tag:theconversation.com,2011:/us/topics/irvine-welsh-10604/articlesIrvine Welsh – The Conversation2023-09-11T15:42:19Ztag:theconversation.com,2011:article/2123072023-09-11T15:42:19Z2023-09-11T15:42:19ZChoose Irvine Welsh: new documentary explores the life of Scotland’s ‘urban Shakespeare’<p>On August 23, Scottish novelist <a href="https://www.penguin.co.uk/authors/167724/irvine-welsh">Irvine Welsh</a>’s beloved Edinburgh football team, Hibs, went head-to-head with Aston Villa in the Europa League. But they were also competing for attention with the world premiere of Choose Irvine Welsh, a documentary by filmmaker <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm11822898/">Ian Jefferies</a> about the life, writing and cultural impact of the man it dubs Scotland’s “urban Shakespeare”. </p>
<p>The latter was debuting at the <a href="https://www.eif.co.uk/archive/eiff-choose-irvine-welsh">Edinburgh International Film Festival</a>, the former at Easter Road in Leith. As a fellow “Hibby”, on the buildup to the night I found myself wondering: “Which of the tickets would Welsh choose?” I suspect there was little competition. (<a href="https://www.hibernianfc.co.uk/matches/aston-villa-vs-hibs">Hibs were defeated five-nil</a>).</p>
<p>Ian Jefferies’ last documentary – <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1sJgidQLuN4">Kick Out the Jams: The Story of XFM</a> (2022) – was a 90-minute dive into 1990s culture via a rebellious pirate radio station. Choose Irvine Welsh is a 90-minute documentary that dives into 1990s culture via a rebellious novelist, exploring and celebrating the cult(ure) surrounding the various films his work inspired.</p>
<p>The two musically augmented, talking-head films are arguably cut from the same cloth. With this in mind, here are some quick strikes against the documentary before getting to what I loved about it.</p>
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<h2>Choose Irvine’s weaknesses</h2>
<p>First, there is an over tendency to use found archival footage to illustrate any proper noun or place name mentioned throughout the 90 minutes. A grating exception being that the film incongruously illustrates discussions of Welsh’s life in dockside Leith with stock images of tartan-clad bagpipers, Edinburgh castle and the Georgian New Town.</p>
<p>Then, there is a predictable, but overwhelming, preference for enthusing testimonials from celebrities such as Danny Boyle, Ewan McGregor, Iggy Pop and Gail Porter, rather than academics or “the real cunts” Welsh knew before he was famous.</p>
<p>The documentary often feels like a formulaic paint-by-numbers job that ubiquitously deploys era music to underscore recorded and archival testimonies. All this gives it the anachronistic feel of a bonus feature for a Trainspotting DVD box-set.</p>
<h2>Choose Irvine’s strengths</h2>
<p>But not all is lost. Choose Irvine’s strengths make it very worth seeing and appreciating. The film opens with a shot of Princes Street (which is definitely not in Leith, as the documentary suggests) in 1958. This serves double duty. It not only evokes the year of its subject’s birth, but aesthetically anticipates the dynamic opening scene Boyle filmed on this same street in his adaptation of <a href="http://www.imdb.co.uk/title/tt0117951">Trainspotting</a> (1996), Welsh’s most famous book.</p>
<p>Unlike that sequence though, this archive footage holds close an image of the iconic <a href="https://www.edinburghmuseums.org.uk/venue/scott-monument">Scott monument</a>, a memorial to another great Scottish writer, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/story/what-did-sir-walter-scott-write">Sir Walter Scott</a>. Thereafter, Jefferies secures a relaxed and insightful interview with Welsh, which serves as the film’s vertebrae and elevates the whole production.</p>
<p>Welsh’s salty reflections on his near-death experiences, being in various failed “bedroom bands” and his troubled path to becoming a breakthrough author are riveting and illuminating. The story of how his first novel became popular with Scottish prisoners, football types, the “clued-up working class” and then university students also offers a lesson in <a href="https://hbr.org/podcast/2019/12/the-tipping-point-between-failure-and-success">tipping-point success</a>.</p>
<p>Welsh’s reflections on becoming a breakthrough national novelist in 1993 before catapulting to global success after the release of the Trainspotting film also offer a fresh rat run through the scrapheap of clichés about the “<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/inequality/commentisfree/2017/jul/05/cool-britannia-inequality-tony-blair-arts-industry">cool Britannia</a>” era, which Welsh describes as a “requiem Mass for British culture”.</p>
<p>Because of Welsh’s well-documented lust for life, the documentary is also laced with funny stories and anecdotes that make the hedonistic 1990s seem incredibly long ago. The story of why Welsh failed to turn up to meet his hero David Bowie is a gas, as is the story of signing a young Martin Compston’s Trainspotting poster with “fuck the Tories and fuck the Jambos” (the nickname for Hibs’ rival football team, Hearts), scrawled across Ewan McGregor’s forehead.</p>
<h2>Choose Irvine’s philosphy</h2>
<p>Although wild and rough around the edges, the documentary paints the author of extremely dark and disturbing tales as an optimistic soul with a solid moral compass. His friends perceive his novels to be “not just about drugs, shagging, getting pissed and fighting” but about “love between groups of people, or couples”. </p>
<p>In reflexive discussion, Welsh talks perceptively about his observations on group dynamics and manages to get across a grounded practical philosophy for getting on in life. This we might call, with echoes again of his being a lifelong Hibs fan, “choose failure”.</p>
