript context

…How so? I don’t know about influence, because I’m not a novelist, but it’s one of the books — Moby Dick. I’ve also read others. I’ve read others as well. The Confidence-Man is a great book, for example. “Bartleby,” the short story, is a great short story — fantastic. He’s a fantastically deep, profound, difficult writer. Of course, Moby Dick is the big one, full of biblical stuff, as you know. There’s a wonderful edition by the American — 30 or 40 years ago — Harold Beaver, which has a 200-page set of notes at the end in which all the biblical and other references and allusions are explained. He’s an incredible writer, and almost not a novelist. I don’t know what you would call Moby Dick. By the way, someone I knew well for the last 15 years of his life, J. G. Ballard, told me that that was one of his favorite books, and he kept recurring to Moby Dick, kept re-reading it and re-reading it. Can you imagine going on a quest for God the way some of Melville’s characters do? There’s too much disappointment you’re setting yourself up for, if you do that.…

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