37 replies to this topic

[Xenobia]

(1) I say so far, because how you feel about your first reading the book will change as time goes by.  There is how you feel about it when you just finished it, how you feel about it after you slept on it, how you feel about it after you talked about here, and how you will feel about it a week, a month, a year, a decade, from now.

(2) I did a lot of reading of the secondary sources related to Bond....the Bedside Companion by Raymond Benson, the Essential Bond, The James Bond Encyclopedia, etc.  From them, I got a very good sense of the Fleming and didn't think I needed the Fleming to complete the experience.

(3) Don't get me wrong, the book is not bad at all. 

(4) It's a great read, but Fleming's style doesn't necessarily dovetail with my own creative process. 

(5) Mind you, as I continue to work on my craft, that could change, but right now those parts of Fleming that annoyed me are when he (Fleming) breaks the flow of the story to go into long descriptions of scenery and characters at times when it doesn't necessarily work. 

(6) It's never supposed to be pleasant for girl when she looses her virginity, but I must admit, Mr. Fleming was kind with me.  It didn't hurt at all.  It was even entertaining, but we have a long way to go before we are completely comfortable with each other.

(1) Uh?

(2) Oh come off it. Really? How on earth is that possible? You're kidding, right?

(3) Big of you

(4) Must be rubbish then

(5) Hmm. Absence of laundromats, I guess.

(6) Isn't it? And as for the final sentiment; what makes you think you were the target audience? At all?

Somehow I missed your comebacks the first time around.

The below should be read with tongue firmly implanted in cheek.

1) I was anticipating the person you are now, and the person you will be as time goes by. Someone has to do that now that Crossing Over has gone off the air.

2) There is no excuse for my feelings except to say I was young and delusional. OK, I am just delusional.

3) I am quite big actually; some men consider that to be a good thing.

4) Yes, my writing is rubbish. But hey, the public likes it, and it's all about them.

5) Laundromats are key to any story. The metaphors they can produce by simply being there, are magical.

6) I'd like to think that Fleming thought that somewhere some woman might read his work and be seduced by it. It would be an easy score for him, no?

-- Xenobia

[marktmurphy]

I'm amazed that one who considers herself adept enough at her 'craft' and talks about Fleming in such a patronisong tone is unable to spell 'loses'.

[Four Aces]

...It's never supposed to be pleasant for girl when she looses her virginity, but I must admit, Mr. Fleming was kind with me.  It didn't hurt at all...

You may not feel the same way after you read The Spy Who Loved Me.

4A

[Xenobia]

I've heard that, and will take that into account.

-- Xen

[GreggAllinson]

I read Casino Royale for the first time about a month ago and it was the first time I saw the Bond *I* wanted to see outside of License to Kill. I loved the low-key, personal story of that film and have always been disappointed that previous and subsequent Bond films never managed to capture that same low-key, gritty feeling.

Obviously, Royale came first, so not only does it presage LTK's darker approach, it defines it. Bond is less of a Roger Moore (or even, to a lesser extent, Sean Connery) superhero and more of a character from a Camus novel or the star of a French New Wave film (am I bizarre for wishing that Truffaut made a Casino Royale film in French and black and white in the 50s?). He has a scar on his face (and, later, his hand), blows the big mission and is only given a reprieve by Lieter, isn't proud of killing people, openly wonders why the Devil's never been able to tell his side of the story, and coldly relays the suicide of the woman he was going to marry with "The bitch is dead." He is, in the words of Steven Jay Rubin, "a burned-out killer who may have just enough energy left for one final mission."

While I've never seen the film parody of Royale, I had a hard time shaking the image of an older Orson Welles as Le Chiffre. One can easily imagine Wells as a man with a large appetite for everything in life who's still trying to maintain his lifestyle despite failure and impending almost certain doom. I read the carpet beater scene picturing Connery and Welles and to my mind, it's one of the greatest missed opportunities in film history.

In reading Casino Royale (and Live and Let Die, which I've just begun reading), I've come to realise that most of the world doesn't know the true James Bond. Oh, sure, they absolutely know the theme song, a handsome actor in a tux, "Bond. James Bond.", "Shaken, not stirred.", and all the other famed film Bond motifs, but they don't know the existential, depressed, low-key hard-boiled character Fleming created. While the odds of this happening are roughly the same as a meteor hitting me and sparing the rest of the Chicagoland area, I'd kill to see Quentin Tarantino and his A Band Apart productions acquire the rights to the Bond novels and make some films that stick far closer to Fleming. Casting Bond would be difficult, but given five to ten years, Jude Law might mature into the role.

As a recent thread on the CBn forums said, Fleming is not respected enough. Casino Royale is an exciting novel featuring one of the most unique characters in literary history. While, perhaps, the Broccolis deserve accolades for bringing the James Bond name to international prominence, they arguably never bought the James Bond character to life. Thankfully for us, the novels are still out there, so we can discover him for ourselves.

[Xenobia]

Gregg you make some very good points, and the one I agree with the most is your take on Orson Welles. I agree he would have made an excellent Le Chiffre, had Casino Royale been done seriously.

I do think that Eon brought Bond to life in many different life forms, capitalizing on a line here or there from the novels, but you are right, the pure literary character has never made it to the screen.

Welcome to the boards! I look forward to chatting with you here.

-- Xenobia

[GreggAllinson]

Thank you kindly, Xenobia. I read a few of your columns here last night and enjoyed them immensely.

[Xenobia]

Why thank you Gregg! That's very kind of you.

-- Xen