19 replies to this topic

[tfeonline]

Hello, I'm a long time lurker but now I've finally registered and require a little assistance.

I'm a third year English Literature student at the University of East Anglia (UEA) and will be writing my dissertation on Ian Fleming's James Bond novels. I'm a long time Bond fan, having read the novels and watched the films from an early age, but now I actually have to study Fleming's work from a literary and critical angle and find the prospect rather daunting!

My question for my dissertation isn't set in stone yet, but I am currently aiming to look at the areas regarding the representation of women, monstrosity and fragmentation, as well as examining the time the books were written. I aim to examine the way women are presented within the texts, focusing on Vivienne in TSWLM, Vespa in CR, Pussy Galore in GOLD and Gala Brand in MRKR. Also regarding how they actually look, the villains are usually grotesque or deformed, a signifier that they are evil, yet the women are often flawed as well, such as Honey's broken nose in Dr. No.

Are there any other areas people would suggest that I should look into? I do have 8,000 words to write on the subject!

These are the current books that I am using. If anyone has any suggestions for further reading, then please do tell me!

Ian Fleming (abbreviated titles):
CR, LALD, MRKR, DAF, FRWL, DRNO, GOLD, FYEO, TBALL, TSWL, OHMSS, YOLT, TMWTGG, OCTO/TLD, Thrilling Cities

Other titles:
"Bond and Beyond" by Bennett and Wollacott
"Secret Agents in Fiction" by Sauerberg
"The Special Branch: The British Spy Novel 1890-1980" by Panek
"The Bond Affair" by Del Buono and Eco
"Anatomy of the Spy Thriller" by Merry
"This Day our Daily Fictions: An Enquiry into the Multi-million Bestseller Status of Enid Blyton and Ian Fleming" by Druce
"James Bond The Man and His World" by Chancellor
"James Bond Phenomenon: A Critical Reader" Edited by Lindner
"Ian Fleming's James Bond: Annotations and Chronologies" by Griswold
"Ian Fleming" by Lycett
"James Bond The Offical Biography" by Pearson

Many thanks for any help you can provide,

Rob

[ACE]

Good luck, Rob

You will find your essay in Chapters 10 - 12 of The James Bond Phenomenon - Christopher Lindner -ed.

While the following books are terrific, I wouldn't bother with the following

The Henry Chancellor book - great but not for what you need to do
The Authorized Biography of Bond - fictional.
Try the Pearson biography of Fleming although with Lycett, you have enough information.

Further reading:
Licence To Thrill by James Chapman
http://www.amazon.co...7244171-2117450

The Politics of James Bond by Jeremy Black
http://www.amazon.co...7244171-2117450

Be interesting to read it when you have finished.

ACE

[TortillaFactory]

re: the women being deformed, you'll probably want to explore the whole "bird with a wing down" theme, and how it applies to the villains as well (perhaps?). Remember that Bond is also somewhat "deformed" what with the facial scar.

Echoing Ace, would love to see what you come up with.

[Mamadou]

One aspect of Fleming's representation of women you might want to examine is their working status. Read the books again and notice what jobs they hold, if any, and what they do in their spare time.

In CR, Bond's interior monologue at one point is why women shouldn't and couldn't do a "man's work." The story behind that paragraph is that Vesper has just walked into a kidnapping, and Bond is mentally yelling at her for being simultaneously a part of the intelligence "community" and so stupid. He generalizes from there that all women are unable to do the job.

Compare this with other working women in Bond. Pussy Galore runs her own crime syndicate in an obviously male-dominated field. I think Fleming gives her a pass because she's a lesbian (however much he didn't believe that there was such a thing). Honey Ryder is abjectly impoverished, and at the end Bond helps her get set up to work for the Jamaica Institute, so maybe Fleming regards women as equal in academic intelligence. Kissy Suzuki fishes in a rather life-threatening way. Tanya Romanova lives fairly independently with her work in the KGB. You also have women like Tracy who are independently wealthy and therefore don't need to work.

I think there's a decent thesis to be found in this aspect of the Bond franchise.

[spynovelfan]

Good luck, Rob

You will find your essay in Chapters 10 - 12 of The James Bond Phenomenon - Christopher Lindner -ed.

