Irvine Welsh's New Book

[Igneococcus]

Has not one, but three trans characters. It will be interesting how this is going to be received. Article in the Times Scotland:
www.thetimes.co.uk/article/380397f8-2624-11ed-bf78-57ebd2e3e25c?shareToken=c41adc535b125cbd0f6429627b5d9f27

Yy it would be interesting to see if there's a generational difference when it comes to throwing a writer under the bus. The original Trainspotting cast are old enough to be parents to the HP cast.
Not to mention the obvious difference between IW and JKR ... if only there were words to define it 😉

Agreed. He'll probably get TRA grief regardless

I think Welsh knows exactly what he’s doing. I think it will be VERY useful indeed.

Just me or does that sound very ironic?

I think that means that the character still looks so much like a man that in order for them to have successfully’ transitioned’ society would have to accept men into ‘femininity’. In other words, Lennox thinks the trans character still looks exactly like a man.

Yes that's how I read it too.

Hm.

Waterstones says 'stunning new thriller'.

Funny how the male authors get treated differently.

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10092701/Waterstones-blasted-selectively-censoring-books-feminism.html

www.waterstones.com/book/the-long-knives/irvine-welsh/2928377090890

It JKR wrote this book the TRAs would be foaming, gnashing, spitting and screaming for her death.

I could see Begbie going full-on acronym - cutting his way through Leith with blades and a frock.

But I think IW is deliberately making that point. He hasn't accidentally waded into a culture war here. He knows the grief JKR has been getting. He knows how people have been 'cancelled'. He's already expressed strong views on both. He has put a target on himself and is waiting to see what happens next.

Exactly this. He’s deliberately stirring the pot to make the point when no one comes after him. Like how everyone conveniently forgot Damian Barr used the offensive T word and everyone just waved their hands and it was forgotten. He’s definitely on JKR’s side here.

I absolutely love Iving Welsh he is one of my favourite authors. The main reason I like him is his near constant focus on shadow parts of personalities which most authors sanitise over and leave out as part of the overall human experience. He almost goes in the other direction sometimes and his themes are usually disturbing but in many ways he captures the human experience better than many authors do.

I will be very interested to see does he bring that to these characters.

Interesting philosophical point here. If these characters don’t get special treatment, will the trans community accept that the characters are trans?

Surely the very definition of trans is to be ‘special’ and have one’s own views and desires given priority over those of other groups.

That's how I read it too.

There are a few uber-woke people working there: some of us are trying hard to make sure controversial books are easy to find, but it only takes one TRA on the team and they’re offended and oppressed, yada yada. Also there are some very sad individuals who think nothing of coming into a shop and destroying and/or hiding (or stealing) a book that offends them. Occasionally it makes more sense to keep ‘offensive’ items at the counter 🙄 I’ll have to check the new Welsh book out …

Sorry but you have taken the absolute opposite meaning from that paragraph as it's written. That's a fucking nuclear level burn on Gary, spelling it out explicitly that the doesn't now nor never will pass as a woman.

It sounds to me from this section of his Guardian interview about the book that he went in with an open minded, balanced approach, as you would hope an author would:

”What led you to the novel’s transgender storyline?

I just thought it was such interesting waters to go into. We’re all asking fundamental questions about identity now that the things that defined us are slipping away. It’s complex, moving-picture stuff. You don’t know how much of it is a distraction to keep us at each other’s throats politically: if trans women compete in athletics, or if they’re barred, it’s not going to change the fact that lots of people are going to die because everybody’s getting fucked with their heating bills over the winter. It’s obviously difficult waters to go into because everything has become so shouty. We had a trans adviser on the book and I was dreading it. I thought, this is going to be another layer of censorship. But it was incredibly educational. I learned a lot.”

Hm, I think I'm going to wait until the book's out. Lennox could do a complete 180 by the end, he and Gary/Gayle could be skipping off into the sunset.

Actually, that seems rather sweet.

To be honest, I think that definition is often appled by 'allies' as much as by trans people. It's TRAs that are generally people attacking, cancelling, threatening, etc, and many of them are not trans. Well, they might be 'non-binary' or some other 'gender creative' type of thing.

I finally read this book today and wondered how I had missed the death threats and outrage that must have surely been directed at Welsh…. Or did he get away without that because he’s a man?

Are the trans characters not all paragons of virtue?

Do I need to have read Crime first?