My Name up in Paper

I’m reading the latest Douglas Stuart novel, John of John (not pictured). Like his first two books, Shuggie Bain and Young Mungo, so far it’s been ten out of ten great, even if I have been a little distracted by thinking I might see myself in the story. The book is set in the 1990s and occasionally mentions bands or songs from that time, and I started wondering whether the central character might have been a Carter fan. Would I turn the page and get a namecheck? And would that be a good thing? For my ego it would be fantastic. But might it make the fictional world of the story less believable?

It is a thrill seeing your own name appear in someone else’s imaginary world. Especially when it’s a world imagined by someone you admire, and double especially when it’s unexpected. Many years ago, I was on a bus reading Complicity by Iain Banks, when I got to this bit:

I almost crashed the bus.

I remember there being two Carter mentions in Complicity. There’s also one in Banks’s last novel, The Quarry.

At least I think that’s who the Carter in dramatic black and white is. Maybe it was this shirt:

Still available today from the Carter USM Store HERE

A friend of mine who knew Iain Banks, told me the author had been a Carter fan. I was disappointed the director of Complicity’s film adaptation wasn’t. Or realistically, by the year 2000 when came out, Carter would have been a dated and unfashionable reference. I can’t remember who’d replaced us in the film. Probably one of those Britpop groups.

When I saw I Swear at the cinema, like when reading John of John, I was distracted by the music, this time it was the film’s soundtrack. I wasn’t expecting to hear a Carter song, but one by a different band. The longer the film went on, the more aware I was of the classic indie pop elephant not yet in the room. Spoiler alert: it almost ruined the ending.

In Douglas Stuart’s John of John I wonder which version of ‘This is How it Feels’ this is.

I think Carter are mentioned in a Joseph O’Connor’ novel. I remember finding out when I was reading it on a different bus. A tour one. It was probably the novel Desperadoes. I’ll try and find it and get back to you

My favourite ever unexpected Carter fictional namedrop was in an episode of the TV show Drop The Dead Donkey.

The main takeaway from all of this, is that Substack or Apple, or whoever is in charge, is determined to autocorrect or stick a red line under every ‘Carter are’ I type, and change it to ‘Carter is’. Bands will always be accompanied by plural verbs. It’s The Beatles are, not The Beatles is. This is one of the two hills I have decided to die on. The other one is ‘gotten’.

There are so few copies of my new EP left that it’s hardly worth me putting this link here.

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