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→Trainspotting & Train Spotting: Reply to Hsmom
==Trainspotting & Train Spotting==
==Trainspotting & Train Spotting==
I'm not quite sure what the second part of this sentence means. (I wrote the non-italicized part.): "The film has nothing ''directly'' to do with the British hobby of train spotting, in which railfans keep records of the rolling stock they've seen,[5] ''beyond the authors' opinion that shooting heroin is as little use as he considers the railfan hobby to be.''" Is there something I've overlooked in the movie that refers to train spotters and implies their hobby is useless? Could we add more information to the sentence to show where this is in the movie? And which "authors" does this refer to, the man who wrote the book, or whoever wrote the screenplay? (I'm probably being a little sensitive here, because my brother dabbled in train spotting as a child, which I always thought was kind of neat. And the nit-picky grammar corrector in me is bothered by "authors'", as the book was written by a single author and movie authors are usually called screenwriters - I don't want to correct it as I'm not sure who it is referring to. It's been a long time since I've seen the movie, so it's quite possible I have overlooked a reference to train spotting.)--[[User:Hsmom|Hsmom]] 12:08, 26 October 2008 (EDT)
I'm not quite sure what the second part of this sentence means. (I wrote the non-italicized part.): "The film has nothing ''directly'' to do with the British hobby of train spotting, in which railfans keep records of the rolling stock they've seen,[5] ''beyond the authors' opinion that shooting heroin is as little use as he considers the railfan hobby to be.''" Is there something I've overlooked in the movie that refers to train spotters and implies their hobby is useless? Could we add more information to the sentence to show where this is in the movie? And which "authors" does this refer to, the man who wrote the book, or whoever wrote the screenplay? (I'm probably being a little sensitive here, because my brother dabbled in train spotting as a child, which I always thought was kind of neat. And the nit-picky grammar corrector in me is bothered by "authors'", as the book was written by a single author and movie authors are usually called screenwriters - I don't want to correct it as I'm not sure who it is referring to. It's been a long time since I've seen the movie, so it's quite possible I have overlooked a reference to train spotting.)--[[User:Hsmom|Hsmom]] 12:08, 26 October 2008 (EDT)
: Hsmon, I was the one that made that change (twice actually, a little different each time, with Andy making it ambiguous in between). First, I put the apostrophe in the wrong place. I was referring to Irvine. Second, I've been a lifelong rail enthusiast (railfan) myself, although done very little actual "trainspotting". But the sentence refers to Irvine's alleged opinion of the hobby, not mine. Third, I recall hearing years ago that the title ''did'' have something (indirectly) to do with the railfan activity, so I went searching. It was difficult to find anything authoritative, but I did find a forum in which someone was quoting something Irvine said in an interview. According to that, it wasn't anything actually in the book, let alone the film. I can't readily find that reference again just now, but I've found a few other references. Unfortunately, they are somewhat contradictory! There are several claims that the title is a reference to the blood vessels (tracks) and needle holes (trains on those track), but these appear to be speculation. According to Wikipedia and a couple of other sources, it was actually a reference to an incident in the book that didn't make it to the film. See [http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index?qid=20070922062936AAm67eU here] for a few different claims on the title. The following, from IMDB's FAQ on the movie, actually incorporates all three stories!
{{QuoteBox|The title is a reference to an episode where Begbie [Robert Carlyle] and Renton [Ewan McGregor] meet "an auld drunkard" in the disused Leith Central railway station, where they mean to use a toilet. The dunkard asks them (in a weak attempt at a joke) if they are "trainspottin."
<br />
Welsh has explained that, when he was growing up in Edinburgh, there was an abandoned train station that had become a place frequented by the homeless and drug addicts. When the drug addicts were going to the station to take drugs, they would often say that they were going 'Trainspotting'. According to director Danny Boyle, "Through the late '80s in Britain, it (Trainspotting) began to mean anybody who was obsessive about something trivial, and part of that is drugs. It's a very male thing. Women, they know better. It was a way in which men would conquer an area of life by just knowing everything about all the Sean Connery films."
<br />
Coincidentally, long term heroin injectors damage the veins in their arms leading to 'track marks' or 'tracks' all the way down their arms, and other parts of their bodies with easy access to veins.[http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0117951/faq]}}
:I'd say that I hope that clears it up, but it's probably just made it murkier! In summary, though, it seems that it does have ''something'' to do with the hobby; it's just a question of exactly what that is.
:[[User:Philip J. Rayment|Philip J. Rayment]] 05:34, 27 October 2008 (EDT)