History Literature / Porno

** From Begbie's perspective, certain people have just gone too far and therefore justifiably aroused his [[{{Wrath}} righteous anger]]. [[OhCrap This can only mean trouble.]] Chronologically:

*** Chizzie for being rumoured to have abused young children (while its heavily implied, Begbie doesn't know for certain what he did exactly). [[spoiler: He glasses Chizzie in the neck to kill him in front of several witnesses and very much traumatises Second Prize in the process. This also informs much of his paranoia during the latter third of the novel.]]

Simon "Sick Boy" Williamson is still scheming and burning his way through people in the [[UsefulNotes/{{London}} big smoke]], but something is missing. Leaving his bar job under acrimonious circumstances, he agrees to his auntie Paula's offer of taking over the ''Port Sunshine'' pub back in Leith. He recognises one last big chance to flourish his egotistical obsessions and cashflow: a feature length porn film named "''Seven Rides For Seven Brothers''" starring the hottest sluts and [[GagPenis best hung studs]] in town. Yet the only way to fund this project is to scam yet more people... like it's going out of fashion. All the while fuelled on a Colombian factory level quantity of cocaine.

Mark Renton has, believe it or not, been enjoying a prosperous life in Amsterdam. Notoriously fleeing his friends at the end of ''Literature/{{Trainspotting}}'' with thousands of pounds, he's cleaned up from hard drugs and invested in a popular nightclub. Nevertheless, he's wary of crossing paths with his old mates and has been practicing karate for an eventual encounter with the dreaded Begbie. What's more, he's tired of his relationship with a jaded German woman and knows that sooner or later he'll have to be moving onward. But even his cautious administration of the club behind the scenes can't keep him hidden from Leith eyes for ever...

Nicola Fuller Smith or "Nikki" is a twenty five year old English student and proud super-bitch who feels her life is stalling with no decent opportunities ahead of her. She's bored of her modules, changes uni and programme frequently and relies on illicit massage therapy at a local sauna to make up the bills. Joining her highly strung flatmate Lauren and their new friend [[Literature/{{Glue}} Rab Birrel]] on the Edinburgh film studies course, she gets introduced to his sex crazed mate from way back, Terry "Juice" Lawson and his posse of stag video associates. Enjoying the company, and encouraged by Rab's ideas of making a "thinking man's porno", she signs up for a leading role and gets into a torrid affair with Simon. She also is a main player when it comes to the writing and financing of the picture.

And last but not least, Danny "Spud" Murphy is at a crossroads with his girlfriend Alison. He's almost finally kicked heroin, but minor relapses, thefts and continued unemployment are doing nothing to impress her. Forced to live independently from Ali and their son, he decides to write a celebration of local Leith history to turn his fortunes around. However, a horrific drinking session with his prison [[SarcasmMode chum]] [[PaedoHunt Chizzy]] and difficult reunions with the old school crew threaten his hopes for a better life.

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* AxCrazy: Begbie [[UpToEleven outdoes himself here]], popping his murder cherry for the first time. Well, that we know of, at least.

* BiggusDickus: Curtis, a shy teenager whom Sick Boy initially refers to as "an apprentice Spud" until his sees the size of his penis in the toilets. He is immediately signed up for the titular porno.

* ContemptibleCover: As seen above, most editions have blowup sex doll on the cover.

** Well and truly justified, because apart from everything else, he had always been intending to sic Begbie on Renton like he did on Spud.

* AmbiguousTimePeriod: The book doesn't make itself all that clear on whether it's set in the late nineties or early noughties, though Renton's use of Guilders in Amsterdam means that it cannot possibly be set after early 2002. ''Dead Men's Trousers'' explicitly sets it in 1998, though, meaning it runs almost concurrent with the events of ''Literature/{{Filth}}''.

* BatmanGambit: Soon after taking over his aunt's pub, Sick Boy starts "Leith Publicans Against Drugs", an organization that gets coverage in the newspaper. He displays the article and a supportive letter from the local police sergeant prominently in the pub, reasoning that no rank-and-file officer would want to embarrass his boss by busting all the drug dealing that Sick Boy depends on taking place in and around the pub. [[spoiler:At the end of the book we learn that it didn't work]]

* HumiliationConga: Sick Boy gets ''fucked over'' at the end of the novel. Just look at his [[{{Characters/Trainspotting}} character tropes]] to learn the myriad ways in which this transpires.

*** Chizzie for being rumoured to have abused young children (while its heavily implied, Begbie doesn't know for certain what he did exactly). [[spoiler: He glasses Chizzie in the neck in front of several witnesses and very much traumatises Second Prize in the process. This also informs much of his paranoia during the latter third of the novel.]]

* ManipulativeEditing: Sick Boy does this to the porn film to make it look like Nikki has done anal, when she refused to do so. [[SmallNameBigEgo He adds his name to every role in the credits, displacing Nikki and Rab's roles in writing the script]].

*** Sick Boy warns him that his ex-wife June was "washing up" i.e doing crack pipes with Spud in front of their children. Along with heroin, this is one of the drugs Begbie simply cannot abide, and the danger it represents for the boys [[BerserkButton is way too much for him to take]]. In reality, Spud was washing dishes with her to cheer her up after Sean beat up Michael and frazzled her nerves. Unfortunately for all parties, this misunderstanding never gets clarified over the course of the story.

** Sick Boy's ability to charm women is diminishing as his gut widens, his nose rots and his looks fade. This was the primary interest of his in 1980s Leith. Also, he forgets once again that if you're going to use people, they might just bite back. They're wiser to his game this time round.

Several elements of the novel were drawn upon for Creator/DannyBoyle's ''Film/{{T2 Trainspotting}}'', but several elements, notably the whole porn production angle, were excised for reasons of pragmatism.

Franco Begbie has been serving further prison time for a murder of one of his psycho contemporaries (albeit he managed to disguise it as a justified self defence kill). Tormented by anonymously-sent gay erotica magazines and brooding heavily about revenge on various parties (not least of which Renton), he walks out of Saughton with the intention of never returning. But he's eager to pick up things exactly where they left off and find a new "burd" to replace his battered ex-wife, June. Parenting their two sons however isn't high on his priority list.

Mark Renton has, believe it or not, been enjoying a prosperous life in Amsterdam. Notoriously fleeing his friends at the end of ''Literature/{{Trainspotting}}'' with thousands of pounds, he's cleaned up from hard drugs and invested in a popular nightclub. Nevertheless, he's wary of an encounter with his old mates and has been practicing karate for an eventual encounter with the dreaded Begbie. What's more, he's tired of his relationship with a jaded German woman and knows that sooner or later he'll have to be moving onward. But even his cautious administration of the club behind the scenes can't keep him hidden from Leith eyes for ever...