“J.G ballad once said you were one of a rare breed of writers whose imagination changes forever the way we see the world. How does will self see the world?”
I don’t think it’s quite as straightforward as some people like to imagine it is. We are very conditioned to believe that what you see is what you get, almost as if the world is being programmed for us by Microsoft. There are reasons for that perception but I don’t think that’s really the case. I think the world as we see it and experience it is much more dependent on us that we like to imagine, there’s a sort of tendency to feel that everything is more clarified than it actually is. The world is mysterious to me.
“So do you think thats your writing takes away some of the artificiality of perception?”
I hope so, I try to get people to believe in things that initially they would completely baulk at and find incredible. It’s like picking the edge of the scab of common sense, then maybe the whole thing will come away.Whether that works for people I don’t know. I remember with Great Apes, I created an ape society and people did say they found it very difficult to go on the tube after reading it as they kept seeing everyone as a chimpanzee. But people are chimpanzees so that wasn’t the greatest literary feat possible.
The Interview seemed to be going fine so far and I had a nice safe question next, however this seems to cause the beginning of a frostiness which will be a prominent feature of the interview, “Which short story or book would you say you are most proud of?”
Oh, the next one. I don’t really look back, its not helpful. Sometimes you finish something and your fond of it; like a pet or a child, but you’ve got to let go of it pretty quickly.
“If you don’t feel any particular attachment to your novels why do you write?”
It’s my way of involving myself with this rather mysterious world, it’s a way of being in the world. It’s not so much about the product as the practice of actually writing, it’s my way of interpreting what I see.
“You recently advocated making heroin legal to aid addicts recovery. Does the fact you were a drug addict give you more empathy with those who have drug addictions?”
Up to a point, it does and it doesn’t, I think that I can see it’s very difficult, addiction is like an invasive parasite it’s a parasitical on the human psyche and while you can have moments where you can see the person underneath it, the parasite really fucks people’s heads up and its difficult to disentangle it. I work with addicts and try and help people stay clean, I think its an important thing.
“Are humans just necessarily addictive?”
Yeah i think most people are a little bit addicted to something, but theres a difference between manageable dependency and addictive illness. It’s a different order, you’ll have seen people who have addictive illnesses: drink compulsively, over-eat compulsively or purge compulsively and its a form of insanity.
“Do you think that your addiction influenced your writing in any way?”
Well you started off by quoting Ballard. He took LSD once and bitterly regretted it, but it definitely infected his writing. I think taking a drug once can affect someones creative perceptions, particularly the hallucinogenic, not opiates, which are rather dull drugs creatively, however what the hundredth or thousandth time of taking the drug adds to the creative process is pretty doubtful
“So would you say some drugs add something to the creative process?”
I don’t think they are going to make anyone creative who isn’t, that was one of the myths of the sixties, that everyone has creative artistic potential. I think thats wrongheaded, so I’d never advocate that people take drugs to enhance their creativity I think thats a dead end.
Feeling Self was getting slightly irritated at my angle of questioning I once again changed the subject to what I assumed was a safe topic, his influences. “Who did you read when you were younger?”
Oh who didn’t I read, I read just about everybody along the way.
“Who would you say you try and emulate?” (With hindsight emulate may have been a bad choice of word, and Self was quick to pounce on it….)
Well I’m not trying to emulate anyone. That would be a disaster wouldn’t it.That would just be the literary equivalent of the X-Factor. There were writers, like Ballard who showed me things I wanted to do. Another one would be Bulgakov the Russian writer and the French writer Céline but you know after a certain point you’re on your own. You’ve gotta assemble the hand glider while you’re in free fall.
I had a danger question, I was only going to ask in extreme situations but fuck it, its not going well, I might as well see how badly it can go.”I don’t think you’ve ever been nominated for the Booker prize despite people talking about you being a potential nominee. You have however, been nominated three times for the ‘Bad Sex in Fiction Award’. how do you feel about the award and your nominations?”
Well I don’t really feel anything about it to be honest. It’s the invention of a tedious little group of drunk London wannabes and it has no real significance.
“So would you defend your ability to write about that kind of topic?” (I’d suddenly got shy and found I couldn’t even bring myself to say the word sex, little did i know i would soon definitely have to forego that shyness.)
What in terms of writing about sex?Well its not my main thing, but its interesting what writers do and don’t write about sex. What I feel with sex is that a lot of sex might what be loosely termed bad sex, how many times have you had sex in the last month?
Okay I definitely wasn’t expecting that.”err that would be about 10?”(this may or may not be true)
And how many of them have been what you would describe as really good sex?
“Errr i would say about 20%” (this also may not be true)
20%, well just on your sort of experience if anyone was to write about your sexual experience, 80% of it would have to be as it were, bad sex. A lot of sex is for many reasons unfullfilling or disappointing. I never know if the award’s are for writing about bad sex well, or for writing badly about good sex, and I won’t be bothering to ask them.
Moving on. “Most people know you for your TV work, would you consider yourself primarily a writer?”
Yeah, even when I was doing the most TV work I’ve ever done, it probably accounted for about 3% of my working life.
What motivated you to do TV work?
Money. Would that explain it to you?
“What was your favorite TV show to appear on?”
I used to like HIGNFY (Have I Got News For You) but I won’t do it anymore, I’ve given it up. It’s just middle aged men sitting around making jokes about Clive Anderson’s hair. When was the last time you saw an episode of HIGNFY when there was any real satirical bite, where it really stuck it to the ruling class? I remember the last show I did that I really enjoyed was with the late great Linda Smith; when we had Neil Kinock on and we were able to rip the tits off him, unless you can rip the tits of a politician it’s not worth it is it. Anyway I’m too old, Hislop and Merton are multi-millionaires, Dunne said that ‘journalism should afflict the comfortable and comfort the afflicted’ and it’s the same with satire.They are the comfortable. They are two wealthy middle aged men making jokes about the news.That’s fine if you want to do that kind of thing, call me deluded but I have a slightly more dangerous view of myself that that.
“Do you not think you’re one of the comfortable class then?”
Well I’m financially and materially comfortable, but by no means as comfortable as that but I think that, i think I’m a little bit edgier that those guys still, maybe I’m deluding myself.