Silk Road forums

Discussion => Newbie discussion => Topic started by: MariaSabina on May 07, 2013, 06:33 pm

Title: Anybody here like to read Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting)?
Post by: MariaSabina on May 07, 2013, 06:33 pm
I think it's sad that most people, if they know about him at all, only know about the movie Trainspotting and just associate him with heroin addiction.

He writes so eloquently about so many themes like the impact of statist neoliberal capitalist policies, the motivations for self-destructive behavior, the benefits of ecstasy use, the complications of tribal human nature, the consequences of past sins, and the insanity of male sexual desire, just to name a few.

And he's such a great story teller.  The world he creates is so rich and after reading a number of his books, because many characters keep showing up and various stories intertwine, it's almost like you know a little what it would be like to live and die in Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland.

I think my favorite thing about him is that he just seems so honest, not really trying to hide anything.
Title: Re: Anybody here like to read Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting)?
Post by: MariaSabina on May 08, 2013, 12:17 am
----Ken whit the daft cunt turned roond n sais tae us?  He goes: Ah cannae fuckin stick civvy street.  Bein in the army, it's like bein a junky.  The only difference is thit ye dinnae git shot at sae often bein a junky.  Besides, it's usually you that does the shootin.
----That, eh, likesay, seems a bit eh, fucked up like man.  Ken?
----Naw, but, listen the now.  You jist think aboot it.  In the army they dae everything fir they daft cunts.  Feed thum, gie the cunts cheap bevvy in scabby camp clubs tae keep thum fae gaun intae toon n lowerin the fuckin tone, upsettin the locals n that.  Whin they git intae civvy street, thuv goat tae dae it aw fir thumsells.
----Yeah, but likesay, it's different though, cause . . . Spud tries to cut in, but Renton is in full flight.  A bottle in the face is the only thing that could shut him up at this point; even then only for a few seconds.
----Uh, uh . . . wait a minute, mate.  Hear us oot.  Listen tae whit ah've goat tae say here . . . what the fuck wis ah sayin . . . aye!  Right.  Whin yir oan junk, aw ye worry aboot is scorin.  Oaf the gear, ye worry aboot loads ay things.  Nae money, cannae git pished.  Goat money, drinkin too much.  Cannae git a burd, nae chance ay a ride.  Git a burd, too much hassle, cannae breathe without her gittin oan yir case.  Either that, or ye blow it, and feel aw guilty.  Ye worry aboot bills, food, bailiffs, these Jambo Nazi scum beatin us, aw the things that ye couldnae gie a fuck aboot whin yuv goat a real junk habit.  Yuv just goat one thing tae worry aboot.  The simplicity ay it aw.  Ken whit ah mean?
Title: Re: Anybody here like to read Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting)?
Post by: MariaSabina on May 08, 2013, 12:23 am
I understand her.

I understand her hurt, her pain, how it all just has to come out.  It just goes round and round, the hurt.  It takes an exceptionally strong person to just say: no more.  It takes a weak one to just keep it all to themselves, let it tear them apart without hurting anyone else.

I'm not an exceptionally strong person.

Nor is Kirsty.

We're just ordinary and this is shite.

We both understand everything.
Title: Re: Anybody here like to read Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting)?
Post by: MariaSabina on May 08, 2013, 12:47 am
These E's Rolf's sorted oot are pretty fuckin good awright.  You kin always tell a good ecky by the speed that the night flies past . . .

The mixer looks a bit unfamiliar or maybe it's just the pills, but fuck it, jist git in thaire . . . Ah git oan, n line up Beltram's Energy Flash.  Instant explosion oan the flair!  Ah've soon goat the punters gaun, the music's flowing through me, through the vinyl, right oot the speakers and intae the crowd . . .

This environment makes life, human relations, so simple and easy.  How shite and grubby and how long all this would have taken in the pub, or at a party full of drink.
Title: Re: Anybody here like to read Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting)?
Post by: NaughtYarr on May 28, 2013, 07:39 pm
I loved Acid house, his short stories. The one where the baby switches places with the junkie, and is a total baby perve that hates his dad... or the guy changes into a fly on the wall and watches his parents have sex... creepy!
Title: Re: Anybody here like to read Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting)?
Post by: string on May 28, 2013, 08:32 pm
I read Acid House, Trainspotting and Marabou Stork Nightmares years ago.  I have trouble remembering which tales are from which.  I did love Trainspotting though.  What's his stuff like after those?
Title: Re: Anybody here like to read Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting)?
Post by: pakchoi23 on May 28, 2013, 08:47 pm
I read everything up to Marabou Stork Nightmares and at that point I had to bail out. I may go back to him one day.

