Silhouette ManThe last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,845MI6 Agent
This is in fact a very interesting subject-matter worthy of an article - the presentation of the Japan in the James Bond films and novels in the 1960s in YOLT. Kissy is just a small part of the stoiry of the Westernisation and dare I say the Americanisation of Japan post-1945, to the extent that many of the old traditional culture has fallen by the wayside in this mini-America.
"The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
This is in fact a very interesting subject-matter worthy of an article - the presentation of the Japan in the James Bond films and novels in the 1960s in YOLT. Kissy is just a small part of the stoiry of the Westernisation and dare I say the Americanisation of Japan post-1945, to the extent that many of the old traditional culture has fallen by the wayside in this mini-America.
It's a shame. If you go there now, you cant see too much of the Traditional Culture of Japan in it's Modern Society.
1.On Her Majesties Secret Service 2.The Living Daylights 3.license To Kill 4.The Spy Who Loved Me 5.Goldfinger
Silhouette ManThe last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,845MI6 Agent
This is in fact a very interesting subject-matter worthy of an article - the presentation of the Japan in the James Bond films and novels in the 1960s in YOLT. Kissy is just a small part of the stoiry of the Westernisation and dare I say the Americanisation of Japan post-1945, to the extent that many of the old traditional culture has fallen by the wayside in this mini-America.
It's a shame. If you go there now, you cant see too much of the Traditional Culture of Japan in it's Modern Society.
Yes, but the Japs have become more right-wing again - the whole Chinese islands caper shows that. Not a good move there, given the experiences from 1931 onwards in Japanese political and military history, methinks!
"The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
superadoRegent's Park West (CaliforniaPosts: 2,656MI6 Agent
Going with the Henry Chancellor lead (whose book I did read and found very good in terms of theories on Fleming's themes, motivations and inspirations), what Fleming had to say about the encounter with the Japanese masseusse in Thrilling Cities must be the definitive answer. Because it's been a long while since I read TC, here's a blog of someone who bothered to transcribe the Tokyo passages: http://liverputty.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html
Whether made up or not, we don't know, but it seems Fleming plainly recounted the name of the girl as "Kissy" and I can't think of a reason what would motivate him to change the facts since this book is the most journalistic he's ever written. By the limited conversation he had with her, along the lines of asking if she had ever serviced "bad men," I don't think he would have delved much into the depths of her personal life, let alone the etymology of her name. Hence, I think that whatever afterthought Fleming might have had about this woman would have been superficial and nothing really profound despite the theorized significance she might have had for him to fictionalize her the mother of James Bond's only child; to him, he must have taken this woman as a noteworthy encounter, but realistically someone he would never meet again. But even to theorize for a moment that Fleming might have cheated and changed this masseuse's real name (again, I doubt he would have even cared enough to note her surname) since in notes on the novel, the character's name was once "Baby," "Kissy" might be another one of his double-entendres like "Pussy." On that note, the famous Chinese "sing-song" prostitutes in 19th Century San Francisco were noted to include "Kissy" as a one of the acts they offer in their songs to pedestrian "johns," among other acts.
"...the purposeful slant of his striding figure looked dangerous, as if he was making quickly for something bad that was happening further down the street." -SMERSH on 007 dossier photo, Ch. 6 FRWL.....
Sir MilesThe Wrong Side Of The WardrobePosts: 27,754Chief of Staff
Great post -{
YNWA 97
Silhouette ManThe last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,845MI6 Agent
Going with the Henry Chancellor lead (whose book I did read and found very good in terms of theories on Fleming's themes, motivations and inspirations), what Fleming had to say about the encounter with the Japanese masseusse in Thrilling Cities must be the definitive answer. Because it's been a long while since I read TC, here's a blog of someone who bothered to transcribe the Tokyo passages: http://liverputty.blogspot.com/2007_10_01_archive.html
Whether made up or not, we don't know, but it seems Fleming plainly recounted the name of the girl as "Kissy" and I can't think of a reason what would motivate him to change the facts since this book is the most journalistic he's ever written. By the limited conversation he had with her, along the lines of asking if she had ever serviced "bad men," I don't think he would have delved much into the depths of her personal life, let alone the etymology of her name. Hence, I think that whatever afterthought Fleming might have had about this woman would have been superficial and nothing really profound despite the theorized significance she might have had for him to fictionalize her the mother of James Bond's only child; to him, he must have taken this woman as a noteworthy encounter, but realistically someone he would never meet again. But even to theorize for a moment that Fleming might have cheated and changed this masseuse's real name (again, I doubt he would have even cared enough to note her surname) since in notes on the novel, the character's name was once "Baby," "Kissy" might be another one of his double-entendres like "Pussy." On that note, the famous Chinese "sing-song" prostitutes in 19th Century San Francisco were noted to include "Kissy" as a one of the acts they offer in their songs to pedestrian "johns," among other acts.
Great post, superado. I concur. Kissy and Pussy. Pretty much wraps that one up, I'd say! -{
"The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
superadoRegent's Park West (CaliforniaPosts: 2,656MI6 Agent
Thanks, fellas!
"...the purposeful slant of his striding figure looked dangerous, as if he was making quickly for something bad that was happening further down the street." -SMERSH on 007 dossier photo, Ch. 6 FRWL.....
Thanks Superado! trully a fantastic post! that helps a lot! However as soon as I was told that Kissy's name came from a masseuse I accepted the possibility that the masseuse told Ian Fleming she was called Kissy... But I still think that since she provided the word "Kissy" as Kissy Suzuki's name... I would benefit from finding her real name... But I have read the link your provided... I have a clue now... If I found when Ian Fleming went to the Tokyo Onsen or when he was in Japan I may find which masseuses were working in the Tokyo Onsen back then... I think registries of such events exist so I have a chance of finding candidates... But I doubt I can get that data over the net... So I may as well give up for now and use whatever I deem is the best option... But I rather use the Japanese version of the book, not the the Japanese credits of the movie...
This is in fact a very interesting subject-matter worthy of an article - the presentation of the Japan in the James Bond films and novels in the 1960s in YOLT. Kissy is just a small part of the stoiry of the Westernisation and dare I say the Americanisation of Japan post-1945, to the extent that many of the old traditional culture has fallen by the wayside in this mini-America.
It's a shame. If you go there now, you cant see too much of the Traditional Culture of Japan in it's Modern Society.