<p>As Welsh puts it himself in response to a question about possible future success: “You want to think to yourself, ‘Nothing is a complete success or failure’. I think if you can do that, in the knowledge that you’ve given your best, then that’s a success really.”</p>
<p>And Choose Irvine Welsh is a success. For anyone interested in the life and times of this much-read Scottish author, the 1990s more generally and the fandom surrounding the adaptations of his work, it’s a must see.</p>
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<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David H. Fleming does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>A riveting and insightful portrait of the much-read Trainspotting author, replete with funny stories and memorable anecdotes.David H. Fleming, Senior Lecturer in Film & Media, University of StirlingLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/732692017-02-21T03:51:06Z2017-02-21T03:51:06ZTrainspotting on stage brings a disturbing reality vividly to life<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/157608/original/image-20170221-18635-iszbu3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Calum Barbour as the drug dealer in Trainspotting. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="license">Author provided</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Irvine Welsh’s in-yer-face, anti-fairy tale of no-hope NEDs (non-educated delinquents), and the mega-highs and ultra-lows of skank (heroin) in <a href="http://www.biography.com/people/margaret-thatcher-9504796#synopsis">Thatcherite</a> Scotland, may now be seen by those who, when it first appeared, were no more than wee gobshites sucking at their mother’s tit. And if you think that’s offensive, perhaps this isn’t the show for you.</p>
<p>Now a stage show touring nationally, Trainspotting was first a <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/135836.Trainspotting">novel</a> (1993), then a play, and a <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117951/">film</a> (1996), with a sequel, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2763304/">T2 Trainspotting</a> opening this week. The adaptations of this grunge classic reveal different qualities in each medium. The stories are fractured and verbally dense, a mix of Scots and Scots English.</p>
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<p>Danny Boyle’s film is cooler, almost ironic, with sequences of colourful, surreal action. The stage version is something else again. It has chunks of prose description in it, lifted straight from the book, but also explosions of visceral action of the kind live performance specialises in.</p>
<p>It’s one thing to read about the lead character Alex Renton waking up covered in his own vomit and faeces. It is another to see it happen three feet away from you and – should you be the lucky recipient of the actor’s attention – have a heavily soiled sheet flipped over you like a chair cover. First produced at Edinburgh’s Traverse Theatre in 1994, it’s raw, exposing, high-energy theatre, and fluids pour from every orifice of the cast’s bodies.</p>
<p>When the film appeared I was advised not to see it because it “glamourised drugs”. Er, no. It is hard to imagine a clearer-eyed testament to drugs’ scrofulous effects than Welsh’s “scabby wee book”. It makes Cormac McCarthy seem like an optimist. Trainspotting doesn’t demonise drugs and it certainly doesn’t demonise its characters. It tells the truth about them, and that is enough.</p>
<p>How does this revival of the stage play stand up after 20 years? Haven’t we moved on? Hasn’t the yawning void of life in Leith in the late 1980s been replaced by a golden age of i-pods, gym memberships and meaning? </p>
<p>Who would have thought – certainly not me, looking back at those bleak, dislocated times, that the world would actually get worse. Trainspotting has not dated. If anything, its dank reality has spread more widely. Save for the absence of mobile phones and CCTV cameras, it could have been new-minted last Tuesday.</p>
<p>Like the game of soccer with which the characters are obsessed, the play comes in two halves. The first is fast, furious and very, very funny. The characters lurch from worse to worser, as life presents its intractable qualities. It’s a comedy, in other words, albeit it a comedy about hard drugs.</p>
<p>The second half is an evenly paced descent into hell, as the consequences of earlier actions play out to terminal result. Renton survives, but Tommy, his best friend contracts HIV and dies alone in a pit of a flat. The hinge scene is one in which Sick Boy shoots up with his girlfriend Lesley while their baby daughter, Dawn, dies of neglect in the room next door.</p>
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<p>This production from the UK, courtesy of the Kings Head and Andrew Kay, was presented in Adelaide in a low-ceiling bunker at Hindley Street station, a concrete lozenge with audience on both sides and a few spectators in the middle. Music throbbed on entry and laser lights flickered. The nightclub atmosphere set the evening up for some engaging spectator interaction and an appropriate sense of immediacy.</p>
<p>Touring a theatre show is unforgiving labour. The actors – all great – are working their tails off, often doing three a shows a day. This demanding schedule, plus the non-theatre space, means their voices are taking a battering. Dialogue down the opposite end of the venue was hard to follow, particularly when delivered in thick Scottish accents. Let’s hope the actors find more user-friendly venues on their travels. They deserve them.</p>
<p>At Trainspotting’s opening night, a festival-hungry audience was clearly looking for a good time. And for the first 50 minutes of this 75 minute production they got it. After that, as a friend said to me later “you don’t really enjoy this show, you experience it”.</p>
