irvine welsh
trainspotting laurence the graphic jones novel adaptation
August, 1986. Leith, Edinburgh, Scotland.
Choose life.
But why would I want to do a thing like that?
Sick Boy & Renton's Gaff
I chose not to choose life: I chose something else.
And the reasons? Choose life.
Choose a job.
Choose a family.
there are no reasons.
washing machines... cars... compact disc players...
Choose a fucking big television. dental insurance.
Choose fixed-interest mortgage repayments.
Who need reasons when you've got heroin?
Choose low cholesterol, Choose DIY and wondering who you are on a Sunday morning.
Choose rotting away at the end of it all
24 hours earlier.
ot ay I'm all o n? ke poppy,
uld goan ca on sg turkey' h wi muc be too oot it
Fir all the good they've dun me I might ay well ave stuck em up mi arse.
opium. ye shuv em up ye r bum.
ah k e supp n what a osit ory is.
there's goat to be sumthin, but? take it or leave it.
...rect a posito l suprys...
...ho
wm
uch
Skag makes ye constipated. Ma last hit is fading away n the suppositories ave yet tae melt.
...ay am nae longer constipated.
?
eh?
later
...
...fuck
PLOP!
ave nae chace ay quitting the junk wi oot these wee pills.
And when all ah wanted tae do was lie about n feel sorry for myself, he insisted on telling me once again about his unifying theory ay life. gotcha!!!
now.
n
Now I'm ready.
do ye What
mean?
eno m o n phe life. a ly ay tain alks r e c w It's in all
Well, a to time, y ne e goat it 've , n then ye lose it, gone fo n it's rever.
The down side ay coming off junk was that I knew I would need to mix wi my friends again in a state of full consciousness. It was awful: they reminded me so much ay myself ah could hardly bear to look at um.
Take Sick Boy, for instance, he came off junk at the same time as me, not because he wanted tae, ye understand, but just to annoy me, just to show me how easily he could dae it, thereby downgrading my oan struggle.
some ov his solo stuff isnae bad?
George Best, for example, had it n lost it, or David Bowie, Sean Connery, Lou Reed...
ut it's it's no bad. b her, is not great eit eart it? n in yer h that ye kinda ken ounds although it s alright...
it's
actu a shit lly just e.
That
's yo
fully Yeah, beauti trated. fucking illus ...so w ha you're t's the point tr make? ying tae
y award?
Desp
cadem ite the A
All I'm trying to illistrate is that The Name of the Rose is merely a blip oan an otherwise uninterrupted downward trajectory.
Tha
t me
ans
fuck
all..
.
all get Right. So we we old and then any canny hack it it? more. Is that
Yeah.
...was a sym pathy vote.
ur th
eory?
ave t? H s a be s? the r sight e e ou s in ye Do y goat it ye
Clear enough, Moneypenny. This should present no signif icant problem.
! T A T A T BRA
After an afternoon trying tae kill time to entertain ourselves, we walked down Leith Walk where Sick Boy explained how we could get rich fast...
....Leith Walk always reminded me of bein a bairn when my da took me to Easter Road tae see Hibs play. It was tough oan ma mum wi oot him since the cancer.
For a vegetarian, Rents, you're a fucking evil shot.
Sick Boy & Renton's Gaff, Leith. There's a mate of swanney's. Mikey Forrester -- ye ken the guy. He's come into some gear. A lot of gear.
uch?
How m
So?
What was your price?
I dinny have two thousand pounds.
Four Grand.
he os. So a l i k r fou k in Aboot . Got drun cks e do tells m wn by the he e o pub d eek, wher ilors. last w ussian sa ing wo R ing carry met t e fuck sale there r ' y e Th or tuff. F , likes. the s en and th
We're two tho usand short n everyo ne kens you've s aved up since your da snuffed it.
Ah canny be arsed wi Sick Boy's proprosal.
But punting the skag oan for 20 grand sounds solid.
I've seen yer bank statement. Two thousand, one hundred and thirty-three pounds.
Din
nae
At or around this time, we made a healthy, informed, democratic decision to get back on drugs as soon as possible. It took about twelve hours.
wo wil rry, Si l be . bar This d eal ry.
... n w
ro b n
e d l go
...
Bar
ry d
eal.
....b
arry
Bar
ry m
one
y.
gar...
.. . l l ba
w o n ..s
ska
g....
...brown su
.
...like all good things, they must come to an end...
after ah sobered up ah decided to visit my girlfriend, Diana.
. . . g a k s . ..
Iggy Pop is not dead. He toured last year. Simon went to see him.
any t getting o n e 'r u o Y Mark. The younger, sic nging, mu a h c is ld wor ugs g, even dr is changin . You can't ing are chang e all day r stay in he out heroin b a dreaming y Pop. and Zigg
The point is, you've got to find something new.
Ah knew she wis right. There wisnae anything left for me in Leith.
It's Iggy Pop.
Ah wanted to pick life but ah was picking a slow ceaseless death instead.
Whatever. I mean, the guy's dead anyway.
And this buisness with Sick Boy wis most certainly unwelcome. Simon wis ma mate but in Leith naebody has mates. It's just like exploitative Johnny Swan once said; with heroin we're aw just acquaintances. Ah think it's time tae dissolve our partnership.
The day of the deal. 5.43pm. We acquisitioned the skag from Forrester and made our way down Leith Walk.
All was goan splendidly. Ah wis actually surprised that neither party had fucked it up in some spectacular way. Perhaps more surprisingly; it was broad daylight! If a rozzer or a nun or a bloody dog walker made the wrong turn down the alley it'd be game over. Shitin maeself was an understatmenmt.
All the money was there. All 20 grand of it.
Goat the um... chocholate, eh?
I was picturing all the heroin ah could cop wi it before quickly expelling those thoughts from my mind and diverting my thoughts tae escaping Leith.
Aye. And ye?
Look for yerself.
the transaction was complete and now it was time to shake the Sick Boy. He was glued to the money like a bairn glued to it's mothers breasts, but.
We headed back to the flat tae celebrate.
The next morning. 4.24am.
So why did I do it? I could offer a million answers, all false. The truth is that I'm a bad person, but that's going to change, I'm going to change. This is the last of this sort of thing. I'm cleaning up and I'm moving on, going straight and choosing life. I'm looking forward to it already.
t sp r ao it nt i n g
se o o h C . e f se li choose washe o o h C . s u nts; cars; choos e m y Choogse a p e e mort aacghines; choohsw ching hing t a c m ing g oan a cou spirit-crus nk sittin-numbing andfng fuckin ju otting mind shows, stuf th. Choose r sel gameintae yir moo shiteing yerrfood , pishing and fuckin emba ed-up away ome, a total selfish, fuck in a h ent tae the ced. rassmye've produ brats e. f i l e s o o Ch mature readers