Keeping a sane mind
Trainspotting author irvine Welsh’s lust for life helps him deal with boredom.
SCOTTISH author Irvine Welsh is back with his latest novel called Dead Men’s Trousers, reuniting readers with the cast of characters from his landmark 1993 novel Trainspotting.
The fictional character Mark Renton is finally a success now, as Welsh’s publisher’s website describes it.
“Becoming an international jet-setter, he now makes significant money managing DJS,” the online synopsis states, describing the good fortunes that have seemingly affected the character, who in the previous Trainspotting novel series seemed to just wander aimlessly through his life, along with his pals Frank Begbie, Sick Boy and Spud – all drug addicts.
Renton’s latest incarnation might have been influenced by Welsh’s own personal experience working with party music himself.
When he was appearing onstage during the closing night of the 2019 Ubud Writers and Readers Festival in Bali, he was not there to read excerpts from his new novel.
That he already did in his afternoon session. That evening, he had incarnated into DJ Irvine, toying with the Pioneer DJ set to set the mood for a party, entertaining a crowd of writers, intellectuals and literary enthusiasts who flocked onto the front lawn of the Blanco Renaissance Museum.
In no time, the crowd lost itself in a collective dance as the evening drew on and as DJ Irvine spun out several party anthems.
From the Talking Heads’ energetic 1983 piece Burning Down The House to the more melancholic 1975 piece by Harold Melvin and the Bluenotes called Don’t Leave Me This Way, he hypnotised the crowd after an intense four-day intellectual and creative exchange during the festival.
Prior to this, in July 2019, he surprised fans by playing a DJ set in an Edinburgh festival. He also runs a DJ management company and is getting ready to release his first acid house debut album in the near future.
Welsh said he has always loved music, in its various genres and expressions – in the 1970s he used to play the guitar and sing in the London punk scene.
He seems to relish from his diverse hobbies, which feed his creative endeavors.
“It’s tough to keep on writing if you keep on doing the same thing every day. I don’t have any routines. I change my daily activities a lot,” he said.
Writing is also an act that requires one to be inactive for long periods of time.
“I don’t like sitting down at a desk all day long; you have to move. This is why I enjoy boxing, running and playing tennis as well,” added the 61-year-old.
All these activities help stimulate Welsh’s creativity. They help him gain new inspirations whenever he starts hitting a snag with the process.
Welsh’s literary milestone happened in 1991, when he wrote a series of stories published in various literary magazines. The stories would later be compiled into Trainspotting, which shot him to fame, despite having critics divided over the book’s literary merits.
To this day, his literary style is still described as cryptic by some people, although this does not prevent him from earning a steady readership.
Irvine Welsh’s debut novel Trainspotting burst out in a whirlwind of drugs, sex and violence that horrified and delighted critics alike.
The novel was adapted into a film by Danny Boyle in 1996. Prior to Dead Men’s Trousers, he wrote two other books featuring the Trainspotting personae: Porno (2002, later retitled T2 Trainspotting )and Skagboys (2012).
He has also written Glue (2001) and The Sex Lives Of Siamese Twins (2014), among the 17 books – including novels and short story collections – he has published so far. He has also written stage and screen plays.
Despite his vast experience, inspiration can sometimes be hard to come by.
He said the most frustrating part of writing was when “it doesn’t really go well all the time”.
“I can always write 10,000 words a day, but I don’t want to write a 10,000-word (piece of ) crap,” he said. “This is why every book you do is a chance for you to **** with the process.”
On good days, he said he can usually produce many substantial paragraphs and in these episodes of creative bursts, he would dedicate long hours to craft his works.
“I would just write until I drop. Usually, the day after that, no new inspiration will come to me and its OK. I will just go out for a walk or engage in sports. When thoughts come I will just collect them along the way; this is why I get many post-it notes on my walls,” he said.
At first sight, Welsh might appear as a highly reserved, if not shy, type of person. Throughout the festival, many spotted him in Bali’s various restaurants, yet they said they did not have the courage to approach him because he appeared to be lost in his own thoughts.
Such impressions can be misleading. When telling stories of his activities, it is clear he is a robust bundle of energy and he is not as quiet as he seems.
The man – who mentions Jenni Fagan’s 2016 dystopian novel The Sunset Pilgrims, which speculates that the Earth will froze over in 2020, as one of his recent favourite books – also unabashedly talked about his disillusionment with society. Welsh, a true-blue punk hippie with an enduring disillusionment of modern life, also does not make the fictitious character Renton’s life any easier with the latter’s newfound success.
Look at how the synopsis continues: “...but the constant travel, airport lounges, soulless hotel rooms and broken relationships have left him dissatisfied with his life”.
Giving away any spoilers about the new novel is not wise, but Welsh, a man who survived electrocution as a young television repairman and falling off the top deck of a bus, is definitely not one for doom and gloom.
This is why he enjoyed going to Bali for the first time for the festival.
“When culture disappears, we become depressed, robotic and nonsense. The only time we’re free as humans is when we have festivals,” said the author, who lives in Dublin, Ireland, and retreats to Miami Beach, US, for a large part of winter.