<p>I took my 13 year old son, even though it’s advertised for 16 and older. After the first scene I thought I’d made a terrible mistake and would have to leave. A few minutes later I realised I hadn’t. Modern drama is full of serial killers and predatory extraterrestrials, gigantic video games that suck your brains out, and armies of zombies that eat your flesh. There’s schlock horror every time you turn on Netflix.</p>
<p>Trainspotting is confronting in a different sense. It’s real. The characters in the play aren’t victims. They are witty, intelligent and self-empowered. But they are part of a society that doesn’t give a shit about them, and in which they can find no psychological or functional purchase.</p>
<p>T2 Trainspotting releases in Australia on February 23. It will be fascinating to see what Renton, Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie are doing today.</p>
<p><em><a href="https://www.adelaidefestivalcentre.com.au/shows/trainspotting/">Trainspotting</a> is showing at the Adelaide Festival Centre until March 19, and will be performed in Melbourne (March 22 - April 13) and Brisbane (April 19 - 22).</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/73269/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Julian Meyrick does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s one thing to read Irvine Welsh’s grim tale of 1980s Scotland - it’s another to see it happen three feet away from you.Julian Meyrick, Professor of Creative Arts, Flinders UniversityLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/660072017-01-25T11:17:10Z2017-01-25T11:17:10ZTwenty years after Trainspotting, is it still ‘shite’ being Scottish?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/151727/original/image-20170104-18679-16hqz6o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Choose life. Choose a job. Choose a career. Choose a family. </span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Channel Four Films</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>This month will see a continuation of the Trainspotting saga – reuniting the original characters 20 years on for the release of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2763304/">T2 Trainspotting</a>. Fans of the film and author Irvine Welsh may be excited, but the 20 years that have passed since the original movie hit our screens means the sequel arrives in a very different time and a very different environment. </p>
<p>For one thing, Trainspotting launched many of its stars into successful movie and television careers. Since the original, Ewan McGregor has portrayed young Obi-Wan Kenobi in the Star Wars prequels. And Robert Carlyle, Jonny Lee Miller and Kelly Macdonald have all appeared in TV shows such as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1843230/">Once Upon a Time</a>, <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2191671/">Elementary</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0979432/">Boardwalk Empire</a>. Success hasn’t been a stranger to director Danny Boyle either, who won a best director Oscar for Slumdog Millionaire in 2009.</p>
<p>The conditions of film production in Scotland have also changed a great deal since the first Trainspotting was made. In the early-to-mid 1990s, Scottish film productions received public lottery funding from the <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=O8VZAAAAMAAJ&q=Screening+Scotland&dq=Screening+Scotland&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwilm4-I3cfRAhVk74MKHbiZBL4Q6AEIGjAA">Scottish Film Production Fund</a>. </p>
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<p>This was then supplemented by sources such as Channel 4, BBC Films and the Glasgow Film Fund. The collaborations were an essential part of the funding, as generally none of these sources could provide enough money to finance an entire film – Channel 4’s involvement with <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=O8VZAAAAMAAJ&q=Screening+Scotland&dq=Screening+Scotland&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwilm4-I3cfRAhVk74MKHbiZBL4Q6AEIGjAA">Trainspotting being a notable exception</a>. </p>
<p>But following the back-to-back successes of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0111149/">Shallow Grave</a> and Trainspotting, in 1997 the Scottish Film Production Fund was combined with other film-related public organisations into the overarching body known as <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=O8VZAAAAMAAJ&q=Screening+Scotland&dq=Screening+Scotland&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwilm4-I3cfRAhVk74MKHbiZBL4Q6AEIGjAA">Scottish Screen</a>. </p>
<h2>What you been up to for 20 years?</h2>
<p>This organisation was designed to address filmmakers’ complaints about the Scottish Film Production Fund – and to stop those who oversaw the lottery-based funding from only <a href="https://books.google.com/books?id=O8VZAAAAMAAJ&q=Screening+Scotland&dq=Screening+Scotland&hl=en&sa=X&ved=0ahUKEwilm4-I3cfRAhVk74MKHbiZBL4Q6AEIGjAA">supporting film productions</a> they had interests in. But not long after its inception, the newly formed Scottish Screen quickly drew criticism for its perceived favouritism towards more mainstream productions – which were often taken on because it was believed they would be able to compete on an international level and achieve the levels of success seen by Trainspotting. </p>
<p>Unfortunately, though, many of the films supported by Scottish Screen turned out to be <a href="http://www.iupress.indiana.edu/product_info.php?cPath=1037_7487&products_id=76859">financial and critical failures</a> – and the funding agency was dissolved by the end of the noughties. Many Scottish filmmakers at this time began to turn to other sources of film financing, particularly European co-production. This meant Scottish cinema often took on a more continental feel in terms of both style and subject matter. </p>