I am an orientalist and as such I can say that the traiditional Japanese culture may have disappeared but what has appeared to take its place its a completely Japanese phenomenon... Otaku, hikikomori, gothic lolitas, dekotora, tokusatsu, Meido kafe, Nyotaimori, Nantaimori, Kinbaku, Nawajutsu, Kyoiku mama, koro (wikipedia says its Chinese but I've read Japanese experience it too), anime (China and Korea have similiar phenomenons but they are copies of the Japanese thing) and probably a much longer list... All are very Japanese things, whether good or bad, that makes Japan one of the few countries that got conquered, invaded and permanently altered without their idiosincracy suffering too much... as the Japanese uniqueness managed to re-assert itself over time... over a short period of time...
Spot on. It's great to see that this forum contributes some intelligent research alongside the DC adoration.
Good luck with your project Alex.
What do you mean by DC adoration?
2nd Edit: By the way... I knew James Bond from the movies and I was not really impressed by them, they are not bad but they are too average... I only cared about James Bond because the guy is a legend, like Tarzan or Zorro... I have read the Tarzan novels because his author has some other good books in his experience... But I wasn't much interested in Ian Flemming as an author... I have just read the text you gave about him and now I am eager to find one of his novels... But I dont like realism... Has he written any fantasy? mmm... Well I guess I can find his bibliography in wikipedia... I like how he uses words, he has a lot of style... I always knew that movies based on book usually are worse than the books... I just didn't expect Ian Flemming to be a much better author than the directors that adapted his books make him look...
You know enough to know that James Bond had a son with Kissy Suzuki, but you now say haven't ever read any of Ian Fleming's novels, you're asking "has he written any fantasy?", and you're not even sure how to spell his surname now?
Maybe You Only Live Twice would be a good place to start reading the novels, if you're going to reference one of the characters.
By the way, DC adoration refers to Daniel Craig, the actor portraying Bond... I guess you do know about that...? )
"How was your lamb?" "Skewered. One sympathises."
Silhouette ManThe last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,845MI6 Agent
You know enough to know that James Bond had a son with Kissy Suzuki, but you now say haven't ever read any of Ian Fleming's novels, you're asking "has he written any fantasy?", and you're not even sure how to spell his surname now?
Maybe You Only Live Twice would be a good place to start reading the novels, if you're going to reference one of the characters.
By the way, DC adoration refers to Daniel Craig, the actor portraying Bond... I guess you do know about that...? )
Yes, I'm glad I'm not alone in finding this thread a bit confusing from the word 'go', though it subject matter is at least interesting and intellectual. I'm afraid though that the 'Flemming Brigade' are never to be taken credibly - they've shown themselves to have fallen at the first hurdle of Bondology, IMHO. 8-)
Also, have you ever read anything by Lafcadio Hearn? Fleming has Bond mention him in YOLT!
"The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
You know enough to know that James Bond had a son with Kissy Suzuki, but you now say haven't ever read any of Ian Fleming's novels, you're asking "has he written any fantasy?", and you're not even sure how to spell his surname now?
Maybe You Only Live Twice would be a good place to start reading the novels, if you're going to reference one of the characters.
By the way, DC adoration refers to Daniel Craig, the actor portraying Bond... I guess you do know about that...? )
Proof that if your only tool for research is google you learn how to get far with it... Well, I learnt everything from wikipedia... Is there anything bad with that? I am not a fan of James Bond... I am a fan of literature in general, of narrative in general...
Proof that if your only tool for research is google you learn how to get far with it... Well, I learnt everything from wikipedia... Is there anything bad with that? I am not a fan of James Bond... I am a fan of literature in general, of narrative in general...
Just be aware of this then...Fleming never wrote Kissy Suzuki to be a mother.
Let me reiterate that because it was seemingly lost in my first post. Ian Fleming never wrote or intended Kissy Suzuki to father a child with James Bond.
So, how did James Suzuki come about? Easy: when Fleming died, Kingsley Amis initially took over for him, but then several other authors (such as John Gardner or Raymond Benson) took control of the literary Bond. SEVERAL YEARS AFTER FLEMING HAD DIED, the character of James Suzuki was created by John Pearson, who provided the character with no background. That was left to Raymond Benson for a short story in Playboy magazine published forty years after Fleming's death. We also learn that Kissy Suzuki has died of ovarian cancer in the same story.
Kissy Suzuki the literary character was nothing special to Ian Fleming. It just so happened that she was the only person John Pearson could logically choose to be the mother. But even then, it was only because she was the one character with whom Bond, who was brainwashed at the time, would have even possibly have motive to father a son. She took advantage of his brainwashed state and basically kept him around as a husband. And James Suzuki was killed off as a character before Bond so much as met him. Not only that, but the actual short story, Blast from the Past, I believe is what they call "ambiguously canon", since it exists outside the established Fleming/Amis/Gardner/Benson timeline. Therefore, the only literarily canon thing about James Suzuki is that, well...he exists, as per John Pearson, mentioned in passing after the death of Bond's creator.
By the way, are you gonna eat that?
Silhouette ManThe last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,845MI6 Agent
You know enough to know that James Bond had a son with Kissy Suzuki, but you now say haven't ever read any of Ian Fleming's novels, you're asking "has he written any fantasy?", and you're not even sure how to spell his surname now?
Maybe You Only Live Twice would be a good place to start reading the novels, if you're going to reference one of the characters.
By the way, DC adoration refers to Daniel Craig, the actor portraying Bond... I guess you do know about that...? )
Proof that if your only tool for research is google you learn how to get far with it... Well, I learnt everything from wikipedia... Is there anything bad with that? I am not a fan of James Bond... I am a fan of literature in general, of narrative in general...
You're not a fan of James Bond?! Well, it seems that you've come to thew wrong place, then! Plus Wikipedia is not a credible research tool - that comes from years of experience reading books and articles on the James Bond phenomenon, my friend.
"The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
Silhouette ManThe last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,845MI6 Agent
Proof that if your only tool for research is google you learn how to get far with it... Well, I learnt everything from wikipedia... Is there anything bad with that? I am not a fan of James Bond... I am a fan of literature in general, of narrative in general...
Just be aware of this then...Fleming never wrote Kissy Suzuki to be a mother.
Let me reiterate that because it was seemingly lost in my first post. Ian Fleming never wrote or intended Kissy Suzuki to father a child with James Bond.
So, how did James Suzuki come about? Easy: when Fleming died, Kingsley Amis initially took over for him, but then several other authors (such as John Gardner or Raymond Benson) took control of the literary Bond. SEVERAL YEARS AFTER FLEMING HAD DIED, the character of James Suzuki was created by John Pearson, who provided the character with no background. That was left to Raymond Benson for a short story in Playboy magazine published forty years after Fleming's death. We also learn that Kissy Suzuki has died of ovarian cancer in the same story.
