4 replies to this topic

[Jim]

(Inspired by the moggy of Zen, in another post)

I will have to dig it out of what passes for my "collection" but a few years back I purchased a paperback called "James Bond: Did he really live twice?" by some blokey called John Bryan. It might only have been purchased in the UK, and even then, not widely. The only review I saw (and it was an ambivalent one, at best) was in 007 magazine no. 20 (I think).

Anyway, it was an attempt to compare Bond as the literary hero of the mid to late 20th century with Holmes, the literary hero of the late 19th to early 20th.

I'd be interested to know if anyone else read it. It's some years since I did, but I can recall that there were some fairly easy comparisons to make; Blofeld/Moriarty, Bond's general attitude to women/Irene Adler (bit of a thin one), the fear of laziness and indolence, the alcoholism and smoking and bezedrine/mainlining cocaine.

The impression I got from the book was that the author tried to overreach himself by making comparisons between the Holmes stories and the Bond films (not really the intention of the book) and by justifying his theorem on the basis that Basil Rathbone and Timothy Dalton look a bit alike (which they don't).

In all, I thought that it was an interesting failure. I don't think that the comparisons are that notable, but as a general point, it would be interesting to see what other folk think.

[Mister Asterix]

Didn't Amis talk a bit about the comparison's of Holmes and Bond in The James Dossier? I remember reading about the similarities somewhere and I thought they were just that, similarities. I recall the end From Russia With Love being compared to one of Holmes most notable moments. And that Dr. Watson who 'wrote' Holmes' adventures was at played in the movies by an actor named Ian Fleming. I don't put much into the Holmes/Bond connection. I think its kind of like the Dark Side Of The Moon/The Wizard Of Oz connection; there are parts that fit but mostly it's fairly unrelated.

[Jim]

I tend to agree; there are similarities and "echoes", but I think it's difficult to shoehorn the two completely together.

[zencat]

I have a copy of "Did he Really Live Twice?", but I've never read it. Maybe I should. But there's another Bond/Holmes connection. The most obscure Bond short story is not "007 in New York", but a privately printed short story called "Holmes Meets 007." Unfortunately, I don't have a copy of this (yet).

[Jim]

I did not know that, O Moggy of Zen.

Sounds a bit artificial though. I don't think the two are sufficiently alike to warrant it.