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<p>One example of this in <a href="http://www.zentropa.dk/">Zentropa Entertainments</a>, the production company belonging to Danish director and leading figure in the <a href="http://www.dogme95.dk/dogma-95/">Dogme 95</a> movement, Lars von Trier. The movement saw filmmakers stripping cinema of its illusions, by making directors ascribe to a set of restrictions known as “<a href="http://www.dogme95.dk/the-vow-of-chastity/">The Vow of Chastity</a>”. Von Trier made <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0115751/">Breaking the Waves</a> in Scotland, and his company also produced films such as <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0329767/">Wilbur Wants to Kill Himself</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0300109/">The Last Great Wilderness</a> in Scotland during the early 2000s. </p>
<p>Zentropa also paired with Glasgow’s <a href="http://www.sigmafilms.com/">Sigma Films</a> for <a href="https://web.archive.org/web/20110711095859/http://www.glasgowfilm.com/redroad/advance_party.html">The Advance Party</a> project, which aimed to give first-time feature directors a chance to produce three films using the same set of characters. The first of these films, Andrea Arnold’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0471030/">Red Road</a> won the Jury Prize at Cannes in 2006. </p>
<h2>Creative Scotland</h2>
<p>By July 2010, Scottish public funding for film production fell under the rubric of <a href="http://www.creativescotland.com/">Creative Scotland</a> – a new developmental body for support of the arts and creative industries in Scotland. Though drawing criticism, much as its predecessors had done, Creative Scotland has had a hand in the production of several feature films such as Robert Carlyle’s directorial debut <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2552394/">The Legend of Barney Thomson</a> and the recent adaptation of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2884018/">Macbeth</a>, starring Michael Fassbender. </p>
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<span class="caption">Actors Ewan McGregor and Ewan Bremner running through the streets of Edinburgh in T2.</span>
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<p>Over the past few years, there have also been a number of high-profile populist films coming out of Scotland, such as the Proclaimers musical <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2481198/">Sunshine on Leith</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1450321/">Filth</a> – another Irvine Welsh adaptation. </p>
<p>But despite this popular streak, production of more art-house fare remains strong in Scotland, with offerings such as Ken Loach’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1924394/">The Angels’ Share</a>, and Jonathan Glazer’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1441395/">Under the Skin</a>, which starred Scarlett Johansson.</p>
<h2>Domestic talent</h2>
<p>Given all the changes over the last 20 years, it’s easy to wonder if Trainspotting’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/character/ch0003659/?ref_=tt_cl_t1">Mark Renton</a> would still agree with his declaration, “It’s shite being Scottish”? Because it isn’t just the industry that has changed in 20 years, Scotland itself has changed since the 1996 release of Trainspotting. Just one year later, in 1997, Scotland voted in favour of devolution, and in 1999 the Scottish Parliament was restored after a 292 year absence. </p>
<p>Devolution has given Scotland the ability to make some policy decisions – not only regarding arts funding but also in areas such as education, housing and health and human services – separately from the United Kingdom. </p>
<p>And there is a markedly increased interest in the political side of Scottish nationalism as well. By 2011, the Scottish Nationalist Party held a majority in Holyrood. And although the 2014 Independence referendum was defeated, it was by less than 11% of the vote. Then, of course, there is the result of EU Referendum, in which Scotland voted overwhelmingly to remain. </p>
<p>So, with a changing political climate and with Scotland named as the <a href="http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/scotland-now/scotland-named-number-2-country-9549817">number two country in the world in 2017</a>, 20 years on, maybe Scotland isn’t looking so shite after all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/66007/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emily Torricelli does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>As T2 Trainspotting hits cinemas, a great deal has changed since the original.Emily Torricelli, PhD Researcher in Theatre, Film and Television, University of YorkLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/473232015-09-10T05:32:58Z2015-09-10T05:32:58ZChoose life, choose a job, choose a sequel … do we need Trainspotting 2?<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94292/original/image-20150909-18672-1ghhl63.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'I will proceed directly to the intravenous injection of hard drugs, please.'</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/benedikte/3207362010/in/photolist-5TqyZ1-ePEq8m-c7dbj7-bFbQyX-eiLayg-dNdvS8-bf42UK-dtxFf5-6ZrZDj-bMTA3c-dXGV9h-dvkz7o-ccbpaE-eQ1kJ1-czz2YJ-depgXy-bUutti-6VxiPc-aRAMT8-6VZg1q-cSufdJ-btpXYu-4F2rMR-cvohCh-dr1FhY-dMAzxb-6PU2tZ-jxh16e-cnvkKb-dWrdE5-dgdyRt-bh4aHV-dQkwgw-dW4uHD-drDr48-dQDqT9-e4toN9-ebiBVB-chh2zA-dtAGrr-dyo9YR-dwirLB-6aPV3M-cVCFc9-752gvk-bjvVux-6CfwPT-cfZrom-cttcJw-dBCsry">Benedikte Vanderweeën</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Danny Boyle <a href="http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/films/news/trainspotting-2-danny-boyle-to-begin-shooting-longmooted-sequel-20-years-after-landmark-film-10490494.html">has announced</a> that his next project will be a sequel to the breakout hit Trainspotting. Planned to be released next year to coincide with the 20-year anniversary of the original, what can we expect from the follow-up and what implications does this move have for a film industry increasingly dependent on delayed sequels and reboots?</p>