Kissy Suzuki the literary character was nothing special to Ian Fleming. It just so happened that she was the only person John Pearson could logically choose to be the mother. But even then, it was only because she was the one character with whom Bond, who was brainwashed at the time, would have even possibly have motive to father a son. She took advantage of his brainwashed state and basically kept him around as a husband. And James Suzuki was killed off as a character before Bond so much as met him. Not only that, but the actual short story, Blast from the Past, I believe is what they call "ambiguously canon", since it exists outside the established Fleming/Amis/Gardner/Benson timeline. Therefore, the only literarily canon thing about James Suzuki is that, well...he exists, as per John Pearson, mentioned in passing after the death of Bond's creator.
Yes, but Fleming does tell us that Kissy Suzuki was pregnant at the end of YOLT and Bond was not brainwashed, he suffered amnesia - the brainwashing took place later when the Russians brainwashed Bond in between YOLT and TMWTGG. John Pearson did indeed create the character James Suzuki and Gardner wanted to do something with it, but this was not allowed by Glidrose, as he told Raymond Benson in an interview with OO7 Magazine in 1993. Evidently, things must have changed as Benson used the son of Bond in his first short story 'Blast FromThe Past', where he followed the inventions of John Pearson in James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007 (1973) which filled in much of the detail missing from Fleming's original James Bond novels and short stories where background information and biographical detail on James Bond was few and far between.
That said, I'm not quite sure why the originator of this thread is so fascinated by the Kissy Suzuki character, although this has certainly been one of the more interesting threads on AJB is quite some while - much more so than the 'Should Blofeld come baack for Bond 24' and 'Is Daniel Craig going bald?' variety.
"The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
Proof that if your only tool for research is google you learn how to get far with it... Well, I learnt everything from wikipedia... Is there anything bad with that? I am not a fan of James Bond... I am a fan of literature in general, of narrative in general...
Just be aware of this then...Fleming never wrote Kissy Suzuki to be a mother.
Let me reiterate that because it was seemingly lost in my first post. Ian Fleming never wrote or intended Kissy Suzuki to father a child with James Bond.
So, how did James Suzuki come about? Easy: when Fleming died, Kingsley Amis initially took over for him, but then several other authors (such as John Gardner or Raymond Benson) took control of the literary Bond. SEVERAL YEARS AFTER FLEMING HAD DIED, the character of James Suzuki was created by John Pearson, who provided the character with no background. That was left to Raymond Benson for a short story in Playboy magazine published forty years after Fleming's death. We also learn that Kissy Suzuki has died of ovarian cancer in the same story.
Kissy Suzuki the literary character was nothing special to Ian Fleming. It just so happened that she was the only person John Pearson could logically choose to be the mother. But even then, it was only because she was the one character with whom Bond, who was brainwashed at the time, would have even possibly have motive to father a son. She took advantage of his brainwashed state and basically kept him around as a husband. And James Suzuki was killed off as a character before Bond so much as met him. Not only that, but the actual short story, Blast from the Past, I believe is what they call "ambiguously canon", since it exists outside the established Fleming/Amis/Gardner/Benson timeline. Therefore, the only literarily canon thing about James Suzuki is that, well...he exists, as per John Pearson, mentioned in passing after the death of Bond's creator.
Dalkowski, I understood your post when you mentioned it... I realized that I was wrong to assume that it was Fleming's wish to make Suzuki the mother of James Bond's child, but she must still be the most important Bond girl of those that existed before Fleming's death... I mean, most Bond girls are flat characters, they are there just to make the plot go on so you dont learn much about them... When fleming thought of making Bond less of a womanizer and more of a family man he had to think... What woman do I want to be able to brainwash James Bond into a serious relationship? What woman can be wife material for this helpless Don Juan? What kind of woman can make a casanova like James Bond think for a second or more abotu setling down? His answer was Kissy Suzuki, so yes, she only fathered a child with James Bond because she was the best candidate for that when different authors decided to expand the James Bond universe with a child of James Bond... But she must still have been above the avergae Bond girl from Fleming's perspective... Don't ya think?
Yes, but Fleming does tell us that Kissy Suzuki was pregnant at the end of YOLT and Bond was not brainwashed, he suffered amnesia - the brainwashing took place later when the Russians brainwashed Bond in between YOLT and TMWTGG.
Regarding brainwashed/amnesia...ah well, bad choice of words. However, as we know, YOLT was not Fleming's last novel (second to last, but still). Since Bond never knew he had a child, for one, and for another, the character that became James Suzuki was not shown born, I've often wondered one of three things...
1) Fleming intended child support to be just one more thing dragging Bond down and driving him up a wall in a later novel had he not died.
2) Bond finds out he had an infant son murdered during the interrim of YOLT and TMWTGG during a hypothetical later novel, gives him something more to angst about ("Bond as his own worst enemy" is something that could describe the entire character, after all) or alternately go on a movie LTK-like revenge spree.
3) It's always possible Fleming also intended for Kissy to miscarry. Given her attitude in the book (which I haven't read for six years, but went back and looked at), it's unlikely she'd have voluntarily had an abortion. However, miscarriage gives Bond something ELSE to drag him down and drive him up a wall. He'd have come "so close, yet so far" to having an heir (something desirable at the time for an RN officer), and then likely do some serious drinking/drifting as we see that's how he deals with his problems. And all the while, said drifting likely sets up his next advanture...
Evidently, things must have changed as Benson used the son of Bond in his first short story 'Blast FromThe Past', where he followed the inventions of John Pearson in James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007 (1973) which filled in much of the detail missing from Fleming's original James Bond novels and short stories where background information and biographical detail on James Bond was few and far between.
Admittedly, I've only read the Fleming novels. I just couldn't get into Gardner or Benson, though I did try (I did read Amis and Pearson, however). Still, I am very, very much into the Star Wars Expanded Universe (or was until Vector Prime, but that's another story for another day on another forum) and a story in the format that Blast from the Past came in (because I did read it after being told "hey, somebody used the James Suzuki character!") would be termed in the SW Canon "ambiguously canon".
By "ambiguously canon", that means it's neither here nor there. That's established by the fact that it doesn't fit into an established timeline and almost seems to fit outside the timeline of everything else written. In other words, it's most certainly not non-canon, but on the other hand, because of that "not fitting into a previously established timeline" bit, it's not quite altogether on the same level of canonicity as the rest of the novels.
Distilled down to its simplest form, you could either literally take it or leave it as part of your personal Bond canon (as opposed to the novels and the Fleming short stories), and it seems to have been designed that way. Then again, since they actually started putting it into some books as a stand-alone, they may have decided to canonize it, but if so, it's still more ambiguous than most Bond short stories and all of the Bond novels. It's solid canon that Bond has a son named James Suzuki (since Pearson stated it in a work recognized as a much more solid part of the Bond canon simply due to its very nature as a biographical book), but ambiguous canon as to anything beyond that. In other words, we may have absolutely no idea if James Suzuki ever figured out who his father was (given that Pearson's book was written in, what, 1973, and Fleming published YOLT in 1964).
