The Acid House

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Welsh: I thought it was really great, a fantastic job, a far better job than I would have done. I didn’t want to do it, as I had no experience at screenwriting. I think I would have really messed it up. What I wanted above all was to do something of a pacey and accessible kind of film. I didn’t want it to be a lovely piece of social realism. It would have been horrible if it had been like “ The Basketball Diaries” where you know in the first frame what’s going to happen to everybody. I didn’t want the characters to be victims. That’s why I sold it to Andrew and Danny in the first place as, they had the best take on it. I think they executed it really well. Welsh: I do yeah, I think there used to be a big division between realism and fantasy, surrealism and magic realism and all that, but now people have much more psychoactive lives. I don’t just mean in terms of drugs and the like, I mean more the computer games, sound bytes and channel hopping on the TV. We’ve become used to processing images that are part of the non-linear narrative theory. I think there’s a thinner line between fantasy and normality. People spend much more time in their own heads now. There’s so much to conform to, so many influences coming at you. Welsh sabe a lo que nos gusta, inmundicia europea, y aunque la traducción es realmente pésima (cosa que debería justificar a las tres estrellas), mantiene la narrativa acostumbrada. Since Danny Boyle’s film adaptation of Trainspotting was released in February 1996 Irvine Welsh has remained a controversial figure, whose novels, stage and screen plays, novellas and short stories have proved difficult for literary critics to assimilate, a difficulty made only more noticeable by Welsh’s continued commercial success. Welsh: It was just to help people along a wee bit and help them get the gist of the language. We did the same in Australia and Canada but not in Britain, though they probably needed it!

The Acid House - Penguin Books UK

The 1998 film, The Acid House, directed by Paul McGuigan, dramatizes 3 of the 22 stories from the book - "The Granton Star Cause", "A Soft Touch", and "The Acid House". The first story follows Boab, a lazy lump of dirt, who looses everything in a matter of a few hours. After a bar man philosophical meeting with God, he is turned into a fly. The meeting was surprisingly deep, and asks the true question of "why don't we use our powers". As a fly he gets revenge, and sees with the audience a scene of incredible disturbance. E un autor pe gustul meu, numai bun pentru a-ți rupe obișnuitul, frumosul și la care vei Ah!-ooo-iii mai mereu. Welsh even dips into Kafkaesque territory with these investigations, and the story The Granton Star Cause is like a modern booze-soaked The Metamorphosis. Almost to secure the idea that the world is out to get you, Welsh throws God into the mix pissed at a bar and ready to change a character into a fly just because he can.Primal Scream c1990 (l-r, standing): Robert Young, Henry Olsen, Philip Tomanov; (seated) Andrew Innes and Bobby Gillespie. Photograph: Tim Roney/Getty Images

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IW He was in pubs in Primrose Hill a lot. He was always great, avuncular and fun. He seemed to lose interest in playing. Give Out But Don’t Give Up, that was the Throb album, wasn’t it? Total guitar, Stones-y kind of thing – he was in his element. Maybe the way the sound moved, he didn’t feel there was a place for him? If you look at any relationship, it’s the same isn’t it? People going in different directions, and not realising it. It’s an organic thing. My only gripe here is that the territory is a bit narrow. If there was just a bit of variety in perspectives, I would've given it five stars. I appreciate that Welsh is at home when writing about junkies and dropouts, but the occasional surprise would have done this collection some favours.Welsh: I really like Kevin in “Trainspotting” and he’s one of those understated actors who could pull off the “nice guy in extreme circumstances” role. He really held it together well. He’s a strong actor. As for Ewen he didn’t really want to do any more acting at that time, he was just doing music, but I convinced him that it would be a good thing to do. iW: With these stories you jump so much from the social realism to fantastical extremes within the book and the film. How do you achieve that, is that just the flow of your mind? In fact I remember your exact words: laughter and sex are the barometers of a relationship. This was the statement you made, if I remember correctly. Welsh's writing, for all its bleakness, can give you an invigorating head-butt; The Acid House feels loveless and depressing. It's a shame, because in his more restrained moments, former documentarist McGuigan has a real eye for images: watch the closing shot of A Soft Touch, which tells you everything about Johnny's situation in one stark snapshot.