<p>Based on the novel by Irvine Welsh and set in Edinburgh, Trainspotting famously centred on Renton (Ewan McGregor), a heroin addict whose very existence seemed determined by his quest to get his next fix and the effects on his family and wayward friends: Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller), Spud (Ewen Bremner), Begbie (Robert Carlyle), Tommy (Kevin McKidd) and Diane (Kelly Macdonald). </p>
<p>It was a visceral and kinetic depiction of 1990s drug culture, aesthetically somewhere between <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0066921/">A Clockwork Orange</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0110912/">Pulp Fiction</a>. Together with an innovative advertising campaign and popular soundtrack (“lager, lager, lager …”), what resulted was a global critical and commercial hit. And this was surprising, considering the harrowing subject matter: the sequence showing Renton’s withdrawal and that toilet scene are two memorably disturbing moments.</p>
<figure>
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</figure>
<p>So how will the sequel compare? Its working title, Porno, comes from Welsh’s own <a href="http://www.irvinewelsh.net/books/info/?t=Porno">book sequel</a>, although the rumours are that the film’s plot will differ from the novel. After many years of speculation, Boyle is set to return to direct, John Hodge will again adapt the screenplay and the four leads (McGregor, Bremner, Miller and Carlyle) will reprise their roles. </p>
<p>Twenty years is a long interval, however, and part of Trainspotting’s success was surely the way it captured the public’s imagination at a specific cultural moment. It was part of the era of 1990s/early 2000s club culture in the UK that went on to spawn the likes of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0188674/">Human Traffic</a> (1999), <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0274309/">24 Hour Party People</a> (2002) and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0388139/">It’s All Gone Pete Tong</a> (2004). Moments from the film have meanwhile become iconic, such as the rhythmic, frenetic “choose life” opening sequence accompanied by Iggy Pop’s Lust for Life. Moments such as these might create a sense of nostalgia for spectators when the sequel is released, but they might equally prove unrepeatable. </p>
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</figure>
<p>Life after Trainspotting has also changed dramatically for some of its key personnel. Boyle has become an <a href="http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/oscars/7904567.stm">Oscar-winning</a> director with <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1010048/">Slumdog Millionaire</a> (2008) and a critical darling thanks in no small part to tackling a diverse range of subject matter and genres. Horror (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0289043/">28 Days Later</a> [2002]), science fiction (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0448134/">Sunshine</a> [2007]) and biopic (<a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2080374/">Steve Jobs</a> [2015]) have all received the Danny Boyle treatment, not to mention his role as artistic director for the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=H2VPSjHnc2E">London 2012 Olympic Games</a>. Going back to the same subject matter could prove a professional risk.</p>
<p>Ewan McGregor’s performance as Renton turned him into a Hollywood leading man with roles in Baz Lurhman’s version of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0203009/">Moulin Rouge</a> (2001) and as Obi-Wan Kenobi in the three <a href="http://www.slate.com/blogs/quora/2015/05/03/star_wars_why_does_everyone_hate_the_prequels.html">Star Wars prequels</a>. As such, McGregor has developed a star persona that is at odds with his role in Trainspotting, when he was still relatively unknown to audiences. It will be a testament to his skills as an actor if he is able to seamlessly step back into that role.</p>
<h2>Choose dollar signs</h2>
<p>Sequels and reboots are hardly a new phenomenon, but they seem to be everywhere in mainstream Hollywood. A glance at films playing in UK cinemas this week reveals the extent of production companies’ dependency on tried and tested formulas to ensure healthy box-office returns. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2381249/">Mission Impossible: Rogue Nation</a> is the fifth iteration of Tom Cruise’s all-action Ethan Hunt, itself a remake/reboot of the 1960s television series. </p>
<p>Other examples include <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1340138/">Terminator: Genisys</a> and Marvel superhero film sequels <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2395427/">Avengers: Age of Ultron</a> and <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0478970/">Ant-Man</a>, which form part of a “multi-verse” of film and TV crossovers to cultivate a distinctive brand. Then there is <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2938956/">The Transporter Refueled</a>, where the film’s reboot status even seems to be referenced in the title.</p>