That said, I'm not quite sure why the originator of this thread is so fascinated by the Kissy Suzuki character
Maybe he saw a picture of Mie Hama? I mean, she is pretty easy on the eyes (although in the film, I personally preferred Akiko Wakabayashi). )
By the way, are you gonna eat that?
superadoRegent's Park West (CaliforniaPosts: 2,656MI6 Agent
Dalkowski, I understood your post when you mentioned it... I realized that I was wrong to assume that it was Fleming's wish to make Suzuki the mother of James Bond's child, but she must still be the most important Bond girl of those that existed before Fleming's death... I mean, most Bond girls are flat characters, they are there just to make the plot go on so you dont learn much about them... When fleming thought of making Bond less of a womanizer and more of a family man he had to think... What woman do I want to be able to brainwash James Bond into a serious relationship? What woman can be wife material for this helpless Don Juan? What kind of woman can make a casanova like James Bond think for a second or more abotu setling down? His answer was Kissy Suzuki, so yes, she only fathered a child with James Bond because she was the best candidate for that when different authors decided to expand the James Bond universe with a child of James Bond... But she must still have been above the avergae Bond girl from Fleming's perspective... Don't ya think?
That's just it, why didn't Bond stay? If she were really that extraordinary, why wasn't there incentive to do so? Remember,that the only reason that Bond might have considered "for a second" to settle down is because he was not in his right mind and when the slightest hint of his past life surfaced, so much so that the mention of Vladivostok (of all places, a port city of a country that is his sworn enemy unbeknownst to him), he leaves!
You should really read more about Fleming and look into his work. As far as fantasy, he did write "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," which was a children's story, the only one, which he wrote for his son, Caspar. The Bond books do have many fantasy elements, btw, especially compared to other writers in the genre. However, you should at least read the book I mentioned, "Thrilling Cities," and more about the background of its writing, in that the book is a compilation of his series of articles in the Sunday Times; you will also see that he did not spend too much time in Tokyo to foster a meaningful relationship with a Japanese woman there, nor are there any accounts by his numerous biographers that he had a relationship with an Asian woman. He did have many relationships, several outside his marriage and these were well documented and most of these took place in the UK and Jamaica; what this tells us is that his relationships were documented and attested to by his close acquaintances and a relationship with the woman behind "Kissy" would not have happened in a vacuum. I also recommend "Ian Fleming's James Bond, Annotations and Chronologies..." by John Griswold; in it are notes behind the novels and the real man on who IF based Dikko Henderson in YOLT, wrote some background material about Fleming's visit to Japan, including that trip to the Massage Parlor. Based on what we do know, any premise that there must have been something very significant with the real Kissy is very, very thin. BTW, Bond did settle down in a way, with Tiffany Case after the events of Diamonds are Forever.
Also note that when Fleming wrote YOLT, he was undergoing his most severe bout of middle-age crisis (the first episode was the writing of Casino Royale as a reaction to his getting married) and that book examined his very personal themes of death and rebirth, hence Bond's momentary journey through death (as publically thought) and rebirth on Kuro Island. Though nothing is of permanence in terms of commitment in Bond's life, the act of marriage in the previous novel, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, is a more severe life alteration, don't you think? That was a volitional step Bond made and it was actually the aftermath of that novel that propelled Bond to the poor mental state he was in the begining of YOLT; though the character of his wife was not robutstly developed, the motivation of Fleming to write that must have been tremendous, to the point of radically changing the bedrock of Bond's lifestyle to willful monogamy.
"...the purposeful slant of his striding figure looked dangerous, as if he was making quickly for something bad that was happening further down the street." -SMERSH on 007 dossier photo, Ch. 6 FRWL.....
Remember,that the only reason that Bond might have considered "for a second" to settle down is because he was not in his right mind and when the slightest hint of his past life surfaced, the mention of Vladivostok (of all places, a port city of a country that is his sworn enemy), he leaves!
But she must still have been above the avergae Bond girl from Fleming's perspective... Don't ya think?
Nope. She was there and Fleming's own personal life was starting to show. Let us not forget that from a literary point of view, James Bond is probably the most successful example of an author insertion character ever written. If the story had been set elsewhere, there doubtless would have been another woman with another name in the same situation. But he set the story in Japan. Remember that Bond is part travelogue. There's a reason it doesn't just happen in western Europe and the East Bloc over and over and over as was the premise with many spy novels of the time. Fleming introduces us constantly to new locales. Japan was likely just next on his list.
By the way, are you gonna eat that?
superadoRegent's Park West (CaliforniaPosts: 2,656MI6 Agent
Remember,that the only reason that Bond might have considered "for a second" to settle down is because he was not in his right mind and when the slightest hint of his past life surfaced, the mention of Vladivostok (of all places, a port city of a country that is his sworn enemy), he leaves!
Thank you!
You're welcome, Dalkowski110!
"...the purposeful slant of his striding figure looked dangerous, as if he was making quickly for something bad that was happening further down the street." -SMERSH on 007 dossier photo, Ch. 6 FRWL.....
Silhouette ManThe last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,845MI6 Agent
Dalkowski, I understood your post when you mentioned it... I realized that I was wrong to assume that it was Fleming's wish to make Suzuki the mother of James Bond's child, but she must still be the most important Bond girl of those that existed before Fleming's death... I mean, most Bond girls are flat characters, they are there just to make the plot go on so you dont learn much about them... When fleming thought of making Bond less of a womanizer and more of a family man he had to think... What woman do I want to be able to brainwash James Bond into a serious relationship? What woman can be wife material for this helpless Don Juan? What kind of woman can make a casanova like James Bond think for a second or more abotu setling down? His answer was Kissy Suzuki, so yes, she only fathered a child with James Bond because she was the best candidate for that when different authors decided to expand the James Bond universe with a child of James Bond... But she must still have been above the avergae Bond girl from Fleming's perspective... Don't ya think?
That's just it, why didn't Bond stay? If she were really that extraordinary, why wasn't there incentive to do so? Remember,that the only reason that Bond might have considered "for a second" to settle down is because he was not in his right mind and when the slightest hint of his past life surfaced, so much so that the mention of Vladivostok (of all places, a port city of a country that is his sworn enemy unbeknownst to him), he leaves!