Indeed - see here:

http://books.google....AHKQsgjSQJOVYp0

I would actually recommend only using primary sources. Fleming's novels, biographies of Fleming, other thrillers. Stuff like Druce and Lindner will mean that your mind is filled with their ideas and you will either find it hard to get rid of them and come up with your own or will spend your essay countering them. Use the novels and other relevant sources to back yourself up - not other critics. Reading a few British spy novels from 1890 to 1980 will make for a better dissertation - and be a lot more fun! I also read English literature at university (a few years ago now!) and got into an awful muddle with critics. I think it's an easy mistake to think that the more impressive your bilbiography is, the more impressive your paper will be. The truth, I think, is that it all comes down to how good your ideas are, and if you can back them up from a reading of the texts in question. A lot of people can put together what is essentially a well-written and sophisticated summation of the critical thinking on a subject. Still more can create a jargontastic opinion piece. Few people can come up with an original idea and back it up.

That said, here are a few of my thoughts. Discard at will. Burn on reading. They're not backed up, but then I'm not writing an essay.

I think the whole' villains are deformed' angle is a little too obvious to be sustainably interesting. It dates back from well before Fleming, of course, to Le Queux, Sax Rohmer et al. You might want to compare Fleming's use of villains to them. I think the disguise aspect is more interesting, re Drax. Also Largo, disguised as a playboy. Goldfinger his neighbour. They were often characters who could almost have existed in Fleming's own life. 'She said the man in the gaberdine suit was a spy - I said "Be careful, his bow tie is really a camera"'.

I think Fleming's women are much more interesting, and haven't yet been properly appraised. There's the whole need for Bond to rescue the damsel thing, of course, but also that he repeatedly falls for them. They tend to have an unusual form of knowledge. Honey has learned stuff about the natural world from experience, stuff Bond and the reader would not know. Solitaire has knowledge of the supernatural world, via telepathy. Tiffany Case and Pussy Galore both have knowledge of the criminal world, Gala knowledge of battling criminals. They're all experts in their fields, and they are efficient. They are also often independent or independent-minded (Domino, for instance, is the latter). Fleming and Bond admire all this. Appearance-wise, there's an emphasis on simplicity - little make-up, no nail polish. And is it just me or do a number of them have boy's ? Make of that what you will - Noel Coward did.

What's 'fragmentation'? Sounds good, but I have no idea what you mean by it. Never use a long word when a short one will do.

Hope something here helped - and best of luck.

[spynovelfan]

Remember that Bond is also somewhat "deformed" what with the facial scar.

I'd never thought of that. Great thought, TF.

[spynovelfan]

Compare this with other working women in Bond. Pussy Galore runs her own crime syndicate in an obviously male-dominated field. I think Fleming gives her a pass because she's a lesbian (however much he didn't believe that there was such a thing). Honey Ryder is abjectly impoverished, and at the end Bond helps her get set up to work for the Jamaica Institute, so maybe Fleming regards women as equal in academic intelligence.

Very interesting, Mamadou. I'd alter the last sentence - I think he regarded women as equal in non-academic intelligence. He's saying - which wasquite radical - 'Okay, she's never been to school and collects shells for her living, but she's still smarter than you give her credit for.' Other smarts count big-time in Fleming.

Rob, one thing to do is to look at how other thriller writers portrayed women. Fleming didn't exist in a bubble, so there's little point in saying 'Oooh, all his women were like this' when everyone else's were. You could look at Greene, Ambler, Charteris, for instance.

I'll shut up now (chance would be a fine thing!).

[tfeonline]

Thanks for all the advice so far!

My question isn't set in stone yet, so I will definately be taking some of the suggestions so far on board.

I've been told by my dissertation supervisor (the person actually marking it!) to try and define my question as early as possible and also to try to get to grips with Fleming's "writing style", especially his excellent way of describing the minute details and little touches that are found in the books. Thrilling Cities was recommended as a perfect example of Fleming describing the colour and detail of people and places.

Looking at the occupations and special fields of the women is a particularly interesting idea, as is Bond's thoughts on women doing men's work, so to speak. Even at this early stage, the traditional idea of a Bond girl has already been shattered, as many of the women are strong and confident and capable of holding their own.

I'll also look into the other writers suggested, such as Greene, Ambler, and Charteris as I'll need to look into the reviews of the books at the time as well. Times were different back then so in the majority of reviews, no mention is made of what is considered now to be the 'sexist' nature of the books, instead they criticise the 'violence' and 'sadism' of Fleming's work.

Thanks for the suggestion of other books to look at, and if anyone has any other ideas of thoughts on what I could look at, it would be greatly appreciated!

