indeed -and feel free to comment - The Man with The Golden Gun will be with us soon and then Octopussy & The Living Daylights -completeing the Ian Fleming section of this series. :007)
superadoRegent's Park West (CaliforniaPosts: 2,652MI6 Agent
edited May 2008
What a happy coincidence for me that YOLT is the current series focus as I just finished listening to the narrated version of the novel by David Rintoul, the first time for me done on impulse while trying to decide what work-out music to listen to at the gym. There were times I couldn't hold back laughing at the exchanges between Bond/Henderson/Tanaka.
Having read the novel at least…twice,, the audio experience was a bit of an interesting contrast. Reading at my own pace inadvertently caused me to camp at certain aspects more than others and for me this was a curiosity on Fleming’s mood and life setting at the time of writing at the twilight of his life when he could no longer ignore his mortality. What I "read" into the text, or at least the aspect that stuck most in my mind, was about a world-weary Bond who mirrored Fleming’s own stifling home life, tiring legal bouts, terminal career boredom, etc. ...or was YOLT entirely the melancholic slice of life as I thought it to be?
Bond was really in bad shape at the start of the novel, so much so that I wondered what realistically kept M from ultimately axing him. Chronologically, Bond’s “condition” dramatically changes once the mission begins and we then see him in emotional good form, fully engaged and socially “checked-in.” Sure, Fleming by that time was well settled in his comfort level compared to the rigidness and taut approach of the earlier novels, but moreover I think that the "Fleming Sweep" as noted in the License to Read article is the evidence of Fleming’s enthusiasm as if YOLT, like OHMSS, was a therapeutic outlet.
When I first read the novel as a teen, I would have disagreed that there was any kind of sweep at all, thinking instead how exremely dry it was because of the large chunks of non-action and too much dialog, which was all anti-climatic since it was the entertainment factor of the movie version that motivated me to read the novel in the first place. I did eventually come to appreciate the novel and related to it more on a personal level as I got older. Now that I've listened to the audio version, it’s truly remarkable to realize just how much of the novel is dialog. I also noticed how Fleming seemed to have loosened his belt so to speak during the 1st two-thirds of the book that was more of a jaunt on the town with the boys than anything else, which is a point that I missed entirely when I was younger. The dialog between Bond and Henderson was just hilarious, particularly Dikko’s coarse outbursts and social commentaries and only now do I recognize this character as the inspiration for CIA agent Jack Wade in the Brosnan films.
Bond’s exchanges with Tiger were equally alive, painting a colorful spectrum of British and Japanese sentiments during the post-war years. I think that the battle of wits and cultural sparring was some nicely crafted story-telling about two men who are more akin to one another than they realized, at a deeper level being solemnly bonded friends more than political opposites. Whether or not Fleming was actually accurate, I found his portrayal of the Japanese psyche truly convincing.
It’s interesting that Bond’s deteriorated mental and emotional condition is largely conveyed externally via M and Sir James Moloney, but very little of this was actually internalized by Bond himself. It’s only when Bond is at Kuro Island, when we are given consistent access to his thought life since there was no longer any Tiger or Dikko to serve as a foil on current world events. Here we see Bond transcending to an enlightened state as he reflects on life and muses on true beauty and happiness.
The epilogue was a mixed bag of moods, though all seemed consistent with Fleming’s state of mind mentioned above. Fleming's tongue-in-cheek send-up of the novels and Bond’s pop-culture status is further evidence of his loosening up and having fun; however, that section did seem abrupt in the midst of Bond’s escapist wish-fulfillment as he suddenly checks out of conventional life, contented to spend his days in idylic bliss rowing out to the ocean for Kissy.
Curiously, only after hearing its narration did I feel the punch of YOLT’s ending, which was like watching a train-wreck unfold. With Kissy not realizing anything of Bond’s history and what a trip to Vladivostok ment, I wanted to scream “Noooo!” as she reluctantly helped Bond leave Kuro. Many speculate that Fleming intended YOLT as Bond’s absolute swansong and appropriately so, I think he was trying to make an absolute statement on life as he new it by sending Bond to certain doom. Just like the “death” of Sherlock Holmes in the Final Problem, the ending of YOLT was nicely poetic in how stylistically Fleming granted immortality to his creation by sending Bond off to a blazing glory, though implied. Not as dramatic as Holmes’ death at the Reichenbach Falls (also implied), in true Fleming style that transforms the mundane into the fantastic, James Bond’s epic end was served to us in cleverly loaded subtext. How does this speak to me? ...in our mundane existence we are not unlike James Bond on this epic journey of life.
"...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.....
What a really preceptive write up of YOLT! I agree that "hearing" the novels is an interesting way to gain a greater appreciation of their content. I already have a few of the novels on CD and actually plan to gather all of them.
