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a dodgy cinema, and then abuses him as he sleeps (in a
particularly unpleasant way!). Certainly, Renton is angry
at first, but he soon ends up comforting and hugging the
older man, feeling genuine sympathy for him, and in the
end takes him to a party. Very charitable indeed. At the
end of the night he muses, “ah might end up whappin it
up the wee cunt’s choc-box yit.” Whyte quotes this as
an especially damning comment, showing just how little
Welsh has diverged from older paradigms. However, another
reading might say that within the social and sexual
register of Welsh it is a perfectly acceptable comment;
considering the manner in which characters talk about
women they fancy, or indeed love.
Besides, how often in Scottish literature do we find
the ‘male lead’ admitting to picking up a “gorgeous
young queen” and taking him home for a bit of oral
sex? Renton recalls this incident rather fondly – perhaps
with amusement – but definitely without shame.
Despite this event, Renton isn’t even bisexual, never
mind gay. He did it because in London normal conventions
don’t apply, “Ye can be freer here, no because it’s
London, but because it isnae Leith.” It seems that being
in London is a more potent, more liberating, altered
state than being on Ecstasy is for Brian. The encounter
with Giovanni also provokes Renton to consider his
own sexuality again, “How the fuck dae ah ken ah’m
no a homosexual if ah’ve nivir been wi another guy?.”
Obviously for Renton gay sex must include anal sex
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to be ‘proper’ – the “gorgeous young queen” doesn’t
quite count. This is disappointing, after all, in the real
world no such condition applies for gay men. Perhaps
it is because anal sex is virtually essential in heterosexual
relationships in Welsh’s writing that it is seen
as absolutely essential in homosexual ones. Unsurprisingly,
in the end Renton concludes that he is only really
attracted to women, but comments, “It’s aw aboot
aesthetics, fuck all tae dae with morality.” Mark Renton
is no homophobe, and goes through a very normal and
rational questioning of his own sexual preference. In
comparison to someone like Begbie, for instance, he is
positively enlightened.
Thus far we have only considered male homosexuality.
What of lesbianism? It is true that we seem to be
experiencing something of a backlash in the wake of
the ‘lesbian chic’ of the past couple of years. As Medhurst
puts it in The Face, “dykes are yesterday’s news.”
Not so for Alan Warner, especially in his latest novel,
The Sopranos. The first clue we are given as to what the
future holds for Fionnula (“the Cooler”) comes when
her friend Chell notes, “she’s been queerer and queerer
lately, the crazy chick.” No author can seriously believe
that readers these days will only take ‘queer’ to mean
strange or odd, so we instantly wonder just how queer
Fionnula is going to become.
At first, she seems to have the same concerns as the
other Sopranos – clothes, make up, drinking, and, of
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