8 replies to this topic

[girnny777]

This is just a little thing I noticed. In the third chapter of Casino Royale, it says that:

"In a moment he came out, and over the entrance a small blue light burned the warning that M. was not to be disturbed."

But later, in the second chapter of Live and Let Die, it says this:

"At once the green light came on, high on the wall in the room he had left. M. was not to be disturbed as long as it burned."

Note the difference in color. Is this an error that Fleming himself made? Or is this a change made by someone else? Also, the light is green in Moonraker.

P.S. I have the American Signet paperbacks if that matters.

[zencat]

It's blue in the UK first edition. Nice catch.

And welcome to CBN.

[DanMan]

Never noticed that. Welcome to CBN.

[Mister Asterix]

I remember thinking something wasn’t right in M’s office this last time I read Casino Royale, but I was thinking it was something with the doors. Nice catch.

[iain]

The Fleming books are full of this type of thing. Take a look at some of the timelines. He was 17 at the outbreak of WWII (YOLT) yet he bought a 1933 Bentley almost new (MR). That would make him 13 or 14 when he bought it.

While on the subject of his Bentley, what happened to the new one he bought at the end of MR? The next mention of his car is in TB and it is a totally different car.

[Tanger]

In Moonraker the light is a different colour again. Check out 'The Bond Files' by Andy Lane and Paul Simpson. It has all the little mistakes like this.

[1q2w3e4r]

Thanks Tanger, I was going to point that one out myself!

I think we kind of have to give Fleming a little leway in his timeline of OO7. Firstly, in CR Bond is supposed to be 37. But he's only aged two years or so by Fleming's later books.

His origional birthdate is put at 1916 and raises to 1924 by the time of YOLT. Fair enough there are some discrepiencies (sp?) but Fleming's novels are full of mistakes, which are bound to occour by a writer who didn't exactly document everything he wrote about the character.

In all honesty, a villian (in any of the novels) could walk into an expensive hotel or resturant and ask if there was a limey who'd been eating bacon, eggs and sausages and 10 yr old champagne and they'd have found their man!

[Tanger]

That age thing was actually Flemings attempt to try and make Bond younger. But then, as people have quite rightly pointed out, other mistakes creep in such as 9 year olds buying Bentleys and what have you.

[Pussfeller]

If you are baffled by these plot holes, try watching Star Trek.

I imagine that Fleming did not intend for Bond to be a precisely known character, perhaps so that readers can form their own ideas about his appearance/age/etc. Of course there are going to be errors in the Bond books, and always on this same general subject. If Bond is going to stay around, he's going to have to get younger every once in a while.

For the Benson books to work, his date of birth has to be moved up to the fifties, at least, unless we want a ninety year-old Bond.