You should really read more about Fleming and look into his work. As far as fantasy, he did write "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," which was a children's story, the only one, which he wrote for his son, Caspar. The Bond books do have many fantasy elements, btw, especially compared to other writers in the genre. However, you should at least read the book I mentioned, "Thrilling Cities," and more about the background of its writing, in that the book is a compilation of his series of articles in the Sunday Times; you will also see that he did not spend too much time in Tokyo to foster a meaningful relationship with a Japanese woman there, nor are there any accounts by his numerous biographers that he had a relationship with an Asian woman. He did have many relationships, several outside his marriage and these were well documented and most of these took place in the UK and Jamaica; what this tells us is that his relationships were documented and attested to by his close acquaintances and a relationship with the woman behind "Kissy" would not have happened in a vacuum. I also recommend "Ian Fleming's James Bond, Annotations and Chronologies..." by John Griswold; in it are notes behind the novels and the real man on who IF based Dikko Henderson in YOLT, wrote some background material about Fleming's visit to Japan, including that trip to the Massage Parlor. Based on what we do know, any premise that there must have been something very significant with the real Kissy is very, very thin. BTW, Bond did settle down in a way, with Tiffany Case after the events of Diamonds are Forever.
Also note that when Fleming wrote YOLT, he was undergoing his most severe bout of middle-age crisis (the first episode was the writing of Casino Royale as a reaction to his getting married) and that book examined his very personal themes of death and rebirth, hence Bond's momentary journey through death (as publically thought) and rebirth on Kuro Island. Though nothing is of permanence in terms of commitment in Bond's life, the act of marriage in the previous novel, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, is a more severe life alteration, don't you think? That was a volitional step Bond made and it was actually the aftermath of that novel that propelled Bond to the poor mental state he was in the begining of YOLT; though the character of his wife was not robutstly developed, the motivation of Fleming to write that must have been tremendous, to the point of radically changing the bedrock of Bond's lifestyle to willful monogamy.
Very much agreed on the usefulness of Thrilling Cities as a biographical/travelogue source on Fleming's Bond novels and short stories. There is very much of interest to the James Bond aficiando here - its information remains largely untapped, however. I would recommend that the author of this thread reads the chapter on Tokyo as some answers re Kissy Suzuki are to be found therein. You can buy copies of said book on Amazon. As a case in point on the usefulness of Thrilling Cities to the literary Bond fan, see this article I wrote in 2012 on my new James Bond blog The Bondologist Blog, 'Ian Fleming's "Thrilling" Inspiration for You Only Live Twice (1967)':
Have a read of this article - more research needs to be done on the vast array of information contained in Ian Fleming's journalistic writings at the Sunday Times and The Times and I intend to add to the James Bond literary scholarship in this particular area - watch my blogspace for much more in terms of revelatory articles.
"The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
Superado and Dalkowski, thanks for your insight, I guess I must do that... but I should wait till I move to the UK because in Peru, where I life, I doubt I can find those books and I right now reading the books online isn't possible, I can spend a lot of time online, but just like a screen needs a screen saver my eyes will need something to avoid burning if I kept reading it online... and if I tried to reading books online while doing other things... it is an almost impossible task... I tried to finish all the Tarzan novels or at least the most important (reading them in chronological order) and I didn't went beyond the first book (which is an excellent book)... I also tried reading War with the Newts to no avail (it is one of the novels written by the inventor of the term "robot") despite it being a good book, or The Island of Doctor Moreau...
Silhouette Man... Why do you say I am in the wrong place? Because I am not a fan of James Bond? I have respect for Ian Fleming, he is a prolific writer and the movies based on his books may be ordinary blockbusters but it takes an extraordinary writer to make something that becomes an ordinary blockbuster... I mean, I have never blamed it on Fleming that the movies are less than what they could be, I blamed it on the directors not being cut for a movie about a British hero (my favourite directors are Luc Beson and Tim Burton, I guess Luc Beson could make a good James bond movie but... Tim Burton? I dont expect much of a Tim Burton version of James Bond, it would be too... Funny... What about a Tarantino take on James Bond? Funny too... Full of gore... I think James Bond should be made a movie by a British company with a British director and a British scripwriter) Of course if you come and tell me this was the case in any movie from the 60s or before I should tell you that cinema wasn't very good at the 60s and before... on the 70s they started a slow ascent to "acceptable"
Edit; Oh thanks Silhouette (as for buying in amazon, I am still savin for my expenses into the UK, I better be on the UK before spending on these books)
Silhouette ManThe last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,845MI6 Agent
Superado and Dalkowski, thanks for your insight, I guess I must do that... but I should wait till I move to the UK because in Peru, where I life, I doubt I can find those books and I right now reading the books online isn't possible, I can spend a lot of time online, but just like a screen needs a screen saver my eyes will need something to avoid burning if I kept reading it online... and if I tried to reading books online while doing other things... it is an almost impossible task... I tried to finish all the Tarzan novels or at least the most important (reading them in chronological order) and I didn't went beyond the first book (which is an excellent book)... I also tried reading War with the Newts to no avail (it is one of the novels written by the inventor of the term "robot") despite it being a good book, or The Island of Doctor Moreau...
Silhouette Man... Why do you say I am in the wrong place? Because I am not a fan of James Bond? I have respect for Ian Fleming, he is a prolific writer and the movies based on his books may be ordinary blockbusters but it takes an extraordinary writer to make something that becomes an ordinary blockbuster... I mean, I have never blamed it on Fleming that the movies are less than what they could be, I blamed it on the directors not being cut for a movie about a British hero (my favourite directors are Luc Beson and Tim Burton, I guess Luc Beson could make a good James bond movie but... Tim Burton? I dont expect much of a Tim Burton version of James Bond, it would be too... Funny... What about a Tarantino take on James Bond? Funny too... Full of gore... I think James Bond should be made a movie by a British company with a British director and a British scripwriter) Of course if you come and tell me this was the case in any movie from the 60s or before I should tell you that cinema wasn't very good at the 60s and before... on the 70s they started a slow ascent to "acceptable"
Edit; Oh thanks Silhouette (as for buying in amazon, I am still savin for my expenses into the UK, I better be on the UK before spending on these books)
I'm glad we can get on as colleagues here on AJB. I wish you well on moving to the UK from Peru. Have a read of The Bondologist Blog - it covers many esoteric topics on the literary and cinematic James Bond - you should read the articles to break you in, so to speak, as a course on James Bond.
Stick around - there are many great people here on AJB and some of them have posted here in this thread.
Any other issues re James Bond, post it here and let us know. As I said above, this thread has been one of our more informative ones.
