Street roots., January 18, 2013, Page 7, Image 7

PEARL, from page 1
street roots
Jan. 18, 2013
7
A uthor Irvine Welsh on a trip back to his hometown, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Now living in Chicago, the Scottish author talks about his new novel, homelessness and drugs
BY BILLY BRIGGS
communities and families and the pressures
C O N T R IB U T IN G W R IT E R
that were on them.
peaking to a street paper reporter
It also kind of moved away from a work
during a recent outing in Edinburgh,
society to a drug society where the
Scotland, author Irvine Welsh
underground economy would be the main
described the street paper concept as “one source of activity in the schemes that I grew
of the great social achievements of the last
up in. I remember when I was growing up
20 years.”
everybody worked. There was only a small
High praise from this acclaimed and often
amount of people who didn’t work, who
controversial author of sometimes unsavory
were on the dole, who lived off the state,
realities.
who did all the dodgy scams and who dealt
His novel “Trainspotting,” about the
anything that was going to be dealt.
heroin culture of the 1980s, was adapted
When work collapsed and all the
into a widely acclaimed movie directed by
apprenticeships collapsed, everyone was
Danny Boyle in 1996. The film has been
suddenly unemployed, and the only thing
ranked 10th in the top 100 British films of
there was for people was the underground
all time by the British Film Institute. Welsh
economy - the thieving, the scamming. And
published “Porno,” a sequel to
most of all drugs because people were
“Trainspotting,” in 2002, followed by its
miserable and alienated, so there was a
prequel “Skagboys” in 2012. While originally
massive demand.
from Edinburgh, he currently lives in
Chicago with his wife.
B.B.: Do Americans get the humor and
In this interview for street papers, Welsh
language of “Trainspotting” and “Skagboys”?
talked about his latest novel, “Skagboys,”
the prequel to his 1993 classic
I.W.: I’m more culty rather than
“Trainspotting,” and Scottish independence.
mainstream (in America). On the West
Oh, and of course, a wee bit about drugs.
Coast and East Coast I do very well but I
don’t really do anything in the middle. Some
Billy Brigs: When writing “Skagboys” did
of the best readers I have are from America
you fin d it difficult revisiting the characters in
because they tend to be a very clued-up,
“Trainspotting” after such a long time?
culturally aware crowd ... because if you’re
not used to seeing those types of words on a
Irvine Welsh: Yeah, but I had a lot of
page it takes a lot to get past them.”
source material left over that I always
B.B.: Are you still as angry with your
wanted to use. It was kind of strange
because I was going back to them (the
writing as you were back in 1993?
characters) when they were a couple of
I.W.: I don’t know. “Skagboys” is probably
years younger than in Trainspotting. When I
the most overtly political book I have ever
started writing Trainspotting I was a 28-year-
old guy writing about 24-year-old guys. When written. But I always try and have a lot of
fun when I write ... to find the kind of spirit
I started writing Skagboys I was a 50-year-
of the characters, find the humanity within
old writing about 22-year-olds.
them. If you put characters in a dark place
It was actually a historical novel because
then you’ve got to have them groping for
things had moved on so much. I had to do a
the light switch rather than just wallowing in
lot of research about the 1980s to get back
the blackness. This makes them much more
to it even though I lived through it - ail the
interesting dramatically if there’s going to
references - what was on at the cinema and
be some kind of change, or at least the
TV at the time.
possibility of change.
We know what happens to them (the
characters in Trainspotting) so it (Skagboys)
B.B.: You also had an addiction - how did
was more of an investigation as to why and
you get out of it?
what the big changes were: the
I.W.: When I look back at this now, being
deindustrialization of Britain and Scotian ,
older, I look at it in terms of you have to
the dominance of right wing and neo-liberal
have things driving the addiction, rather
ideas, the consequences that had for the
S
kind of British cultural identity, it’s essential
than just the drug itself. Any kind of
to end political union between Scotland and
addiction has to be fueled by something
England. I’m not a drum-banging patriot. I
other than the drug.
just think the union is in decline, and if you
I had issues - there were family
are for a progressive solution then in my
bereavement issues, there were personal
eyes you’ve got to be in the YES movement.
relationship breakdowns. I didn’t really have
the emotional vocabulary to express feelings
I also feel no one has articulated the case
about those things. I know now, for
there is for Unionism in Britain. It’s sad that
example, that if my wife left me the last
Danny Boyle articulated a more progressive
thing I would be doing is looking for some
case for the union in 30 minutes of
smack or even going to a bar and drinking
transmission than the Labour Party, the
myself silly. Back then I didn’t really know
Conservative Party and Liberal Democrats
any other way.
have done so far, and that shows the poverty
A lot of people who kind of came through
of the arguments on the Unionist side.
it - people like me who had some transitory
It’s this kind of fear politics which I can’t
issue that basically died down - they had to
stand because I see so much of it in
get rid of the physical addiction, which I
America. It’s horrible. It is manipulating
don’t think is the worst part of it. The worst
people into being scared of any kind of
part is having nowhere else to go once
change. I think that we can’t stand still —
you’ve stopped. No alternative plan of
the world is such a
lifestyle, opportunity
dynamic and
or employment just to
dangerous place. To
find your place in the
The worst part Is b a v liif
stand still and do
world, basically. You
nothing is not an
nowhere else I® g® once
are stuck. It’s a kind of
option. We have to
y o s /w stopped. No
lonely place to be.
keep changing and
I noticed a big
alternative plan of lifestyle? evolving.
difference between
opportunity or employment
people like myself
B.B.: What is the
just to fin d your place In the
back then who were
homelessness situation
world basically,
fortunate to have
like in Chicago where
other things going on
you now live?
and other people
who’d had something
I.W.: It’s pretty bad. There’s a lot of
happen to them ... (who) maybe just had
hidden homelessness in America: people in
one skin too few for this world, maybe
their 30s and 40s living at home with their
suffered some kind of abuse or trauma in
parents. That’s not really healthy.
childhood. You saw a wide range of things
It’s a Western world phenomenon.
and underlying despairs of people. To me it
Whenever you read of a violent shooting or
went a lot deeper than the drug issue. The
hammer attack, when you look at it, so
drug issue for me was always an effect
much is caused by hidden homelessness. It
rather than a cause.
is caused by family stress as a result of
B.B.: What are your views on Scottish
people sharing, multi-occupancy, inter-
independence?
generational tendencies, where the lifestyles
are completely different. There’s not enough
I.W.: I live in the States now and have not
lived in Scotland for a long time. I feel a bit
space.
conflicted about it as I moved to London
The right wing argument is that families
when I was quite young. I’ve always had a
will absorb all that kind of pressure and all
positive feeling about London and England,
the social costs of change but what happens
but you have to face realities, and the reality
is they don’t. I’m surprised this is not a
for me is that - looking at it objectively -
bigger issue over here in the UK.
the union is in secular decline and I think,
www.street-papers.org/IN S P
paradoxically, in order to preserve some