10 replies to this topic

[AgentX007]

Can someone please tell me how Fleming got the titles for his books?

[OmarB]

Can you be a bit more specific? He's a writer, he made them up. Most were plot driven titles.

[Major Tallon]

Yes, he just made them up. In a few cases, he experimented with differing titles to see how he liked the sound of them. At one point, Moonraker was to be called "Mondays Are Hell," and Goldfinger was "The Richest Man In the World." OHMSS was "The Belles From Hell," and "The Living Daylights" was "Trigger Finger." In the end, it was what sounded best to Fleming at the time.

[AgentX007]

Can you be a bit more specific? He's a writer, he made them up. Most were plot driven titles.

How can I be more specific. Either my question is clear or you're too stupid to understand it.

[AMC Hornet]

Wow. I can be harsh, but I don't think I'm ever that harsh.

Perhaps OmarB meant "which titles specifically?" and you didn't understand that.

It's all right - that doesn't make you stupid.

[Jim]

Can you be a bit more specific? He's a writer, he made them up. Most were plot driven titles.

How can I be more specific. Either my question is clear or you're too stupid to understand it.

Bit much, honeypie.

Let's say I am too stupid to understand it (which I suspect I am) - what do you mean by "got"? By what was he inspired? From where, or whom, or what did he pinch them, or twist them? What ultimately decided things when there was a choice? Elaborate "got".

[AMC Hornet]

In response to constantly being asked where he 'got' his story ideas, Harlan Ellison came up with this pat answer:

"A post office box in Schenectady. You send two dollars and a self-addressed envelope and they send you back an idea."

A more intriguing question is: where does IFP get its ideas for 007 novel titles? John Gardner was over-ruled on several of his, as was Raymond Benson (No Deals, Mr. Bond? COLD? The Man With the Red Tattoo? Please tell me those weren't propopsed by the authors - oh well, I suppose TMWTRT is better than Slap! - IFP's original choice).

A friend read an original composition at a sci-fi con a while back, and one drunken jamook commented, "that was a good story - didja get it off the net?"
The author replied "no, I wrote it. The internet doesn't write stories, people do."

To that I say, Good on yer.

Edited by AMC Hornet, 31 January 2012 - 07:46 PM.

[OmarB]

Can you be a bit more specific? He's a writer, he made them up. Most were plot driven titles.

How can I be more specific. Either my question is clear or you're too stupid to understand it.

Wait, I answer you awkwardly worded, written like a half literate 5th grader question and you call me stupid? You need a lesson in manners young man.

[freemo]

He got them from internet message boards.

[Dan Gale]

Thunderball was named after the National Lottery game and Goldfinger was the make of an adult female massage kit available in the 70's, so I assume he borrowed it from there.

Wacka wacka.

But seriously.

Goldfinger (the villain's name) was apparently inspired by architect Ernő Goldfinger whose designs Fleming hated and it was an interesting enough name to give it to the book, too.
A myth suggests a 'Moonraker' was a nickname for a smuggler/village idiot...Wikipedia says:
The story goes that some local people had hidden contraband barrels of French brandy from customs officers in a village pond. While trying to retrieve it at night, they were caught by the revenue men, but explained themselves by pointing to the moon's reflection and saying they were trying to rake in a round cheese. The excise men, thinking they were simple yokels, laughed at them and went on their way. But, as the story goes, it was the moonrakers who had the last laugh.
For Your Eyes Only and On Her Majesty's Service (OHMS) are terms often used on official letters and documents, so these were fairly recognisable to readers. Similarly, 'You Only Live Once', 'Live and Let Live' and 'The Living Daylights' are common terms that were twisted out of context to become interesting titles.
Thunderball was famously not a word...John Barry said he looked it up before writing the theme song only to find it wasn't in the dictionary. It was meant to be a description of both the sight and sound of a nuclear explosion.

I think IFP have been searching for the perfect title formula ever since and have decided imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

Edited by Dan Gale, 27 March 2012 - 07:16 PM.

[AMC Hornet]

I think IFP have been searching for the perfect title formula ever since and have decided imitation is the sincerest form of flattery.

...Which is where they have fallen woefully short of the mark on many occasions.

What makes Fleming's titles so memorable is the fact that there was no formula. As DG points out, there were themes (names, official stamps, twisted maxims) but never too many of any one kind. Had he lived, who knows what other titles he might have come up with?

I've said this before, but it bears repeating: Barbara Emanuelle's Heaven Isn't Too Far Away has the most impressive fanfic title I've ever come across. IFP could take a lesson from that. Devil May Care isn't a bad title, but it doesn't mean anything specific to the story. Carte Blanche, on the other hand, does, and it's the kind of phrase Fleming might have used.

If you're going to imitate as the sincerest form of flattery, at least try to imitate sincerely.