Popaholic

The pop-culture addiction that every character in the story experiences continues to control a lot of the novel. Sickboy for instance seems to have internal conversations with Sean Connery which leads the reader to consider the affect of the media on society. The narrative often digresses into moments of consideration on a movie or celebrity, and real life situations are constantly compared to fictional stories from movies, and thus lessen the weight of the reality at hand. The use of pop culture in this story is one of many ways in which Welsh abstracts the narrative. The characters all have nicknames which almost function as stage names. In scene where Renton visits Forrester there are many instances where Renton comments on their use of names, and the appropriate time to refer to a character by their "given name," that is their proper name. Rents is showing how they are characters and they are aware of that fact, they are functioning within groups of people under certain identities. In a sense they believe themselves to be celebrities based on the idea that celebrities perform and become their reputation and a part of a certain scene. In moments of high emotion, like when Leslie's baby dies, the characters address each other using the proper names, where in situations when the characters are seemingly enjoying themselves they are using their stage names.