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Lesson 1 (from Kicking: The Skag Boys, Junk Dilemma No. 63, The First Day of the Edinburgh Festival)

Objective

In The Skag Boys, Welsh begins his book by offering a sample day in the life of an Edinburgh heroin addict. What shines through the events is the banality of the details: videos, cabs, stairwells, etc.

The objective of this lesson is to examine the banality of addiction in this section.

Lesson

1. For class discussion: Review The Skag Boys in terms of objectives and obstacles. What are Sick Boy and Renton's individual goals in the chapter, and what stands in the way of their achieving these goals? Discuss how these goals and challenges indicate a larger lifestyle. How do all other concerns go away when junk becomes a concern? How do simply inconveniences become crises given this goal?

2. For class discussion: Discuss the notion of personality in a junkie. Does the class think that the personalities of Renton and Sick Boy are negated by their need...

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