Fleming---Sheer Style

Loeffelholz

I thought this was worth passing along; a sort of tribute to Fleming's style---particularly early on, when he first wrote Casino Royale...

http://www.mi6.co.uk/news/index.php?itemid=4484

...Again---and I can't stress it often enough---if you haven't yet read him...give yourself a treat...

B-)

Or: Is Literary Bond now passe---in the era of terrorism, declining literacy rates and dwindling attention spans? Is there any room left for an early 50's-era, middle-management newspaperman's daydreams and fantasy wish-fulfillment?

s96024

Thanks for that posting that. It's quite interesting.

Thomas Crown

I'd argue that the faithfulness of Casino Royale to its source material makes it likely of a resurgence in the popularity of the novels. Since the late 1990's, the novels have been rereleased in several different editions that have been picked up by the fanbase. I also know of many friends who have been inspired to read some of the Bond novels because of British literature classes, or to apprecitate the character of Bond.

I wouldn't put them as dead yet...

Scribe74

The Fleming novels are, without a doubt, wonderful works of art. Although written 50-plus years ago, the Bond books exude a sleekness and style most contemporary thriller authors could only wish to achieve.

Fleming was the absolute master!

Loeffelholz

I'm currently ending a most enjoyable, 'in-order' re-read through the Fleming canon, and today rediscovered a passage from the author which, although taken from a book where he admittedly wasn't at his best throughout, shows that he was still capable of greatness:

"...He took a strong nip of straight bourbon and sat on the edge of his bed and looked unseeingly out of the window and across the lawn to the sea's horizon. Like a dozing hound chasing a rabbit in its dreams, or like the audience at an athletics meeting that lifts a leg to help the high-jumper over the bar, every now and then, his right hand twitched involuntarily. In his mind's eye, in a variety of imagined circumstances, it was leaping for his gun.

"Time passed and James Bond still sat there, occasionally smoking halfway through a Royal Blend and then absent-mindedly stubbing it out in the bed-table ashtray. No observer could have guessed what Bond was thinking about---or how intently he was concentrating. There were some signs of tension---the pulse in his left temple was beating a little fast, the lips were slightly pursed---but the brooding, blue-grey eyes that saw nothing were relaxed, almost sleepy. It would have been impossible to guess that James Bond was contemplating the possibility of his own death later that day, feeling the soft-nose bullets tearing into him, seeing his body jerking on the ground, his mouth perhaps screaming. Those were certainly part of his thoughts, but the twitching right hand was evidence that, in much of the whirring film of his thoughts, the enemy's fire was not going unanswered---perhaps had even been anticipated.

"James Bond gave a deep relaxed sigh. His eyes came back into focus. He looked at his watch. It said 9:50. He got up, ran both hands down his lean face with a scrubbing motion, and went out and along the corridor to the conference room."

- Ian Fleming, The Man With The Golden Gun

B-) :007)

caractacus potts

interesting
it reminds of me of Dahiell Hammetts "objective" style in The Maltese Falcon,
where we watch Sam Spade putter round his room doing much the same banal things, but Hammett leaves out Spades interior thought processes so thats all we se, is a page or two of sitting and smoking
on the last page it turns out Spade knew the the Mary Astor character had killed his partner half a novel ago, those hidden thought processes as Spade sat and smoked must have been him working out the evidence of her guilt