Talk:Irvine Welsh

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[edit] Age Issue

Why is the following age given "Beth Quinn, 26" - is the editor going to return every year to update this? —Preceding unsigned comment added by 194.149.79.218 (talk • contribs) 08:15, 2 October 2006

[edit] birth date

are we sure about his birth date? yes, here the Observer tells us it's 27 September 1961, but it also told us that Welsh likes to cheat about his age. here the Independent says it's 1957, 1958 is given in many other places. High on a tree 12:05, 2 Apr 2004 (UTC)

given here as 47 in May 2005 corresponding to a birth in either 1957 or 1958
Certainly, Welshs work deals extensively with protagonists who are deeply involved in youth culture (clubs, drugs, music, and sex) yet by their own admission are perhaps a bit too old to be carrying on like this (now that I think about it- this is a strong recurring theme). These same protagonists frequently have sex with girls who are much younger than them, and then have vague feelings of guilt about that fact (although dont feel quite guilty enough to stop doing it ;-) ). Welshs work concerning youth culture is generally regarded as being autobiographical, and he himself has admitted to being immersed in it well into an age when most of us give up and settle down!
The convoluted point I am making here is that Welsh is an old person stuck in a young persons world, who feels sensitive about his relative old-age. It follows that his real age may be at the older end of the range suggested. Fergie

Is his website link down there at the bottom a broken link? I tried to get to his website and it didn't work. Someone might want to check it out to be sure.

I don't know about the day and month (so I let them be), but the year of birth appears as 1958 (so I changed it) in 2 quite reliable sources: [1] and [2] Quatrocentu 07:18, 10 October 2005 (UTC)

The Glasgow police say his records show Welsh' birthdate to be some seven years earlier: http://observer.guardian.co.uk/review/story/0,,772792,00.html Alcalaino 00:14, 30 July 2007 (CEST)


[edit] Suspected inconsistency in the books

This is not related to the article per se, but I'd like to know who else have noticed this. In Trainspotting (the book, that is), Spud gets ripped off like the rest of the crew. Renton is feeling guilty about this. Spud also appears in a later short story, where he's described as never haven gotten over being ripped of by a friend. Then came the release of the film, and Spud suddenly doesn't get ripped off, probably to make the ending more digestable to the mainstream audience (I always tell people that the film is shite, mostly because of the too happy ending). I haven't read Porno, yet, but from what I can gather from the article about it, it follows the Trainspotting-film's version of events regarding Spud's share. If so, there's a clear inconsistency in the books and someone ought to point this out in the Porno article. --Twisturbed Tachyon 13:38, 7 January 2006 (UTC)


Spud and all the others get ripped off by Mark Renton (Rent Boy) at the end of the novel, Trainspotting. The repurcussions of this form a central thread of Porno, and get a mention (if memory serves) in Glue. Trainspotting the film, although arguably good in it's own right, deviates significantly from the plot of the book, cutting out large swathes of plot, watering down dialog, and generally messing with a masterpiece. The 'alternative ending' of the film has made it tricky to dramatise the similarly excellent sequel-of-sorts, Porno.Fergie 17:46, 8 January 2006 (UTC)

Porno and Glue are the only ones I've yet to read. I'm quite happy to have bought Trainspotting before the making of the film, thus avoiding the hideous film-poster cover. My copy might be dog-eared, but it's black and silver and has skeleton-people on the front cover, serving its content justice. Anyway, I just thought that the 'alternate ending' needed mentioning, and if someone doesn't mention it in the Trainspotting (film)-article in the near future, I'll probably get around to it at one point or another. Keep up the good work on Welsh. --Twisturbed Tachyon 14:51, 11 January 2006 (UTC)

I don't think theres any blatant inconsistencies. In the novel Trainspotting, Renton does indeed rip off Sick Boy, Regbie, Spud, and Second Prize (a character from the novel who does not appear in the film). And yes, in the film, Renton manage to give Spud his share. However, it should be noted that the book Trainspotting ends only a few hours after Renton leaves the hotel with the money. Porno doesn't specify WHEN Spud got payed back. Renton does say in Trainspotting that he might try to find a way to pay Spud back. As for the "later short story, where he's described as never haven gotten over being ripped of by a friend", Spud couldn't tell anyone that he had been payed back lest he face the wrath of Begbie and Sick Boy. So while Spud being ripped off would have been common knowledge throughout Lieth, Spud getting payed back would have been known only to him.

[edit] Plautus had a Parasite as a Character in a Roman Play

I can't give the citation, but there is a play by the Roman playwright Plautus that has a parasite as a character. The dialog includes complaints about whoever divided the day into hours and the inventor of the sundial, because it made the parasite's day unnatural. If anyone's interested, I could find it eventually. DCDuring 04:44, 16 September 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Moved here from article

[edit] Trivia