<p>What is perhaps less common is the delayed sequel/reboot, but that may be changing. The extraordinary <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/film/2015/sep/07/global-box-office-bollywood-jurassic-world-transporter-refuelled">financial success</a> of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0369610/">Jurassic World</a> demonstrated this year how a successful product, several decades old, can be re-packaged and sold to a new audience as well as those who look fondly on the original. </p>
<p>Forthcoming releases include <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1608290/">Zoolander 2</a> and an all-female update of <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1289401/">Ghostbusters</a>. It is tempting to decry this trend as nothing more than balance-sheet filmmaking. Jurassic World, especially, bares a remarkable resemblance to its 1993 predecessor in terms of plot and characters. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94288/original/image-20150909-18637-ntvxtn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94288/original/image-20150909-18637-ntvxtn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/94288/original/image-20150909-18637-ntvxtn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94288/original/image-20150909-18637-ntvxtn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94288/original/image-20150909-18637-ntvxtn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94288/original/image-20150909-18637-ntvxtn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94288/original/image-20150909-18637-ntvxtn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/94288/original/image-20150909-18637-ntvxtn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">And compared to the fans’ reaction …</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/jobriga/8731272255/in/photolist-eiy43P-cCEpK-9MCD7g-9MFpbE-9MFopS-9MCAnr-9MCA6z-9MCzNa-o5pgkU-4b6Kuu-6gSXfm-6gSWwo-nYXGQ1-ogaDWZ-6gNKGZ-ogpoAS-uNq7Xv-napDkz-a2SD1n-hbeGCf-bN195M-idjRow-wKV72-bz6t3G-maHjcR-eiDNFW-9Mvt3s-87XMKe-a5SxMp-38bEQH-idk7Bq-4BDBPd-4BDBQ1-4BDBPu-4BDBPN-bfdhy-p6Lkw8-a2SCYr-hXSaUL-ALK3m-2p9NX4-cezhxY-maJ1Ct-dvbDX6-cUjx7C-33cpx-kihDy-33cpQ-p5mDN-5fNw3">Joe Gallagher</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In some cases, the film spectator might have more of a part to play than they realise. Joss Whedon’s 2005 space western <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0379786/">Serenity</a> and last year’s <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1229340/">Anchorman 2: The Legend Continues</a> were both examples of films that came about from strong fan demand – outcry from fans of Whedon’s science fiction series Firefly in the case of Serenity and howls for the further adventures of Will Ferrell’s anarchic character in the case of Anchorman. Clearly the reduced economic risks of familiarity and spectator demand are both powerful forces, often working together of course. </p>
<p>No doubt they are both playing at least some part in the decision for “Trainspotting 2” to go ahead. That and timing. Hodge had finalised a draft script two years ago, but it seems Boyle and co are now all in a position to commit to the project. Either way, we shall have to see whether it can be a hit with fans and at the box office. For those wary of the result, there is at least one definite note of reassurance: it is being made by those who created a landmark British film the first time around.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/47323/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Adam Vaughan does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>Danny Boyle’s pop heroin fable defined an era and made the careers of everyone involved. Here are a few reasons to be wary of the sequel - and a possible happy ending.Adam Vaughan, Postgraduate Researcher, University of SouthamptonLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/316112014-09-17T08:47:01Z2014-09-17T08:47:01ZScotland’s literary types should leave indyref analysis to the experts<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/59170/original/z65my55b-1410869746.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Val McDermid and Alex Massie on The Andrew Marr Show</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-29196878">BBC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>You can hardly miss all the Scottish writers who are engaged in the business of considering the state of an independent Scotland – writers such as Val McDermid on <a href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04hg7rp">The Andrew Marr Show</a>, or the poet John Burnside in <a href="http://www.lrb.co.uk/v36/n17/lrb-scotland/reflections-on-the-independence-referendum">the London Review of Books</a>, or Irvine Welsh <a href="http://www.standard.co.uk/comment/irvine-welsh-the-scots-poll-can-give-hope-to-the-left-across-britain-9559111.html">here</a> and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/books/2014/jul/19/scottish-referendum-independence-uk-how-writers-vote">there</a>. </p>
<p>I find myself (with a smile on my face) counting up the number of them who aren’t published by English houses or engaged deeply and energetically with a cultural life south of the border. And whatever remnant is left, it is worth asking (again with a smile) how many among them are not – despite all the talk of independence of mind and politics and spirit – deeply desirous for review coverage and a readership that is much larger than can be afforded by a country that might split off on its own with its own Scottish newspapers and possibly even its own BBC?</p>
<p>Because of course writers want more for their work than any kind of localised reception. Doesn’t our choice of publishers and the pieces we write for the national – not only Scottish – papers prove that we do? Yet so many of them are, even so, our literary spokespeople, cheering and “aye"ing and waving the Saltire … when the literary discussion about what’s Scottish and what’s not is surely long over.</p>
