Trainspotting star blasts trigger warning for Irvine Welsh's new book

Scottish Sun

a day ago

Welsh's follow-up to his best-seller has been branded 'juvenile' and 'embarrassing' after women characters were described using phrases 'posh f***y' and 'chunky bird' and a slur for Chinese was printed
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A TRAINSPOTTING star has hit out at a trigger warning being included on Irvine Welsh's new book.
Actor Simon Weir, 52, has defended the writer after he was slammed for using racist and misogynistic terms in Men In Love.
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Irvine Welsh has released his latest novel, Men in Love
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Trainspotting star Simon Weir has hit out over a trigger warning
Credit: Andrew Barr
Welsh's follow-up to his best-seller has been branded 'juvenile' and 'embarrassing' after women characters were described using phrases 'posh f***y' and 'chunky bird' and a slur for Chinese was printed.
Fears over the book's content saw publishers force him to include a disclaimer.
Simon — who played Jailhouse in film T2 — has been helping Welsh promote Men In Love across the country.
He told The Scottish Sun on Sunday: 'The trigger warning is an unnecessary nonsense.
'What do you expect from an Irvine Welsh book?
'People would be disappointed if there wasn't offensive language.
'But the point that Irvine was making on tour repeatedly is these are the words of fictional characters.
'They are not the views of the author.'
Men In Love picks up where 1993's Trainspotting left off, with protagonist Mark Renton on the run after ripping off pals Sick Boy, Spud and Begbie following a drug deal.
Chapters are told from the point of view of the characters as they attempt to kick their heroin and alcohol addictions to pursue romance.
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Potential partners are described as 'willowy' and 'toothsome', while women 'must' have 'mental health issues' which are 'best to err on the side of anorexia, rather than obesity'.
Another character is called a 'specky shaftoid' for wearing glasses.
Welsh, 66, grew up in Leith, Edinburgh, the working-class son of a dock worker and a waitress.
He says the language used is an accurate portrayal of attitudes the late 80s in the capital's council estates where Men In Love is set.
An 'author's note' inserted against his will says the work 'aims to replicate the speech patterns commonly used by many people' and is 'not an endorsement (or even condemnation) of such behaviours'.
Simon, from Hardgate, near Glasgow, added: 'Language evolves all the time and phrases that were used 30 or 40 years ago are not used now.
'I am worried about any censorship of this sort because it could change dramatic scenes and storylines if you can't use the language of a character or of that era.
'But if you really are easily offended then you probably should not be reading an Irvine Welsh novel.'
Simon had to film his own offensive scene when he went full-frontal for his role in Trainspotting 2.
That's after his character goes 'mental' when he realises he is being secretly filmed while having sex with a prostitute by Sick Boy (Jonny Lee Miller) who blackmails her clients.
He recalls: 'When I went for the audition Danny Boyle just held up a pair of boots and went, 'That's your costume'. So I knew it was full on from the start.'
However, Oscar-winning director Danny was so impressed by the Scot's performance he gave his uncredited character a name.
Simon adds: 'The part was originally just called Punter Two. But Danny had asked me to just ad-lib some dialogue so I came up with this horrific line, where I shout 'Give it to me Jailhouse-style doll.'
'I was expecting that to get cut, but Danny said he loved it and told me 'You're no longer Punter Two, I'm going to call you jailhouse'. So I got a credit at the end of the film too.'
Fraser Hudghton, director of Freedom Speech Union Scotland, said: 'Irvine Welsh's work is a rip-roaring ride through Scottish working class life. It is fearless fiction.
"You're not reading the Trainspotting sequel and mistaking it for Woman's Weekly. New writers are forced to self-censor just to be published - cutting off the creative juice at source.
"Just think of all the brilliant working class Scottish writers who can't get a book deal today just in case they upset someone with blue hair. It's a sin; publishers should quit deferring to DEI voodoo-meisters and get on with the job of letting everyone be heard.'
Publisher Jonathan Cape has been approached for comment.