James Bond's spare time

2

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  • AtomJayeSmitheAtomJayeSmithe San Diego, CAPosts: 12MI6 Agent
    Hi AtomJayeSmithe and welcome to AJB -{

    You're right in saying that Bond is, in large part, a fulfilment of Fleming's fantasies mixed with his own wartime experiences. The two are inextricably linked together. So it's difficult to deduce what Bond would be like if Fleming was writing today.

    Given Fleming's upbringing and family, I'm not sure that your suppositions are all correct - his tastes in music don't feature much and there's no evidence that he's a great jazz lover; and he was a loner, rather than having a chip on his shoulder, which was a film invention - but it's fun to imagine and I like the idea of him playing with those cars and gambling online and at the tables.


    I'm pretty sure it's in the Diamonds are forever novel, where bond and Tiffany Case discuss jazz music. And based on the conversation they have, I'd say Bond was pretty knowledgeable on the latest tunes.
  • zaphod99zaphod99 Posts: 1,415MI6 Agent
    I can't see The DC Bond wandering around Peter Jones Sloane Square buying towels either ,I can't see DC Bond playing golf either , I think he would find it far too wide , it seems every golf course is full of plumbers called Tell (Terry) aw Wight Tell , this is my mate Tell ,you know I'm ees married to Tells sister , I think DC Bond would just wrap his 5 iron around Tells neck , I'm sure Bond would take his latest lady to Gaurds polo at Windsor , then a spot of lunch in Eton riverside , then back up the M4 for a bit of something or other (can't beat a bit of Gaurds club polo )

    This is very interesting, particularly In the context of DC's Bond. We used to know what Bond enjoyed, Inc Driving, Gambling, the company of Women,shooting, food, Alchahol etc. I genuinely have no idea what DC's Bond enjoys or even takes the slightest pleasure in except perhaps pouting. For me this is the greatest flaw in his interpretation. It renders Bond one note, and one dimensional.His Bond has a lot to commend it but this element is important. It provides a counterpoint in his 'tough life.Without it he really is just Cipher and he could, should be more.
    Of that of which we cannot speak we must pass over in silence- Ludwig Wittgenstein.
  • sniperUKsniperUK UlsterPosts: 594MI6 Agent
    As far as Craigs Bond, we know he like classic cars ,especially the Aston, so probably knows how to tinker with them when he has time, he can fly both fixed wing and rotary so probably has at least a PPL/PPLH , I cant see him pottering about in a Cessna 152 so maybe has shares in something like an Extra for aerobatics or a classic Tiger Moth or Harvard (Texan to you colonials ;)) . Gambles obviously , possibly shooting, both game and target , skydiving for the adrenaline rush, keeps a couple of married women "on tap" for the obvious.
  • zaphod99zaphod99 Posts: 1,415MI6 Agent
    edited June 2018
    sniperUK wrote:
    As far as Craigs Bond, we know he like classic cars ,especially the Aston, so probably knows how to tinker with them when he has time, he can fly both fixed wing and rotary so probably has at least a PPL/PPLH , I cant see him pottering about in a Cessna 152 so maybe has shares in something like an Extra for aerobatics or a classic Tiger Moth or Harvard (Texan to you colonials ;)) . Gambles obviously , possibly shooting, both game and target , skydiving for the adrenaline rush, keeps a couple of married women "on tap" for the obvious.

    True, but I see these as accomplishments. He clearly has skills,and skills need to be honed and maintained. My feeling is about enjoyment or pleasure. The topic was about spare time,which I realise I equated with what he chooses to do rather than what he has to do.Even sex seems joyless and perfunctory. Contast with prior interpretations where Bond clearly appreciates and enjoys the company of Women. Even better if he can combine with driving fast cars along a winding stretch of road...
    Of that of which we cannot speak we must pass over in silence- Ludwig Wittgenstein.
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    I think one reason Fleming's Bond, or any pre-Craig Bond, indulges in so many sensual pursuits is because he assumes his life is going to be a short one, so he enjoys it intensely while he can.
    Doesn't BrosnanBond say almost exactly those words while making love to Elektra?


    The thing with the married women is one element common to Fleming and Craig.
    In the Casino Royale film, CraigBond tells Vesper she is too single to be his type.