[JohnB]

tfeonline:

Though I'm no literary specıalıst, I know a little about Fleming the man, so maybe I can offer some small insight on the aspect you enquire about.

Fleming was a 'high flyer' in the Intelligence business during WW2, where many of the top agents were women who took great risks, sometimes to their cost. One of the roles undertaken by female agents is baiting a 'honey trap', where the woman was required to have sex with the enemy. Similarly, female agents sometimes had to act as the partner of a man, with all that entails. Many of Fleming's female colleagues therefore had a very 'matter of fact' attitude to sex which was unusual in civil society at that time.

Fleming was notorious in polite circles for approaching women in social settings and without even an introduction, asked if they would like sex with him. He reckoned a possible slap was a small price to pay for a quick answer. His partners therefore tended to be similar to himself: straightforward, unblushing and rather physical.

As you may be aware, much of Bond is based on Fleming's own experiences and people he had met, or knew. This also applies to the women in the stories. I would say, therefore, that the women agents in the stories are most probably based in no small part on the female agents Fleming knew. Studying them could provide at least some of your answer.

Cheers!
John

See:
Paddy O'Sullivan
Elizabeth P. McIntosh
Jane Clark
Amy Elizabeth Thorpe
Nancy Wake
Countess Krystyna Skarbek aka Christina Granville
Paola Del Din
Marguerite Knight
Lisa de Baissac
Andr

[Santa]

It's a very interesting subject and one I could probably go on about all day, but my main feeling is that actually Fleming didn't know nearly as much about women as he thought he did.

[superado]

Henry Chancellor's recent "James Bond, the Man and His World" was mentioned, but I think he posed some interesting theories about Fleming's own psychology about women. In short, Chancellor stated that the Bond women were very shallow and didn't compare to the complex relationships Fleming had with his mother, girlfriends, wife, mistresses and female acquaintences. He also theorized how Fleming really did not appreciate women or gave them their due on equal terms with his male acquaintences. Despite of his not so full engagement with women, his relationships certainly had great impact on his life but which were all but filtered out by his attitudes toward women when he wrote about female characters in his novels. The problem with Chancellor's book is the lack of proper annotation, but that would not be too great an issue if it's his opinion that you will cite, and/or if you choose to just use his theories as launch points for further research with other sources.

[tfeonline]

Thanks for all the replies so far: they've been amazingly helpful!

Right now my dissertation is due in in about 8weeks times so it's real nose to the grindstone time. The question itself has evolved, it is now "The Representation of Women and Their Relationshop to James Bond".

What this means is that I am now looking at how Fleming represents the female characters, but also how he uses them within the story itself. Put simply, if you took the "Bond girl" out of the stories, would the entire book collapse?

The first section is pretty much sorted, but if you could cast an eye over it, then that would be appreciated!

So, the representation of women I see is as follows:

- There is no archetype

[Stephen Spotswood]

Besides the bird with a wing down theme, I think a possible talking point is the relative toughness of the women. They seem to belong to the film noir period of movie making, where women felt free to pick up men, like just about every woman in the Humphrey Bogart movie, "The Big Sleep." These FN women were often impulsive and tragic too. They were often working girls: librarians, receptionists, diner waitresses and cab drivers. They were Rosie the Riveters. One of my favorite parts in the book "Dr. No", was after Bond rescued Honey, while they were escaping he had to shoot a man in front of her. When he apologized for that she said, "Don't be silly." She kept insisting that Bond owed her "slave time" for accidentally getting Dr. No's men to shoot up her small boat. The slave time was a romp in her bed at the end of her book where he says, "But," and she's says, "Do what you're told." The fact that Bond was around 37, and she was 18 discouraged his ardor for her during the book. Most of the women in the secret service were ex-WRENS during WWII, and were occasionally described as somewhat crisp and severe. Louella Ponsonby blew off the 00's attempts to pick her up. Bond was very deferential in his treatment of her. Gala Brand blew off his invitation by saying she was engaged.

Women also served the plots by being the ladies in distress for Bond to rescue like the knights of old. One also gets the impression that they're better after having known him, although he doesn't seem to see himself in that role. However, that's excepting the few who died like the girl who was gold plated, the gold plated girl's lesbian sister, Vesper, and Tracy.