All the best,
SILHOUETTE MAN. -{
"The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
Thanks... I think I will try getting to read his books... I think that knowing elements of pop culture as deeply as average fans know it isn't good enough so I am planning in reading more on Tarzan and well, Bond, but I am not used to realistic stories
Bond's popularity owes much to the films, but it was driven by the success of the novels. Ian Fleming IMO was one of the greatest authors of the 20th century, and while not all of his novels are great, he changed the spy fiction genre and created one of the most enduring characters in fiction. Don't they say that the most recognisable icons in modern fiction are Dracula, Tarzan, Superman and Bond?
Although rooted in realism, there are fantasy elements in many of the novels, along with a good deal of symbolism, and they're very easy to read. Fleming said he wrote them for people to read on planes or in bed.
Start with the later novels if you can, IMO, as by then Fleming had really mastered his writing and the characterisations are brilliant - plus the later novels have more fantasy elements. Thunderball, OHMSS and others (but not The Spy Who Loved Me or any of the collections of short stories).
Bond's popularity owes much to the films, but it was driven by the success of the novels. Ian Fleming IMO was one of the greatest authors of the 20th century, and while not all of his novels are great, he changed the spy fiction genre and created one of the most enduring characters in fiction. Don't they say that the most recognisable icons in modern fiction are Dracula, Tarzan, Superman and Bond?
Although rooted in realism, there are fantasy elements in many of the novels, along with a good deal of symbolism, and they're very easy to read. Fleming said he wrote them for people to read on planes or in bed.
Start with the later novels if you can, IMO, as by then Fleming had really mastered his writing and the characterisations are brilliant - plus the later novels have more fantasy elements. Thunderball, OHMSS and others (but not The Spy Who Loved Me or any of the collections of short stories).
Well I had say Frankenstein is more important than superman but yep, I will try keeping this advice in mind
Silhouette ManThe last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,845MI6 Agent
Bond's popularity owes much to the films, but it was driven by the success of the novels. Ian Fleming IMO was one of the greatest authors of the 20th century, and while not all of his novels are great, he changed the spy fiction genre and created one of the most enduring characters in fiction. Don't they say that the most recognisable icons in modern fiction are Dracula, Tarzan, Superman and Bond?
Although rooted in realism, there are fantasy elements in many of the novels, along with a good deal of symbolism, and they're very easy to read. Fleming said he wrote them for people to read on planes or in bed.
Start with the later novels if you can, IMO, as by then Fleming had really mastered his writing and the characterisations are brilliant - plus the later novels have more fantasy elements. Thunderball, OHMSS and others (but not The Spy Who Loved Me or any of the collections of short stories).
Well I had say Frankenstein is more important than superman but yep, I will try keeping this advice in mind
Agreed on that.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a horror classic as well as being a novel of ideas about the treatment of outsiders. It's a far cry from the Hammer film versions where Frankenstein's Monster had bolts in his neck and was thoroughly bad. A bit like the Casino Royale spoof from 1967 being considered a true representation of Ian Fleming's James Bond character! Perish the thought!
"The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
the Hammer film versions where Frankenstein's Monster had bolts in his neck
You're thinking about the Universal versions there, SM- Hammer couldn't use the bolts-in-the-neck Monster for copyright reasons (initially, anyway- they did come to a deal with Universal later).
Comments
It's a shame. If you go there now, you cant see too much of the Traditional Culture of Japan in it's Modern Society.
Yes, but the Japs have become more right-wing again - the whole Chinese islands caper shows that. Not a good move there, given the experiences from 1931 onwards in Japanese political and military history, methinks!
Whether made up or not, we don't know, but it seems Fleming plainly recounted the name of the girl as "Kissy" and I can't think of a reason what would motivate him to change the facts since this book is the most journalistic he's ever written. By the limited conversation he had with her, along the lines of asking if she had ever serviced "bad men," I don't think he would have delved much into the depths of her personal life, let alone the etymology of her name. Hence, I think that whatever afterthought Fleming might have had about this woman would have been superficial and nothing really profound despite the theorized significance she might have had for him to fictionalize her the mother of James Bond's only child; to him, he must have taken this woman as a noteworthy encounter, but realistically someone he would never meet again. But even to theorize for a moment that Fleming might have cheated and changed this masseuse's real name (again, I doubt he would have even cared enough to note her surname) since in notes on the novel, the character's name was once "Baby," "Kissy" might be another one of his double-entendres like "Pussy." On that note, the famous Chinese "sing-song" prostitutes in 19th Century San Francisco were noted to include "Kissy" as a one of the acts they offer in their songs to pedestrian "johns," among other acts.
Great post, superado. I concur. Kissy and Pussy. Pretty much wraps that one up, I'd say! -{
Good luck with your project Alex.
Thanks Superado! trully a fantastic post! that helps a lot! However as soon as I was told that Kissy's name came from a masseuse I accepted the possibility that the masseuse told Ian Fleming she was called Kissy... But I still think that since she provided the word "Kissy" as Kissy Suzuki's name... I would benefit from finding her real name... But I have read the link your provided... I have a clue now... If I found when Ian Fleming went to the Tokyo Onsen or when he was in Japan I may find which masseuses were working in the Tokyo Onsen back then... I think registries of such events exist so I have a chance of finding candidates... But I doubt I can get that data over the net... So I may as well give up for now and use whatever I deem is the best option... But I rather use the Japanese version of the book, not the the Japanese credits of the movie...
I am an orientalist and as such I can say that the traiditional Japanese culture may have disappeared but what has appeared to take its place its a completely Japanese phenomenon... Otaku, hikikomori, gothic lolitas, dekotora, tokusatsu, Meido kafe, Nyotaimori, Nantaimori, Kinbaku, Nawajutsu, Kyoiku mama, koro (wikipedia says its Chinese but I've read Japanese experience it too), anime (China and Korea have similiar phenomenons but they are copies of the Japanese thing) and probably a much longer list... All are very Japanese things, whether good or bad, that makes Japan one of the few countries that got conquered, invaded and permanently altered without their idiosincracy suffering too much... as the Japanese uniqueness managed to re-assert itself over time... over a short period of time...
Edit: What do you mean by DC adoration?
2nd Edit: By the way... I knew James Bond from the movies and I was not really impressed by them, they are not bad but they are too average... I only cared about James Bond because the guy is a legend, like Tarzan or Zorro... I have read the Tarzan novels because his author has some other good books in his experience... But I wasn't much interested in Ian Flemming as an author... I have just read the text you gave about him and now I am eager to find one of his novels... But I dont like realism... Has he written any fantasy? mmm... Well I guess I can find his bibliography in wikipedia... I like how he uses words, he has a lot of style... I always knew that movies based on book usually are worse than the books... I just didn't expect Ian Flemming to be a much better author than the directors that adapted his books make him look...
