Picari tossicomani. Note su Trainspotting I - II

• Main Author: Giuseppe Russo
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Kaiak Edizioni 2019-04-01
• Series: Kaiak
• Subjects: drugs; heroin; trainspotting; boyle; cinema
• Online Access: http://www.kaiak-pj.it/images/PDF/rivista/kaiak-6-psicotropie/Trainspotting.pdf

Many novels, tales and movies have been released in the last third of the 20th century, in coincidence with the increasing diffusion of synthetic drugs in Europe and America, in not a few cases trying to understand the reasons of young men and women for this selfdestructive choice. Trainspotting, the first novel published by scottish author Irvine Welsh in 1993 and made into movie by english director Danny Boyle in 1996 (with a sequel in 2017), shows us a slice of life populated with boys and girls who use heroin without any particular reason: they are simply disgusted by their hometown, Edinburgh, and supposedly by the adult world. So their behavior leads them to a lifestyle that is very similar to the one practiced by the thieves and burglars of the traditional picaresque novel. Ultimately they are neurotic pícaros of the post-industrial society.