But having been a junkie in Leith some of the appeal isn't so strong.
Title: Re: Anybody here like to read Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting)?
Post by: MariaSabina on June 14, 2013, 09:55 pm
I loved Acid house, his short stories. The one where the baby switches places with the junkie, and is a total baby perve that hates his dad... or the guy changes into a fly on the wall and watches his parents have sex... creepy!

For sure!  I think that he's essentially a short story writer really.  His novels are then more like coherent collections of short stories.  But maybe that's all any novel is, lol.

I read Acid House, Trainspotting and Marabou Stork Nightmares years ago.  I have trouble remembering which tales are from which.  I did love Trainspotting though.  What's his stuff like after those?

Of course, this is just my humble opinion, but ...

Glue takes a while to get into, but that's actually inherent to the nature of the novel, since it's following four men's lives from childhood into their 30s.  It's not as crazy exciting as Trainspotting, but it's a little lighter-hearted and warmer, since it's about what keeps friends and families together (hence the title of glue) -- but it's also about what drives them apart.  I still highly recommend.

Porno is awesome, but it can be brutal at times because it's just so emotionally wrenching.  But if you liked Trainspotting, it's also just so much fun to see the continuation of that story, and each chapter is written from a different character's first-person perspective (no third-person at all).  And there's even a woman (gasp) who is one of the narrators.  Renton takes more of a back seat, so that's a cool change up from Trainspotting.  In this one, Sick Boy is directing a porno film, and he's also the principal narrator.  There's a lot of other schemes, twists, and turns that are pretty wild, like, hold your breath what in the world is going to happen!  Towards the end, there's just some parts that are so damn funny that the world should be demanding they be made into movie scenes.

Reheated Cabbage is all short stories (some of which were actually written before Trainspotting was published) and is also great.  So much variety in them (one is about aliens!).  The one about Christmas day with Begbie's family ("Elspeth's Boyfriend") is some of the funniest shit I've ever read, and it's just so pure, pure Irvine Welsh!

I read everything up to Marabou Stork Nightmares and at that point I had to bail out. I may go back to him one day.

But having been a junkie in Leith some of the appeal isn't so strong.

Jesus, that's heavy.  Since it sounds like you didn't particularly like that time of your life, I'm glad to hear, however, that you phrased it in the past tense.  :)

If you don't mind my asking, though, and, in I ask this in the kindest way possible, realizing it's a very sensitive and personal question (and please, don't feel the need to answer), what is it about his works that didn't work for you?  Do you think it's not accurate or that it doesn't value your experience?
Title: Re: Anybody here like to read Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting)?
Post by: pakchoi23 on June 16, 2013, 05:50 pm
I read everything up to Marabou Stork Nightmares and at that point I had to bail out. I may go back to him one day.

But having been a junkie in Leith some of the appeal isn't so strong.

Jesus, that's heavy.  Since it sounds like you didn't particularly like that time of your life, I'm glad to hear, however, that you phrased it in the past tense.  :)

If you don't mind my asking, though, and, in I ask this in the kindest way possible, realizing it's a very sensitive and personal question (and please, don't feel the need to answer), what is it about his works that didn't work for you?  Do you think it's not accurate or that it doesn't value your experience?

I didn't put enough detail in my post. I don't dislike his work. I loved Trainspotting and Acid House. I know he's written a fair few books since I last looked for him but it was Maribou that was the problem.

It was brutal, pure horror. I do like horror writing and films etc but the pain and gore and sheer fucked up-ness of Maribou just did me in at the time I was reading it. It put me off reading Irvine Welsh in case the same thing happened again.

Your thread has piqued my curiosity though and I think I'll revisit the guy's work.

To answer your questions: I think his accuracy is great insofar as I've read and Trainspotting is as bang on as you can get. My experience fits in nicely with much of what he put down in words.