    In the Moonraker book, Fleming tells us
    For the rest of the year he had the duties of an easy-going senior civil servant--elastic office hours from around ten to six; lunch, generally in the canteen; evenings spent playing cards in the company of a few close friends, or at Crockford's; or making love, with rather cold passion, to one of three similarly disposed married women; week-ends playing golf for high stakes at one of the clubs near London.


    in the Quantum of Solace story Fleming's Bond goes to a dinner party. CraigBond certainly would never go to a dinner party, I'm not sure any of them would, except maybe MooreBond (and he would be the witty raconteur everybody else wanted to listen to). Even FlemingBond I don't believe, he otherwise is always expressing disgust at such pathetic bourgeois human activities.
    I suspect maybe Fleming wanted to write down this story he himself had heard at an actual dinner party, and felt he had to give it the framing device of a James Bond story to get it published.
  • walther p99walther p99 NJPosts: 3,416MI6 Agent
    Like others have said it's a bit difficult to imagine Craig's Bond doing anything not mission related. All I know is he goes to the gym at some point.
  • Dirty PunkerDirty Punker ...Your Eyes Only, darling."Posts: 2,587MI6 Agent
    But what you're all discussing about Craig Bond is what's seen on screen after Skyfall and what's presumed to be his extracurricular activities during Casino Royale.

    That small storage unit they moved all of his stuff into after he left is Pandora's box of the things Craig Bond enjoys.
    He lost a step or three at Skyfall and never fully recovered, considering his unseen missions between the films and the "overdue" holidays he was took in Spectre, I think that he lived a much more normal life before he had to enjoy death.

    His apartment might've been furnished and the car might've been parked close to home.

    Who knows, that may not even be his original flat which was sold.

    The life of Craig Bond that we see in Spectre is a crumbly mess after Skyfall. We cannot judge him on that alone.
    a reasonable rate of return
  • Matt SMatt S Oh Cult Voodoo ShopPosts: 6,596MI6 Agent
    Like others have said it's a bit difficult to imagine Craig's Bond doing anything not mission related. All I know is he goes to the gym at some point.

    On the contrary, it hardly seems like he ever does anything mission-related. Half the time it's personal business!
    Visit my blog, Bond Suits
  • walther p99walther p99 NJPosts: 3,416MI6 Agent
    Matt S wrote:
    Like others have said it's a bit difficult to imagine Craig's Bond doing anything not mission related. All I know is he goes to the gym at some point.

    On the contrary, it hardly seems like he ever does anything mission-related. Half the time it's personal business!
    You make a good point :))
  • AtomJayeSmitheAtomJayeSmithe San Diego, CAPosts: 12MI6 Agent
    Connery - gambles and sleeps with women
    Lazenby - saves damsels in distress and checks out Playboy
    Moore - spends most of his time on the slopes
    Dalton - sits in a dark room drinking and smoking and thinking about his murdered wife
    Brosnan - swims in the tropics
    Craig - works out all the time and keeps his skills sharp
  • 00730073 COPPosts: 977MI6 Agent
    I think Bond enjoyed the atmosphere of a casino, the tension,
    The mix of people. So I don't think he be gambling on line, he
    Would definitely still be having affairs with married women
    Though and working on his golf handicap.

    Yes, this is quite right; IMHO online gambling is to casino gambling what internet pron is to meeting and mating with real live women!
    "I mean, she almost kills bond...with her ass."
    -Mr Arlington Beech
  • 00730073 COPPosts: 977MI6 Agent
    I think one reason Fleming's Bond, or any pre-Craig Bond, indulges in so many sensual pursuits is because he assumes his life is going to be a short one, so he enjoys it intensely while he can.
    Doesn't BrosnanBond say almost exactly those words while making love to Elektra?

    " ...there is no point of living if you can't feel alive"
    "I mean, she almost kills bond...with her ass."
    -Mr Arlington Beech
  • GrindelwaldGrindelwald Posts: 1,294MI6 Agent
    "juggling married women"

    Like Bob Crane ?

    (that didnt end well for him.........)
  • AtomJayeSmitheAtomJayeSmithe San Diego, CAPosts: 12MI6 Agent
    If Craig's Bond ever left MI6, do you think he would become a drunk or go into mercenary work? Or both?!

    Could make for a good story.
  • Matt SMatt S Oh Cult Voodoo ShopPosts: 6,596MI6 Agent
    If Craig's Bond ever left MI6, do you think he would become a drunk or go into mercenary work? Or both?!

    Could make for a good story.

    We've already seen what happens when he leaves MI6 in each of his Bond films!
    Visit my blog, Bond Suits
  • Dirty PunkerDirty Punker ...Your Eyes Only, darling."Posts: 2,587MI6 Agent
    Matt S wrote:
    If Craig's Bond ever left MI6, do you think he would become a drunk or go into mercenary work? Or both?!

    Could make for a good story.

    We've already seen what happens when he leaves MI6 in each of his Bond films!
    oof.
    Harsh.
    Not sure if SPECTRE really counts, as he ended up working with several 00 section staff in the end of the movie for the same goal.
    a reasonable rate of return
  • Matt SMatt S Oh Cult Voodoo ShopPosts: 6,596MI6 Agent
    Matt S wrote:
    If Craig's Bond ever left MI6, do you think he would become a drunk or go into mercenary work? Or both?!

