Irma Bunt's Post-Blofeld Career in J. Pearson's James Bond Biography?
Silhouette Man
The last refuge of a scoundrelPosts: 8,845MI6 Agent
Your thoughts on Irma Bunt's Post-Blofeld Career in John Pearson's James Bond Biography (1973)?
I'm particularly interested in the ending of John Perason's James Bond - The Authorised Biography of 007 (1973) where Irma Bunt is reported alive and well and continuing Blofeld's biological experiments - this time on rats and not the plants of the Garden of Death in the YOLT novel where she last appeared (having been knocked unconscious by Bond's stave). Pearson explains that Irma Bunt's skeleton was not anywhere to be found in the Castle of Death...leaving her return open.
What do people think of Bond going off to kill the killer mutant rats bred by Irma Bunt that were to eat livestock in Australia unless the ultimatum of a hefty ransom is paid?
Is it just me or does this sound rather parodical in nature - perhaps a comment by Pearson that the Bond films were going too far in terms of silliness with the YOLT/DAF recent films (the novel being published in 1973)?
I am also aware that Irma Bunt returns in Raymond Benson's short story 'Blast from the Past' (1997) but I want to focus on John Person's Bond Biography in this particular thread if I may.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
-{
I'm particularly interested in the ending of John Perason's James Bond - The Authorised Biography of 007 (1973) where Irma Bunt is reported alive and well and continuing Blofeld's biological experiments - this time on rats and not the plants of the Garden of Death in the YOLT novel where she last appeared (having been knocked unconscious by Bond's stave). Pearson explains that Irma Bunt's skeleton was not anywhere to be found in the Castle of Death...leaving her return open.
What do people think of Bond going off to kill the killer mutant rats bred by Irma Bunt that were to eat livestock in Australia unless the ultimatum of a hefty ransom is paid?
Is it just me or does this sound rather parodical in nature - perhaps a comment by Pearson that the Bond films were going too far in terms of silliness with the YOLT/DAF recent films (the novel being published in 1973)?
I am also aware that Irma Bunt returns in Raymond Benson's short story 'Blast from the Past' (1997) but I want to focus on John Person's Bond Biography in this particular thread if I may.
I'd love to hear your thoughts on this.
-{ "The tough man of the world. The Secret Agent. The man who was only a silhouette." - Ian Fleming, Moonraker (1955).
Comments
I intend to ask John Pearson about this subject very soon so any thread input is greatly appreciated.
Not much to add except I agree with your above view!!! Sounds ridiculous
Thanks - I intend to ask Mr Pearson about that. I think it must be a reference to the Bond films' outlandish plots and daft comedic elements by the early 1970s? Rather like the Anthony Burgess script for TSWLM film in a way:
http://www.thebondologistblog.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/anthony-burgess-on-spy-who-loved-me.html
The book does become crazier as it goes on, as it is too contrived to imagine that all these things happened pretty much as in the novels, and the dealing with them becomes increasingly blase, referring to the Thunderball affair almost in passing for instance.
Moonraker novel is overlooked of course, because the villain was a public figure and we know there never was a Hugo Drax. So it doesn't feature in the 'biography' as I recall.
You could ask Pearson what he thought of the other much later Fleming bio, which seems far less discrete about Fleming's extra marital shenanigans, and whether he was aware of that Fine Ounce Bond novelisation that never got published in the 60s but went out under another hero's name.
Roger Moore 1927-2017
No, Amis's CS was about five years before Pearson's Bond bio.
Any other interest in this topic out there in AJBland?
"Closing time. Last call."
Story ( to confuse the Russians) and Drax was named after Bond's boyhood
Dog.
Yes, Moonraker was a deception operation by British Intelligence to fool the Soviets (who financed Drax of course) so I'm not sure that made much sense. I personally don't care at all for that particular part of the Biography as Moonraker is my favourite Bond novel bar none and therefore I want it to be a real adventure.
I'm particularly interested in what you think about the Irma Bunt killer rat scheme, Thunderpussy?
I got it mixed up with the " Vampire Bat" of the Gardner novel.
Although I agree she was a very interesting character, her description
Walking the grounds with Dr Shatterhand is brilliant.
Since this whole book is Pearson fleshing out the details of Bond's life before and between the adventures in Fleming's books, maybe Pearson was conscious that he in a way was telling the story of the Giant Rat of Sumatra.
in 1956 Fleming lent the use of Goldeneye to the British Prime Minister Anthony Eden. Goldeneye was a bit more rustic than the PM was expecting. A newspaper article claimed the PM found rats in Goldeneye and his police escort killed six of them. Pearson seems to suggest the scandal was what we now call "false news" and there was no real evidence the PM actually saw any rats
Pearson: "It was and still is almost as mysterious as Sherlock Holmes' Giant Rat of Sumatra" (pg 351, 2003 Aurum edition)
...so, Pearson knows telling the story of The Giant Rat of Sumatra is a thing, then when he writes his own James Bond book, he ends it by sending Bond off to Australia to fight giant rats