<h2>The paradox of Scottish writing</h2>
<p>Indeed, Scottish letters is now in its interesting follow-on phase, with Scottish writers setting their work way beyond the border, embedding it hard in Salmond’s <a href="http://www.scotsman.com/news/politics/top-stories/alex-salmond-london-is-dark-star-of-the-economy-1-3328653">"dark star”</a> of a metropolis and further afield even (albeit as poet and scholar Alan Riach rightly <a href="http://www.listener.co.nz/current-affairs/the-scottish-play-3/">pointed out recently</a>, we are still waiting for there to be established more than the one department of Scottish literature in the entire kingdom that exists at his University of Glasgow). </p>
<p>So why, with the history of Scottish literature thus so established that it might represent anything it pleases, should fiction and poetry now feel it must play a part in the nation’s deliberations?</p>
<p>In some cases you also have to question writers’ motives. One prominent Yes thinker admitted to a colleague recently that the whole issue of an independent Scotland was “great for business”. In the midst of numerous media appearances, this surely adds to the sense that this debate may well indeed profit certain writers. </p>
<h2>Our undeniable shared language</h2>
<p>For those of us whose currency is in words, not economics or fiscal policy, we have to admit to the same language, north and south of the border, and admit that despite what many of those poets and novelists say – when they say, as they say often, that no one cares about Scottish literature – we all, across the British isles, read the same books. The issue of a shared language and culture is just that – shared.</p>
<p>So enough of all the chat from our chattering imaginative classes. I want to read column inches from economists and political scientists and historians who will tell me about all of those things that really will be separate and demarcated and different if we have an independent Scotland. Informed, authoritative content free from spin or politics. </p>
<p>I want there to be pieces in all our papers about the things that will be real. Articles and essays and opeds about money and taxes and policy written not by politicians or writers or poets but by scholars and experts and statisticians – those other kinds of writers. What’s needed now is opinions and thoughts arrived at from fact, not fantasy. We need there to be much ado about … something, after all.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/31611/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Kirsty Gunn does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>You can hardly miss all the Scottish writers who are engaged in the business of considering the state of an independent Scotland – writers such as Val McDermid on The Andrew Marr Show, or the poet John…Kirsty Gunn, Professor of Creative Writing, University of DundeeLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/270542014-05-22T20:20:35Z2014-05-22T20:20:35ZChoose Trainspotting: Welsh’s debut was and is a great novel<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49205/original/n4sgsy48-1400723735.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Irvine Welsh's book represents the cry of the unvoiced in any cultural place or age.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">hélène veilleux</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>It’s been 21 years since the publication of Irvine Welsh’s groundbreaking and controversial novel, Trainspotting. Since then, it has been widely praised and <a href="http://www.theguardian.com/society/2009/aug/15/scotland-trainspotting-generation-dying-fact">criticised</a>, rejected by a mainstream audience and embraced as a cult read. So where might it sit between those extremes?</p>
<p>For those who haven’t had the pleasure, the book follows the fate of four Edinburgh junkies and their decidedly non-junkie (but serially aggressive) pal, Begbie. Finding the money to score becomes all-important, to the detriment of everyone around them and – as main character Renton discovers – breaking free from this peer group is almost as difficult as kicking heroin.</p>
<p>The book has been <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books?id=d5OwSkMI-mkC&pg=PA19&lpg=PA19&dq=Sarah+Hemming+%22a+series+of+unrelated+episodes%22&source=bl&ots=njvzwiOFgf&sig=bUmw-8RWYvQMz6f_iL9PlLGpfwY&hl=en&sa=X&ei=3Ux9U6-fDcLz8QW714CwCQ&ved=0CDMQ6AEwAQ#v=onepage&q=Sarah%20Hemming%20%22a%20series%20of%20unrelated%20episodes%22&f=false">variously described</a> as “a collection of short stories”, “a series of unrelated episodes”, a work “broken up into fragments” – with the result that it’s “hard to call it a novel”. Its original imprint ran <a href="http://www.irvinewelsh.net/biography/item.asp?id=20&t=Esquire-Spain-Interview">a quote</a> by writer Kevin Williamson suggesting it deserved to sell more copies than the Bible.</p>
<p>So, from a distance of two decades, what can be made of this tale of “<a href="http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=wideo">wideos</a>” in Scotland’s – and latterly London’s – housing schemes? </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/Sl6O7sad9hI?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for Trainspotting, the film.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In his 2005 <a href="http://books.google.com.au/books/about/Irvine_Welsh.html?id=FSGt6VoSh28C&redir_esc=y">book</a> on Trainspotting, University of Edinburgh lecturer <a href="http://www.ed.ac.uk/schools-departments/literatures-languages-cultures/english-literature/staff/academic?person_id=154&cw_xml=publications.php">Dr Aaron Kelly</a> writes: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>… mainstream metropolitan criticism often mistakes as a failed or underdeveloped version of itself a writing that is actually the site of radical difference. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>In writing this, Kelly pinpoints the reason for both the novel’s rejection and acclamation. Great novels can be said to challenge the status quo, any status quo, in a manner that also carries some kind of investigation into the human condition, any human condition, anywhere. </p>
