negress
What a word. Every time I have read Live and Let Die this word amazes me. I suspect that when Ian typed the word that it was on the fly, giving no more thought to it than the words ‘sighing’ or ‘extracted’. But the word has grown over the years. If Fleming had described a ‘black woman’ at the wheel of the Chevy sedan, the impact today would not have so strong; it would have been a mear curiousity. But ‘negress’—‘a fine looking negress in a black chauffeur’s uniform’—the word puts the whole scene in perceptive. We see this ‘negress’ from the view of the times—from the 1950s view. The word puts her in square in the decade and make us twenty-first-century dwellers see this woman as the anomaly that she was. It is not a kind word, but this use makes a word that would today be considered degrading—even vulgar—become elegant. Alot has been made of another word that begins with ‘N’ in this book—a word that is harder to put into its context—but I am pleased and astonished with how Ian used this ‘n-word’.
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the red carpet
Fleming’s description of Bond’s moment of great luxury reminds us of how early we are in to the adventures of 007. This moment of luxury is mighty tame compared to what is to follow. Cars costing in the hundred thousands, hobnobbing with the elite, staying at the grandest of hotels; all much more luxurious than getting though customs in less than an hour. The opening paragraph and the title of this chapter show us that none of the great luxuries that Bond is afforded through the rest of his career are really ‘James Bond’s World’. This is one of the fantastic things about the character of James Bond, that this man of the working class is a gate-crasher into the world of luxury, and we as readers are allowed to crash these gates with him.
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