You know enough to know that James Bond had a son with Kissy Suzuki, but you now say haven't ever read any of Ian Fleming's novels, you're asking "has he written any fantasy?", and you're not even sure how to spell his surname now?
Maybe You Only Live Twice would be a good place to start reading the novels, if you're going to reference one of the characters.
By the way, DC adoration refers to Daniel Craig, the actor portraying Bond... I guess you do know about that...?
Yes, I'm glad I'm not alone in finding this thread a bit confusing from the word 'go', though it subject matter is at least interesting and intellectual. I'm afraid though that the 'Flemming Brigade' are never to be taken credibly - they've shown themselves to have fallen at the first hurdle of Bondology, IMHO. 8-)
Also, have you ever read anything by Lafcadio Hearn? Fleming has Bond mention him in YOLT!
Proof that if your only tool for research is google you learn how to get far with it... Well, I learnt everything from wikipedia... Is there anything bad with that? I am not a fan of James Bond... I am a fan of literature in general, of narrative in general...
Just be aware of this then...Fleming never wrote Kissy Suzuki to be a mother.
Let me reiterate that because it was seemingly lost in my first post. Ian Fleming never wrote or intended Kissy Suzuki to father a child with James Bond.
So, how did James Suzuki come about? Easy: when Fleming died, Kingsley Amis initially took over for him, but then several other authors (such as John Gardner or Raymond Benson) took control of the literary Bond. SEVERAL YEARS AFTER FLEMING HAD DIED, the character of James Suzuki was created by John Pearson, who provided the character with no background. That was left to Raymond Benson for a short story in Playboy magazine published forty years after Fleming's death. We also learn that Kissy Suzuki has died of ovarian cancer in the same story.
Kissy Suzuki the literary character was nothing special to Ian Fleming. It just so happened that she was the only person John Pearson could logically choose to be the mother. But even then, it was only because she was the one character with whom Bond, who was brainwashed at the time, would have even possibly have motive to father a son. She took advantage of his brainwashed state and basically kept him around as a husband. And James Suzuki was killed off as a character before Bond so much as met him. Not only that, but the actual short story, Blast from the Past, I believe is what they call "ambiguously canon", since it exists outside the established Fleming/Amis/Gardner/Benson timeline. Therefore, the only literarily canon thing about James Suzuki is that, well...he exists, as per John Pearson, mentioned in passing after the death of Bond's creator.
You're not a fan of James Bond?! Well, it seems that you've come to thew wrong place, then! Plus Wikipedia is not a credible research tool - that comes from years of experience reading books and articles on the James Bond phenomenon, my friend.
Yes, but Fleming does tell us that Kissy Suzuki was pregnant at the end of YOLT and Bond was not brainwashed, he suffered amnesia - the brainwashing took place later when the Russians brainwashed Bond in between YOLT and TMWTGG. John Pearson did indeed create the character James Suzuki and Gardner wanted to do something with it, but this was not allowed by Glidrose, as he told Raymond Benson in an interview with OO7 Magazine in 1993. Evidently, things must have changed as Benson used the son of Bond in his first short story 'Blast FromThe Past', where he followed the inventions of John Pearson in James Bond: The Authorised Biography of 007 (1973) which filled in much of the detail missing from Fleming's original James Bond novels and short stories where background information and biographical detail on James Bond was few and far between.
That said, I'm not quite sure why the originator of this thread is so fascinated by the Kissy Suzuki character, although this has certainly been one of the more interesting threads on AJB is quite some while - much more so than the 'Should Blofeld come baack for Bond 24' and 'Is Daniel Craig going bald?' variety.
Dalkowski, I understood your post when you mentioned it... I realized that I was wrong to assume that it was Fleming's wish to make Suzuki the mother of James Bond's child, but she must still be the most important Bond girl of those that existed before Fleming's death... I mean, most Bond girls are flat characters, they are there just to make the plot go on so you dont learn much about them... When fleming thought of making Bond less of a womanizer and more of a family man he had to think... What woman do I want to be able to brainwash James Bond into a serious relationship? What woman can be wife material for this helpless Don Juan? What kind of woman can make a casanova like James Bond think for a second or more abotu setling down? His answer was Kissy Suzuki, so yes, she only fathered a child with James Bond because she was the best candidate for that when different authors decided to expand the James Bond universe with a child of James Bond... But she must still have been above the avergae Bond girl from Fleming's perspective... Don't ya think?
Regarding brainwashed/amnesia...ah well, bad choice of words. However, as we know, YOLT was not Fleming's last novel (second to last, but still). Since Bond never knew he had a child, for one, and for another, the character that became James Suzuki was not shown born, I've often wondered one of three things...
1) Fleming intended child support to be just one more thing dragging Bond down and driving him up a wall in a later novel had he not died.
2) Bond finds out he had an infant son murdered during the interrim of YOLT and TMWTGG during a hypothetical later novel, gives him something more to angst about ("Bond as his own worst enemy" is something that could describe the entire character, after all) or alternately go on a movie LTK-like revenge spree.
3) It's always possible Fleming also intended for Kissy to miscarry. Given her attitude in the book (which I haven't read for six years, but went back and looked at), it's unlikely she'd have voluntarily had an abortion. However, miscarriage gives Bond something ELSE to drag him down and drive him up a wall. He'd have come "so close, yet so far" to having an heir (something desirable at the time for an RN officer), and then likely do some serious drinking/drifting as we see that's how he deals with his problems. And all the while, said drifting likely sets up his next advanture...
Admittedly, I've only read the Fleming novels. I just couldn't get into Gardner or Benson, though I did try (I did read Amis and Pearson, however). Still, I am very, very much into the Star Wars Expanded Universe (or was until Vector Prime, but that's another story for another day on another forum) and a story in the format that Blast from the Past came in (because I did read it after being told "hey, somebody used the James Suzuki character!") would be termed in the SW Canon "ambiguously canon".
By "ambiguously canon", that means it's neither here nor there. That's established by the fact that it doesn't fit into an established timeline and almost seems to fit outside the timeline of everything else written. In other words, it's most certainly not non-canon, but on the other hand, because of that "not fitting into a previously established timeline" bit, it's not quite altogether on the same level of canonicity as the rest of the novels.
Distilled down to its simplest form, you could either literally take it or leave it as part of your personal Bond canon (as opposed to the novels and the Fleming short stories), and it seems to have been designed that way. Then again, since they actually started putting it into some books as a stand-alone, they may have decided to canonize it, but if so, it's still more ambiguous than most Bond short stories and all of the Bond novels. It's solid canon that Bond has a son named James Suzuki (since Pearson stated it in a work recognized as a much more solid part of the Bond canon simply due to its very nature as a biographical book), but ambiguous canon as to anything beyond that. In other words, we may have absolutely no idea if James Suzuki ever figured out who his father was (given that Pearson's book was written in, what, 1973, and Fleming published YOLT in 1964).