    Could make for a good story.

    We've already seen what happens when he leaves MI6 in each of his Bond films!
    oof.
    Harsh.
    Not sure if SPECTRE really counts, as he ended up working with several 00 section staff in the end of the movie for the same goal.

    He quits at the end of Spectre. Doesn't that count?
    Visit my blog, Bond Suits
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    If he became a mercenary, we could look at the Wild Geese with Roger Moore and imagine him as a retired 007. {[]
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • Charmed & DangerousCharmed & Dangerous Posts: 7,358MI6 Agent
    I find it hard to believe he'd become a mercenary. Bond does what he does from a sense of patriotism and duty. If he left he wouldn't do it for the money.

    It's more likely he'd do things which interest him, along sporting lines perhaps, or advising on security matters. I think a couple of the continuation novels have run with this idea.
    "How was your lamb?" "Skewered. One sympathises."
  • ThunderpussyThunderpussy Behind you !Posts: 63,792MI6 Agent
    He could end up mountain climbing, skiing and chasing
    Chalet maids ;)
    "I've been informed that there ARE a couple of QAnon supporters who are fairly regular posters in AJB."
  • Charmed & DangerousCharmed & Dangerous Posts: 7,358MI6 Agent
    :)) :))
    "How was your lamb?" "Skewered. One sympathises."
  • always shakenalways shaken LondonPosts: 6,287MI6 Agent
    I would very much doubt Bond would become a mercenary , firstly he doesn't need the money , all the guys I knew who left Army/police have done it for the cash , these private armies pay thousands ,
    By the way, did I tell you, I was "Mad"?
  • zaphod99zaphod99 Posts: 1,415MI6 Agent
    I find it hard to believe he'd become a mercenary. Bond does what he does from a sense of patriotism and duty. If he left he wouldn't do it for the money.

    It's more likely he'd do things which interest him, along sporting lines perhaps, or advising on security matters. I think a couple of the continuation novels have run with this idea.

    He would not become a Mercenary. You are right about duty. It's the only motivation that I can identify with Craig's Bond. Most likely he'd become a morose drunk. Fleming's Bond found downtime difficult but he could distract himself to some degree with his other pursuits. I'd like to get a sense of this with Daniel's last outing, I'd like him to have just a little sense of enjoyment, dark no doubt but fun nonetheless. It would add a dimension that for me has been lacking.

    Can't see him playing Golf, to aspirant wannabe middle class I think. How about sky-diving, or Glider flying, or perhaps even Base Jumping?
    Of that of which we cannot speak we must pass over in silence- Ludwig Wittgenstein.
  • mpoplawskimpoplawski New Jersey, USAPosts: 128MI6 Agent
    In the books Bond toys with going into some sort of security business. Things are very different today with all the technology, but I must assume today's Bond would be into that to.
    Bond: "But who would want to kill me, sir?"
    M: "Jealous husbands, outraged chefs, humiliated tailors . . . the list is endless."
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    there's a bit more in From Russia With Love, particularly the chapter "The Soft Life"

    Bond apparently hasn't had a mission in nearly a year. Its rotting his brain. His housekeeper May tells him some salesman has been knocking at the door enquiring as to his whereabouts for months now, and even though Bond figures this salesman belongs to a Communist union, his softened brain does not conclude what we readers know, that it is SMERSH making sure he hasn't gone anywhere.
    Normally it was little straws in the wind like this that would start a persistent intuitive ticking in his mind, and, on other days, he would not have been happy until he had solved the problem of the man from the Communist union who kept on coming to the house. Now, from months of idleness and disuse, the sword was rusty in the scabbard and Bond's mental guard was down.
    (PAN edition pg80)
    The chapter opens with his exercise routine, which he does not so much to keep fit as to "sweat the boredom out of his body"
    Bond went down on his hands and did twenty slow press-ups, lingering over each one so that his muscles had no rest. When his arms could stand the pain no longer, he rolled over on his back and, with his hands at his sides, did the straight leg-lift until his stomach muscles screamed. He got to his feet and, after touching his toes twenty times, went over to arm and chest exercises combined with deep breathing until he was dizzy. Panting with the exertion, he went into the big white-tiled bathroom and stood in the glass shower cabinet under very hot and then cold hissing water for five minutes.
    (pg78)
    this bit is important too, checkout all the brand-names needed to enjoy one boiled egg:
    Breakfast was Bond's favourite meal of the day. When he was stationed in London it was always the same. It consisted of very strong coffee, from De Bry in New Oxford Street, brewed in an American Chemex, of which he drank two large cups, black and without sugar. The single egg, in the dark blue egg cup with a gold ring round the top, was boiled for three and a third minutes.