Hope that's a bit clearer for you :)
Title: Re: Anybody here like to read Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting)?
Post by: fatslimback on June 16, 2013, 06:45 pm
Marabou Stork Nightmares has to be one of the most fucked up books I've ever read. Very disturbing. 
Title: Re: Anybody here like to read Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting)?
Post by: MariaSabina on June 20, 2013, 05:14 am
Hope that's a bit clearer for you :)

Crystal!  Thank you so much for sharing!
Title: Re: Anybody here like to read Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting)?
Post by: ritzlover on June 20, 2013, 05:27 am
I'm glad you guys are talking about books, I started a book thread earlier but it failed :(

Title: Re: Anybody here like to read Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting)?
Post by: pakchoi23 on June 20, 2013, 07:40 am
I'm glad you guys are talking about books, I started a book thread earlier but it failed :(

I read all the time, either books or online research.

If you head over to the Philosophy section there are a few book threads.
Title: Re: Anybody here like to read Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting)?
Post by: ritzlover on June 20, 2013, 08:49 am
AM now that I'm past 50 posts haha. Thanks for the info though :)
Title: Re: Anybody here like to read Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting)?
Post by: MariaSabina on June 24, 2013, 06:56 pm
I'm glad you guys are talking about books, I started a book thread earlier but it failed :(

I read all the time, either books or online research.

If you head over to the Philosophy section there are a few book threads.

Too right.  What all are youse reading right now?
Title: Re: Anybody here like to read Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting)?
Post by: linas879cizauskas on June 24, 2013, 07:26 pm
Greetings one and all....

Irvine Welsh:
Obviously, being a junkie, ive watched trainspotting, but havent read the book (yet!)

I finished Skagboys about a month ago, which i couldnt put down... (after getting used to the language in which it was written) This is not a complaint, as it actually enhanced the atmosphere that the author was creating, (once id got my Rosetta Stone scottish language translator!)
This also had some parts which were hard to read (im not going to put them here, as they may be seen as "spoilers")


And on the totally different end of the spectrum, im also a BIG fan of Andy McNab, i have read ALL his books fiction and non. (Apart from his Co-authored books which dont seem to have such appeal to me personally)
He is excellent at suspense, and descriptive writing. His Nick Stone series is a MUST READ for all army, special forces, spooks, MI5/6 spying fans etc. You know by his writing that he has been there, done that.
How he describes making a lock pick out of an electric toothbrush and an allen key, or using the parts of a cheap clock to bypass the sensor from a security light, are so descriptive.

Along with Mcnab, i also read Chris Ryan, Duncan Falconer, and recently ive been getting into Lee Child (Jack Reacher)
A point id like to make about Reacher is that a 6'5 man mountain should NOT be played in a film by TOM CRUISE!

Anyway thanks for reading my "book" of a post...i look forward to hearing what everybody else reads on here.....


Title: Re: Anybody here like to read Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting)?
Post by: therabbithole on June 24, 2013, 08:30 pm
Didn't know the movie was based on Irvine Welsh book. Gotta check out his books. Thanks  :)
Title: Re: Anybody here like to read Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting)?
Post by: aginalda on June 24, 2013, 10:14 pm
I read Trainspotting and really liked it, once I got past some initial difficulty understanding the language.  Thanks for reminding me of Walsh.  I'm going to look for something else by him.
Title: Re: Anybody here like to read Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting)?
Post by: enlightener on June 24, 2013, 10:18 pm
will read some of his books now that you guys have got my attention

thank you for the recommendation OP
Title: Re: Anybody here like to read Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting)?
Post by: linas879cizauskas on June 24, 2013, 10:23 pm
I read Trainspotting and really liked it, once I got past some initial difficulty understanding the language.  Thanks for reminding me of Walsh.  I'm going to look for something else by him.

@aginalda read Skagboys, im guessing its written the same, and its like Trainspotting, It has Renton, Begbie, Sick-boy and Spud in....its a good'un, but if you're a recovering heroin user, theres quite a lot of descriptive parts in it about how good Heroin is to shoot up etc etc, quite graphic, made me want to have a hit! LOL
Title: Re: Anybody here like to read Irvine Welsh (author of Trainspotting)?
Post by: sasquatch19 on June 24, 2013, 10:39 pm
cool reading for sure