13 replies to this topic

[Carver]

Well, considering I have only read 2(yes 2)novels (Thunderball and Zero Minus Ten)I don't have any experience with Bond novels, but i was reading ZMT the other day, and god is it raunchy! its not 18 material or anything, but i was wondering if ZMT was like this, what were the other Bond novels like?

[RossMan]

You probably don't want to read Never Dream of Dying, in that case.

[Carver]

Thanks Ross Man, i'll go out and buy it now!

[Mister Asterix]

Adjusted for inflation, the Fleming novels are much raunchier than anything Benson ever wrote.

[Hardyboy]

I have to admit, I think Bond getting a lapdance in ZMT was probably the raunchiest thing in a Bond book. Let's face it: Fleming (erotica fan that he was) always tried to be erotic, not sleazy, so Bond being transported into a scene from Showgirls just takes the cake. As for NDOD, before it came out I read that it would be the most sexually explicit Bond novel ever written, but I found it pretty tame: all Benson does is mention the clinical name for a certain part of the female anatomy and explain where Bond puts his fingers. D. H. Lawrence wrote more explicit stuff in the 1920s--and I found it odd that Benson didn't name what's connected to Bond's body. . .

[Mourning Becomes Electra]

I agree with Hardyboy. The lap dance in ZMT wins the prize of raunchiest because it just sleazy and tacky and worse it's just not erotic. I heard the furor over NDOD, read it and thought what's the big deal. It all slightly mechanical and matter of fact and again rather unerotic but better by far than the sleazy lap dance. As Hardyboy said, if you want something more explicit in "literature" pick up a copy of D.H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterly's Lover. I believe James Joyce said it was pørnography, of course Lawrence said the same about Ulysses, so pørnography/erotica/etc is all in the eye of the beholder or writer.

MBE

[zencat]

Easily the raunchiest novel is FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. I mean, come on, do I need to go into all this again?

NDOD is often sighted as Benson's raunchiest book because of the much-discussed "unconventional" sex scene with Tylyn, but I actually find it quite tame and tasteful (and in my book, it's just foreplay!). I

[Mourning Becomes Electra]

[quote]Originally posted by zencat
Easily the raunchiest novel is FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE. I mean, come on, do I need to go into all this again?

NDOD is often sighted as Benson's raunchiest book because of the much-discussed "unconventional" sex scene with Tylyn, but I actually find it quite tame and tasteful (and in my book, it's just foreplay!). I

[Jim]

Yeah, depends on how one interprets "raunchy" as opposed to "explicit". From Russia with Love abounds with sexual metaphor, but it's metaphor, it's subtle and it doesn't need juvenile shocks which appear to be the current vogue. Fleming could write sleaze with some wit, rather than just writing sleaze. It is, however, basically filth, but it's the sort of repressed filth that made the Empire great and drove the British to try to nick everyone else's countries.

And Never Dream of Dying; initially, it was intruiging to see such an artlessly deliberate attempt to shock, but then like all juvenile pørn (so I am told....ahem) it withers one inside the more one reads it. But it did prove Bond a superhero; he found what he was looking for first time. Man's a marvel. If a little...ill.

[rafterman]

I'd say From Russia With Love....

[Blue Eyes]

It's all in the eye of the beholder really. In modern conventions (maybe looking at it from the teen view) Benson's seem to me more raunchy. Really they're just more explicit. But we can get away with that in todays day and age. From memory, the erotica scene by Benson that got my mind moving the most was in TFOD.

Fleming seemed to write them more elusively. More like erotica I find.

I guess the change also lies in society. Society is a lot blunter nowadays.

And I agree with Zencat on the NDOD scene. I didn't find anything distasteful whatsoever about it. It exists, it's happened, will happen and no doubt would happen to the real Bond. I could go on, but my dad checks this site out from time to time

[007luvchild]

Probably in the degree of more sexually explicit. In my opinion I think it's a toss up between ZMT and NDOD. Although I think it's ZMT by hair because I find it interesting how Bond could be aroused so easily in any situation from being almost dehydrated in the rugged Australian terrain to recovery after a brutal back side beating.

[General Koskov]

Benson has taken the masochism too far. Bond starts getting horny when someone punches him in the face...tsk, tsk.

From Russia With Love was so erotic, or rauncy, or sexy, or whatever because Grant and Klebb were so unsexy. Grant never 'interfered' with girls (and men, we assume) but he was in situations that one expects him to 'interefere'. Klebb was a lesbian, and to be fair, she tried, but it's not surprising she never got any female corporals to play along!

Benson lacks some style in the sex scenes, they remind me of the sex-ed class in Monty Python's The Meaning of Life:

WATSON: R-- rubbing the clitoris, sir?  

HUMPHREY: What's wrong with a kiss, boy? Hmm? Why not start her off with a nice kiss? ... You don't have to go leaping straight for the clitoris like a bull at a gate. Give her a kiss, boy.  

WYMER: Suck the nipple, sir?  

HUMPHREY: Good! Good. Well done, Wymer.  

DUCKWORTH: Uh, stroking the thighs, sir.  

HUMPHREY: Yes. Yes, I suppose so. Hmm?  

PUPIL IN FRONT: Oh, sir. Biting the neck.  

HUMPHREY: Yes. Good. Nibbling the earlobe, uhh, kneading the buttocks, and so on and so forth. So, we have all these possibilities before we stampede towards the clitoris, Watson.  

WATSON: Yes, sir. Sorry, sir.

The sterility of it all smacks of Benson.