<p>It’s hardly surprising, in retrospect, that when the book was published, many critics refused to acknowledge it as a novel. <a href="http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0388076/">John Hodge</a>, who rewrote Trainspotting as screenplay for the Danny Boyle 1996 film version, describes it as:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>a collection of loosely related short stories about several different characters. Only towards the end does it take on a continuous narrative form.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>As Kelly points out, such readings of the novel fail to meet the reader’s own expectations of a novel’s form and function rather than considering whether it’s those very expectations that fail Trainspotting. As Welsh himself noted in a 1995 interview published in the Guardian: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>This medium, literary fiction, is a middle-class plaything, so you’re analysed, dissected and defined by people who have come from a certain cultural viewpoint. They are looking into a world that they don’t have direct first-hand experience of so they rely on intuitive views and prejudices which may or may not be appropriate. </p>
</blockquote>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49186/original/25y6qhcs-1400719318.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/49186/original/25y6qhcs-1400719318.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49186/original/25y6qhcs-1400719318.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49186/original/25y6qhcs-1400719318.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49186/original/25y6qhcs-1400719318.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49186/original/25y6qhcs-1400719318.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/49186/original/25y6qhcs-1400719318.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Irvine Welsh.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Alejandro Garcia/EPA</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The novel-or-not-a-novel debate distracts somewhat from the key fact of the language that Welsh represents in the book, that signposts the serious intent or basis of the book: its cry of the unvoiced in post-Thatcher Britain, representing the cry of any unvoiced in any cultural place or age: </p>
<blockquote>
<p>Society invents a spurious convoluted logic tae absorb and change people whae’s behaviour is outside its mainstream. Suppose that ah ken aw the pros and cons, know that ah’m gaunnae huv a short life, am ah sound mind, ectetera, ectetera, but still want tae use smack? They won’t let ye dae it. They won’t let ye dae it, because it’s seen as a sign ay thir ain failure. The fact that ye jist simply choose tae reject whut they huv tae offer. </p>
</blockquote>
<p>Surely “giving voice” in this way is a significant function of art, of literary fiction, and whether it complies with previous modes or not is irrelevant except for the sake of those trained to read it within the rigid boundaries of their training. </p>
<p>Welsh is transgressing, consciously and deliberately, the ideology represented by Standard English that, according to Kelly:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>not only denotes a supposedly standardised language that is equitably accessible to all but also one that sets the standard, so that any other speech or discourse is, by definition, substandard, deviant and inferior.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>In Australia we have examples of this that slip by mainstream attention more than likely for the same reasons, for the same Standard Australian-English that prevails. One need only think of the poetry of <a href="http://www.poetryinternationalweb.net/pi/site/poet/item/18993/15/Lionel-Fogarty">Lionel Fogarty</a>, of <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pi_O">Pi O</a>, particularly his epic book-length verse-novel <a href="http://cordite.org.au/essays/ulysses-in-fitzroy/">24 Hours</a>. Perhaps we might also add <a href="http://adb.anu.edu.au/biography/dennis-clarence-michael-james-5957">C. J. Dennis</a> and his book Sentimental Bloke.</p>
<p>Trainspotting, for the reasons outlined above, should be considered on a par with Miguel de Cervantes’ Don Quixote (1605), Laurence Sterne’s The Life and Opinions of Tristram Shandy, Gentleman 1759-67, Fyodor Dostoyevsky’s Crime and Punishment (1866) and Franz Kafka’s The Castle (1926).</p>
<p>To paraphrase the author’s own words in the novel: it chooses life, and succeeds.</p>
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<p><em>Irvine Welsh will be talking at the <a href="http://www.swf.org.au/component/option,com_events/Itemid,124/agid,4010/task,view_detail/">Sydney Writers Festival</a> on May 25.</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/27054/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Grant Caldwell does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>It’s been 21 years since the publication of Irvine Welsh’s groundbreaking and controversial novel, Trainspotting. Since then, it has been widely praised and criticised, rejected by a mainstream audience…Grant Caldwell, Senior lecturer and head of the Creative Writing program, The University of MelbourneLicensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.