Maybe he saw a picture of Mie Hama? I mean, she is pretty easy on the eyes (although in the film, I personally preferred Akiko Wakabayashi).
That's just it, why didn't Bond stay? If she were really that extraordinary, why wasn't there incentive to do so? Remember,that the only reason that Bond might have considered "for a second" to settle down is because he was not in his right mind and when the slightest hint of his past life surfaced, so much so that the mention of Vladivostok (of all places, a port city of a country that is his sworn enemy unbeknownst to him), he leaves!
You should really read more about Fleming and look into his work. As far as fantasy, he did write "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang," which was a children's story, the only one, which he wrote for his son, Caspar. The Bond books do have many fantasy elements, btw, especially compared to other writers in the genre. However, you should at least read the book I mentioned, "Thrilling Cities," and more about the background of its writing, in that the book is a compilation of his series of articles in the Sunday Times; you will also see that he did not spend too much time in Tokyo to foster a meaningful relationship with a Japanese woman there, nor are there any accounts by his numerous biographers that he had a relationship with an Asian woman. He did have many relationships, several outside his marriage and these were well documented and most of these took place in the UK and Jamaica; what this tells us is that his relationships were documented and attested to by his close acquaintances and a relationship with the woman behind "Kissy" would not have happened in a vacuum. I also recommend "Ian Fleming's James Bond, Annotations and Chronologies..." by John Griswold; in it are notes behind the novels and the real man on who IF based Dikko Henderson in YOLT, wrote some background material about Fleming's visit to Japan, including that trip to the Massage Parlor. Based on what we do know, any premise that there must have been something very significant with the real Kissy is very, very thin. BTW, Bond did settle down in a way, with Tiffany Case after the events of Diamonds are Forever.
Also note that when Fleming wrote YOLT, he was undergoing his most severe bout of middle-age crisis (the first episode was the writing of Casino Royale as a reaction to his getting married) and that book examined his very personal themes of death and rebirth, hence Bond's momentary journey through death (as publically thought) and rebirth on Kuro Island. Though nothing is of permanence in terms of commitment in Bond's life, the act of marriage in the previous novel, On Her Majesty's Secret Service, is a more severe life alteration, don't you think? That was a volitional step Bond made and it was actually the aftermath of that novel that propelled Bond to the poor mental state he was in the begining of YOLT; though the character of his wife was not robutstly developed, the motivation of Fleming to write that must have been tremendous, to the point of radically changing the bedrock of Bond's lifestyle to willful monogamy.
Thank you!
Nope. She was there and Fleming's own personal life was starting to show. Let us not forget that from a literary point of view, James Bond is probably the most successful example of an author insertion character ever written. If the story had been set elsewhere, there doubtless would have been another woman with another name in the same situation. But he set the story in Japan. Remember that Bond is part travelogue. There's a reason it doesn't just happen in western Europe and the East Bloc over and over and over as was the premise with many spy novels of the time. Fleming introduces us constantly to new locales. Japan was likely just next on his list.
You're welcome, Dalkowski110!
Very much agreed on the usefulness of Thrilling Cities as a biographical/travelogue source on Fleming's Bond novels and short stories. There is very much of interest to the James Bond aficiando here - its information remains largely untapped, however. I would recommend that the author of this thread reads the chapter on Tokyo as some answers re Kissy Suzuki are to be found therein. You can buy copies of said book on Amazon. As a case in point on the usefulness of Thrilling Cities to the literary Bond fan, see this article I wrote in 2012 on my new James Bond blog The Bondologist Blog, 'Ian Fleming's "Thrilling" Inspiration for You Only Live Twice (1967)':
http://thebondologistblog.blogspot.co.uk/2012/08/ian-flemings-thrilling-inspiration-for.html
Have a read of this article - more research needs to be done on the vast array of information contained in Ian Fleming's journalistic writings at the Sunday Times and The Times and I intend to add to the James Bond literary scholarship in this particular area - watch my blogspace for much more in terms of revelatory articles.
Silhouette Man... Why do you say I am in the wrong place? Because I am not a fan of James Bond? I have respect for Ian Fleming, he is a prolific writer and the movies based on his books may be ordinary blockbusters but it takes an extraordinary writer to make something that becomes an ordinary blockbuster... I mean, I have never blamed it on Fleming that the movies are less than what they could be, I blamed it on the directors not being cut for a movie about a British hero (my favourite directors are Luc Beson and Tim Burton, I guess Luc Beson could make a good James bond movie but... Tim Burton? I dont expect much of a Tim Burton version of James Bond, it would be too... Funny... What about a Tarantino take on James Bond? Funny too... Full of gore... I think James Bond should be made a movie by a British company with a British director and a British scripwriter) Of course if you come and tell me this was the case in any movie from the 60s or before I should tell you that cinema wasn't very good at the 60s and before... on the 70s they started a slow ascent to "acceptable"
Edit; Oh thanks Silhouette (as for buying in amazon, I am still savin for my expenses into the UK, I better be on the UK before spending on these books)
I'm glad we can get on as colleagues here on AJB. I wish you well on moving to the UK from Peru. Have a read of The Bondologist Blog - it covers many esoteric topics on the literary and cinematic James Bond - you should read the articles to break you in, so to speak, as a course on James Bond.
Stick around - there are many great people here on AJB and some of them have posted here in this thread.
Any other issues re James Bond, post it here and let us know. As I said above, this thread has been one of our more informative ones.
All the best,
SILHOUETTE MAN.
Although rooted in realism, there are fantasy elements in many of the novels, along with a good deal of symbolism, and they're very easy to read. Fleming said he wrote them for people to read on planes or in bed.
Start with the later novels if you can, IMO, as by then Fleming had really mastered his writing and the characterisations are brilliant - plus the later novels have more fantasy elements. Thunderball, OHMSS and others (but not The Spy Who Loved Me or any of the collections of short stories).
Well I had say Frankenstein is more important than superman
Agreed on that.
Frankenstein by Mary Shelley is a horror classic as well as being a novel of ideas about the treatment of outsiders. It's a far cry from the Hammer film versions where Frankenstein's Monster had bolts in his neck and was thoroughly bad. A bit like the Casino Royale spoof from 1967 being considered a true representation of Ian Fleming's James Bond character! Perish the thought!
You're thinking about the Universal versions there, SM- Hammer couldn't use the bolts-in-the-neck Monster for copyright reasons (initially, anyway- they did come to a deal with Universal later).