    It was a very fresh, speckled brown egg from French Marans hens owned by some friend of May in the country. (Bond disliked white eggs and, faddish as he was in many small things, it amused him to maintain that there was such a thing as the perfect boiled egg.) Then there were two thick slices of whole-wheat toast, a large pat of deep yellow Jersey butter and three squat glass jars containing Tiptree 'Little Scarlet' strawberry jam; Cooper's Vintage Oxford marmalade and Norwegian Heather Honey from Fortnum's. The coffee pot and the silver on the tray were Queen Anne, and the china was Minton, of the same dark blue and gold and white as the egg-cup.
    (pg80/81)
    we then learn Tiffany Case has just left him at the end of July. The story begins specifically on August 12th, and he hasn't had a mission in nearly a year, so (assuming DaF was his last mission) she's been living with him for nearly a year!
    That's unique, I think, usually he spends his two weeks leave following a mission with the adventure's heroine then never worries about her again. He tells M:
    ...there was some idea we might get married. But then she met some chap in the American Embassy. On the Military Attaché's staff. Marine Corps major. And I gather she's going to marry him. They've both gone back to the States, as a matter of fact. Probably better that way. Mixed marriages aren't often a success. I gather he's a nice enough fellow. Probably suit her better than living in London. She couldn't really settle down here. Fine girl, but she's a bit neurotic. We had too many rows. Probably my fault. Anyway it's over now.
    (pg85)
    Bond is due for his annual two weeks leave, but wont take it since Tiffany has gone and he cant be bothered looking for a "some temporary replacement " (i.e. he sees no point in holidaying alone)
    instead he hangs around the half-empty office in August, "grinding away at the old routines, snapping at his secretary and rasping his colleagues"

    M has assigned him to sit on a committee of inquiry looking into the Cambridge Five. Bond recommends the Secret Service hire more intellectuals not less, and he himself doesn't know if he's being serious or deliberately disruptive because he's so bored.

    Also, he reads. On the plane to Istanbul he takes Eric Ambler's The Mask of Dimitrios (another literary in-joke, Dimitrios is an earlier spy novel set in Istanbul. FRWL also contains a P. G. Wodehose reference, but that's what Red Grant reads in his spare time.)
    I'm sure Fleming's Bond reads other fiction elsewhere, doesn't he? usually a chance for Fleming to namedrop his own influences.
  • RevelatorRevelator Posts: 558MI6 Agent
    I'm sure Fleming's Bond reads other fiction elsewhere, doesn't he? usually a chance for Fleming to namedrop his own influences.

    Correct. Here's a passage from Goldfinger:
    He bought Ben Hogan's Modern Fundamentals of Golf and the latest Raymond Chandler and sauntered along to the Souvenir Shop to see if he could find an amusing gimmick to take back to his secretary.

    On a less fictional but equally literary level we have this passage from Diamonds Are Forever:
    Bond sat for a moment frozen to his chair. Suddenly, there flashed unwanted into his mind that most sinister line in all poetry: 'They reckon ill who leave me out. When me they fly, I am the wings.'

    The line is from "Brahma" by Ralph Waldo Emerson (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/45868/brahma-56d225936127b). More poetry than fiction, but it shows Bond has an appreciation for obscure literature.
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    Ian Fleming did know Raymond Chandler, and the two did appreciate each other's work. Chandler's Philip Marlowe is not a predecessor to Fleming's James Bond although similarities can be drawn between the cinematic treatment of the characters (Bogie's Marlowe in The Big Sleep is irresistable to most of the women he encounters in the story as is Bond in DN or FRWL).
  • caractacus pottscaractacus potts Orbital communicator, level 10Posts: 3,907MI6 Agent
    I noticed this in Goldfinger, chapter five: Night Duty
    A second reason why Bond enjoyed the long vacuum of night duty was that it gave him time to get on with a project he had been toying with for more than a year—a handbook of all secret methods of unarmed combat. It was to be called Stay Alive! It would contain the best of all that had been written on the subject by the Secret Services of the world. Bond had told no one of the project, but he hoped that, if he could finish it, M would allow it to be added to the short list of Service manuals which contained the tricks and techniques of Secret Intelligence. Bond had borrowed the original textbooks, or where necessary, translations, from Records. Most of the books had been captured from enemy agents or organizations. Some had been presented to M by sister Services such as O.S.S., C.I.A. and the Deuxième.
    PAN edition, pg 42
    Bond is writing a book!!
  • RevelatorRevelator Posts: 558MI6 Agent
    Bond is writing a book!!

    A couple years ago someone wrote an article mentioning that:
    https://www.spectator.co.uk/2013/12/bringing-bond-to-book-essay/
  • BarbelBarbel ScotlandPosts: 36,053Chief of Staff
    That was a fun read, nicely illustrated too.

    (I did spot one mistake, though, pedant that I am, which is better than usual for the press)
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