They're also not very va-va-va voom in the books (choose your own academic term). Their breasts are ususally described as just fine, their physiques athletic, and their makeup and jewelry kept at a minimum, which was Bond's preference.

Edited by Stephen Spotswood, 22 March 2006 - 07:51 PM.

[Mister Asterix]

[mra]Glad to see you have Tilly in there now as a counterpoint to Pussy. So much is made of Bond

[Stephen Spotswood]

The women in the home office seemed to fulfill certain "traditional" roles as well. They would gossip among themselves in the ladies room about what's going on in their office, a breach of security that drove the heads crazy. But the heads referred to it as the Powder Vine and sometimes depended on it themselves to know what's going on. In some ways, the agency right hand didn't seem to know what their left hand was doing.

The women were a big part of the secondary staff, clerks, secretaries etc. Yet they seemed to run their offices. I seem to recall an old English expression about the tyranny of clerks. Ponsonby, and presumably others, often seemed to mother the men in the offices. They would bring treats, aspirins, brush off jackets etc. Perhaps it's just me, but although today this might be considered demeaning, in the books I get the impression that the women help the agents make the transition from the killing fields to the civilized world, whereas otherwise the agents would probably grow too ruthless or despondent.

[Mamadou]

The women in the home office seemed to fulfill certain "traditional" roles as well. They would gossip among themselves in the ladies room about what's going on in their office, a breach of security that drove the heads crazy. But the heads referred to it as the Powder Vine and sometimes depended on it themselves to know what's going on. In some ways, the agency right hand didn't seem to know what their left hand was doing.

The women were a big part of the secondary staff, clerks, secretaries etc. Yet they seemed to run their offices. I seem to recall an old English expression about the tyranny of clerks. Ponsonby, and presumably others, often seemed to mother the men in the offices. They would bring treats, aspirins, brush off jackets etc. Perhaps it's just me, but although today this might be considered demeaning, in the books I get the impression that the women help the agents make the transition from the killing fields to the civilized world, whereas otherwise the agents would probably grow too ruthless or despondent.

I read an article by (I think) the old recruiting chief for MI5, and he said that agents often ended up marrying their secretaries, because they were the only people the agents could really confide in. And though Ponsonby, Moneypenny and Goodnight (and May, to a point) aren't really Bond's confidantes, I distinctly remember Goodnight being visibly worried about Bond in OHMSS.

They kind of remind me of the WWII-era "girl at home"--capable, unspectacular, yet they had something. They were the ones that the soldiers wrote home to, even if they had pinups of Hollywood's hottest women over their bunks. Perhaps go into this relationship a bit?

[Stephen Spotswood]

They kind of remind me of the WWII-era "girl at home"--capable, unspectacular, yet they had something. They were the ones that the soldiers wrote home to, even if they had pinups of Hollywood's hottest women over their bunks. Perhaps go into this relationship a bit?
[/quote]


I think we're barking up the same tree, but using our own expressions for it. Your's is the "girl at home," and mine was a passing reference to "Rosie the Riveter," women who took the men's place in factories and other such jobs. Personally I like Rosie better than the girl at home, because on the latter there's a tinge of the Victorian "Angel in the House."

Edited by Stephen Spotswood, 23 March 2006 - 04:25 PM.

[Robert Watts]

I think that Fleming's Bond girls, all though often perceived as being bimbos who dress like lesbians, were actually in powerful roles more then they say. Vesper could operate a cipher machine very easily (and I am certain that can't be an easy thing to do), Gala Brand was a highly skilled Special Branch Agent, who knew how to use the gyro settings etc for the Moonraker, Tiffany Case was a sharp diamond smuggler, along with having powerful influence in the Mob Heirachy. Rosa Klebb was the head of a Russian Government department, Pussy Galore ran one of America's most resepected Crime Organisations, Honey Rider had been looking after herself in third world conditions for almost a decade or so. Tatiana Romonova is a Soviet Corporal, despite her family background (okay that might be a bit of a weaker arguement)

[Stephen Spotswood]

I've worked with something like a cypher machine while in the Air Force, and they're not easy. They involve adjusting plastic disks that tend to be hard to move and can hurt your fingers, and making wire connections that really require a light touch. Then it would print out on a paper tape that was less than a half inch in width.

[tfeonline]

Just wanted to say many thanks for the help and assistance given here during my dissertation on women in the Fleming novels.

I received a 2:1 mark for it,and now I graduate from univeristy on Friday!

Many thanks again!

Rob