By and large, Trainspotting was not especially authentic to my experiences as a heroin user. A few things rang true, but over all it's just a sensationalised pastiche of media-panic-style images of junky culture as a spectacle of depravity. Not that I can think of anything better or more truthful to suggest, though I do like the Basketball Diaries.

It occurs to me that Heroin The Monster is currently in the same literary space inhabited by vampires prior to Interview being written. There are no sympathetic viewpoints being expressed. It's an irredeemable, craven villain with no reason or meaning except to highlight either through contrasting the virtue and strength of the protagonist, or through accentuating the pitiable suffering, degradation and elsewise blunt-instrument pathos of the victim.

I waffle. If you want to pick my brains, you're welcome to them.