totse.com | Trainspotting

romaniw · #1 2008-07-15, 02:54

I just started reading this (right after the simplistic "Sideways" by the way) and am I the only having a bit of trouble getting through with it? I'm American but I've dealt with my fair share of crazy Cockney/Mockney people, spent time in Dublin, and vacationed in ghettos parts of England but it's taking me like forever to get through a paragraph of this book. It's gotten better but still, it stresses my brains out. Please don't tell me I'm the only one?

Numberjumbo · #2 2008-07-15, 10:58

Fuckin' trains.

janEoblivious · #3 2008-07-15, 13:22

yeah i couldnt get through the 1st page because of it

iamalemur · #4 2008-07-15, 23:12

Truly, it's gash trying to read it. I have my own unfinished copy sitting on the bookshelf behind me.

Midge · #5 2008-07-16, 01:33

The copy I have has a glossary in the back to help you with terms you may be unfamiliar with. (So should yours, does it have the movie characters on the front?)

I urge you to keep reading. After a handful of pages - the dialect WILL click with you, and lemme tell you - that book is an absolute fucking hoot.

The characters and the goofy shit they do make it very, very readable.

Believe me - KEEP READING! Even if you don't understand it! It'll become easier and easier to get as the pages go by. I ASSURE YOU. (I myself couldn't fucking understand it, until I kept plodding through it.)

romaniw · #6 2008-07-22, 07:28

Quote:

Originally Posted by Midge View Post

The copy I have has a glossary in the back to help you with terms you may be unfamiliar with. (So should yours, does it have the movie characters on the front?)

I urge you to keep reading. After a handful of pages - the dialect WILL click with you, and lemme tell you - that book is an absolute fucking hoot.

The characters and the goofy shit they do make it very, very readable.

Believe me - KEEP READING! Even if you don't understand it! It'll become easier and easier to get as the pages go by. I ASSURE YOU. (I myself couldn't fucking understand it, until I kept plodding through it.)

Yes, thank you for pointing out the glossary.
After the scene with the guy who had the pills in his ass and stuck his hand in his own shit to get them back, I got hooked. After a while, you do sort of get used to the language. It's a very strange thing, the things the mind can do.

tdude · #7 2008-08-01, 01:11

Quote:

Originally Posted by romaniw View Post

I've dealt with my fair share of crazy Cockney/Mockney people, spent time in Dublin, and vacationed in ghettos parts of England but it's taking me like forever to get through a paragraph of this book.

Maybe because its a glaswegian (scottish) dialect

even harder to understand when you are to hear it directly, well for an englishman atleast.

parkus · #8 2008-08-01, 01:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by romaniw View Post

I've dealt with my fair share of crazy Cockney/Mockney people, spent time in Dublin, and vacationed in ghettos parts of England

I'm not surprised, Scottish is a whole new language to me and I live not even 50 miles south of the place

romaniw · #9 2008-08-01, 01:25

Quote:

Originally Posted by parkus View Post

I'm not surprised, Scottish is a whole new language to me and I live not even 50 miles south of the place

Yeah, I just assumed that it would be somewhat similar. I could deal with the Scottish slang but Welsh does the whole phonetically sounding thing, so it's even harder.

parkus · #10 2008-08-01, 01:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by romaniw View Post

Yeah, I just assumed that it would be somewhat similar. I could deal with the Scottish slang but Welsh does the whole phonetically sounding thing, so it's even harder.

Have you ever read any Chaucer?

He's a writer from old-english times (15th century kind of time), I studied his work at A-Level and it took me more than half the year just to get the jist of the book