Questions for Irvine Welsh?

July 26, 2007 5:56 AM

I have to think of a question to ask Irvine Welsh at an event this evening. I've no more than a passing familiarity with the man's work. Any suggestions?

I may not be called upon to ask it, but I would like to be prepared just in case.

posted by Optamystic to Writing & Language (11 answers total)

"Tell me everything you know about the 39 steps."

(Or, seriously, he was kind of JK Rowling before JK Rowling. You could ask him something about the burden of expectation and whether it affected his output.)
posted by Jofus at 6:00 AM on July 26, 2007

My first thought was asking him about the influence of James Kelman on his work, as I much prefer Kelman. Googling to check that was indeed a recognised influence, it says here he once made a single with Primal Scream. That and his apparent earlier music career make make a good quirky topic.
posted by Abiezer at 6:36 AM on July 26, 2007

I got to ask Chuck Palahniuk a question when he was on his Diary promotion tour while I was only familiar with the Fight Club movie. I asked him, "What is the most offensive word you know?". He seemed surprised and amused by it because it wasn't the standard fanboy fare of "what did this scene mean?" or "what was character x thinking of when he did y?". You're welcome to steal it and pass it off as your own if you come back and tell us his answer.

BTW- Chuck's answer was 'mangina'.
posted by knowles at 6:43 AM on July 26, 2007 [3 favorites]

This isn't specific to Welsh, but would work well for any author I'm guessing: "Can you name an author for us that we don't know about, but should be reading?"
posted by avoision at 6:47 AM on July 26, 2007 [2 favorites]

Ask him what was it like to work with Primal Scream on the song - The big man and the scream team meet the Barmy army uptown. I believe there is something about this song that was inspired by Irvine, ask what that might be.
posted by goml at 9:01 AM on July 26, 2007

Is he pleased that Edinburgh just honoured Muriel Spark – and does he think the city will do the same for him eventually?

Or just ask him if he knows Ian Rankin...
posted by zadcat at 10:05 AM on July 26, 2007

Here' his Wikipedia entry: why not ask him whether he finds living in Dublin gives him the necessary distance to write about the city of his birth?
posted by zadcat at 10:07 AM on July 26, 2007

"Do you have any tattoos?"
posted by Aversion Therapy at 10:19 AM on July 26, 2007

Are they gonna make porno with the original cast?

(Porno is the follow up book to Trainspotting, just in case you thought I meant actual porno.)
posted by gergtreble at 1:38 PM on July 26, 2007

You could ask him how he feels about the authenticity of his use of idiom in his Scottish stories as compared with a US based story such as Rattlesnakes (which is in his recent book).
posted by biffa at 2:42 AM on July 27, 2007

Response by poster: Thanks for all of the great suggestions. Unfortunately, I was not called on to ask a question. (So goes the way of the world).
posted by Optamystic at 3:20 AM on July 31, 2007