PWF 2003 Irvine Welsh in conversation with Michael March

Food for thought with the Q's:

Michael March:  Victor Klemperer said: "What is tradition. Everything begins with me.” What went wrong and where does it begin?

Irvine Welsh:  If I were a Christian I would go for the Garden of Eden, but I don't know if it did go wrong. I would dispute the current climate of pessimism in the West. Things are getting better. But maybe that's just with me. After all, who cares about tradition?

MM:  According to Roberto Calasso, "loss proceeds presence. Every image must abide by this rule". What about the loss of hair?

IW:  To lose a few hairs is careless, to lose the lot is truly a blessing.

MM:  For Hannah Arendt, "mercy insists on inequality". Do you feel equal to the task?

IW:  Yes, mercifully.

MM:  Martin Heidegger said: "The light of the public obscures everything." Does this confirm "the unbearable lightness of being"?

IW:  I never really got on with Heidegger, probably shouldn't say that where I’m headed. Sometimes I think the light of the public illuminates what might be better kept hidden.

 MM:  What is the language of love, and how is it practiced?

IW:  Love has its own bizarre codes. One of the benefits is that you get to construct your own private language. Fortunately, this language can never be shared.

MM:  While surfing near Lesbos, Friedrich Schiller remarked that "man forms himself as a fragment". Was he off his marble?

IW:  It's the sort of fleeting rumination that surfing in Greek islands may lend itself too, but shouldn't be seen as indicative of mental infirmity.

MM:  "If war is the destruction of good restaurants, then neutrality is a kind of divinity. Are we what we eat?

IW:  Without a doubt. The older I get, the more inclined I am to believe that we are the sum total of ingestions and immersions.

MM:  Are we "condemned to hope"?

IW:  I would certainly hope that we are. The alternatives seem unsustainable.

MM:  Is "power the leprosy of the world"?

IW:  Yes. There is nothing good and honorable that cannot be destroyed, corrupted and warped by the pursuit of power. Every decent enterprise can end in tyranny and brutally if those in charge are allowed to pursue it.

MM:  Is "ignorance our sole resource"?

IW:  It's seldom a real resource at all, and although it can often seem that way, that's only because we are operating from a position of ignorance.

MM:  Why are Austrians ignorant of your work?

IW:  I didn't know they were. My only real indication comes from my German royalty statements which are very healthy at the moment. Austria isn't counted separately, and I had always assumed that the Austrians pulled their weight here. If that isn't the case, maybe the festival will help rectify that sad state of affairs!

MM:  Tell us about your new novel.

IW:  Oh god, I hate it so much. I'm at that stage where I wish it would just leave my life so that I can do other things. I can't make head nor tail of it. I think it's about identity, but I could be wrong.

MM:  Why are we doing this to each other?

IW:  It's what we do.