The idea that the novels appeal to a person differently as one matures, mirrors my expierence and speaks to Fleming's skill as a writer, that he could produce a series of novels with a such a broad based appeal.
Fleming's dialoge is really a treat, and deserves to be studied more closely. Too often the focus of reviews is on Floris Bath Essence or Dom Perignon champagne, which are window dressing.
Again, great observations that really make me want to pick up the novel ....
I guess I must admit to being a bit of a dolt, having coming across this thread first, and even posting in it, and then finding the articles that it supports. Since I normally access this site via the daily posts, I can see I "missed out"!
I was stuck by "revelation" that Fleming may have abandoned the homosexual aspects of Scramanga's charecter. In spite of the fact that I have read the novel many times. I had dismissed this information about Scramanga in the dossier, since there was no overt follow-up later in the novel.
Looking back, it seems that playing up Scramanga's attraction to Bond would have made this a very different novel, even if the action had not been drasticly changed. Scaramanga's hiring of Bond because he was sexually interested in him would not only have challenged Bond's preception of himself, but also the readers preception of oo7. Recently having read and listened to "The Spy Who Loved Me", a novel I find rather "disturbing" in parts, I thnk that "The Man With The Golden Gun" could have been a much creepier and more effective novel.
I would suspect that Fleming, toned this angle of the book down in the wake of the criticism he recieved regards "The Spy Who Loved Me". Which was the only novel he insited have the story gutted if made into a film. Little did he know that EON would toss all but the titles of his novels on the trash heap after his death.
So a GRAND THANK YOU! to the authors of this article, who through their research brought out another fascinating aspect of Ian Fleming's writing.
scaramanga1The English RivieraPosts: 845Chief of Staff
edited February 2009
Just a note to say the latest article in this seriesis up and running -feel free to comment -its about the first official non fleming James Bond novel.
As some of you may have noticed, the Colonel Sun article was attacked by that hacker a couple of weeks ago, and was deactivated. I have now put the article back up, although without images, which I will and try and replace shortly.
Comments
Enjoy! :007)
indeed -and feel free to comment - The Man with The Golden Gun will be with us soon and then Octopussy & The Living Daylights -completeing the Ian Fleming section of this series. :007)
Having read the novel at least…twice,, the audio experience was a bit of an interesting contrast. Reading at my own pace inadvertently caused me to camp at certain aspects more than others and for me this was a curiosity on Fleming’s mood and life setting at the time of writing at the twilight of his life when he could no longer ignore his mortality. What I "read" into the text, or at least the aspect that stuck most in my mind, was about a world-weary Bond who mirrored Fleming’s own stifling home life, tiring legal bouts, terminal career boredom, etc. ...or was YOLT entirely the melancholic slice of life as I thought it to be?
Bond was really in bad shape at the start of the novel, so much so that I wondered what realistically kept M from ultimately axing him. Chronologically, Bond’s “condition” dramatically changes once the mission begins and we then see him in emotional good form, fully engaged and socially “checked-in.” Sure, Fleming by that time was well settled in his comfort level compared to the rigidness and taut approach of the earlier novels, but moreover I think that the "Fleming Sweep" as noted in the License to Read article is the evidence of Fleming’s enthusiasm as if YOLT, like OHMSS, was a therapeutic outlet.
When I first read the novel as a teen, I would have disagreed that there was any kind of sweep at all, thinking instead how exremely dry it was because of the large chunks of non-action and too much dialog, which was all anti-climatic since it was the entertainment factor of the movie version that motivated me to read the novel in the first place. I did eventually come to appreciate the novel and related to it more on a personal level as I got older. Now that I've listened to the audio version, it’s truly remarkable to realize just how much of the novel is dialog. I also noticed how Fleming seemed to have loosened his belt so to speak during the 1st two-thirds of the book that was more of a jaunt on the town with the boys than anything else, which is a point that I missed entirely when I was younger. The dialog between Bond and Henderson was just hilarious, particularly Dikko’s coarse outbursts and social commentaries and only now do I recognize this character as the inspiration for CIA agent Jack Wade in the Brosnan films.
Bond’s exchanges with Tiger were equally alive, painting a colorful spectrum of British and Japanese sentiments during the post-war years. I think that the battle of wits and cultural sparring was some nicely crafted story-telling about two men who are more akin to one another than they realized, at a deeper level being solemnly bonded friends more than political opposites. Whether or not Fleming was actually accurate, I found his portrayal of the Japanese psyche truly convincing.
It’s interesting that Bond’s deteriorated mental and emotional condition is largely conveyed externally via M and Sir James Moloney, but very little of this was actually internalized by Bond himself. It’s only when Bond is at Kuro Island, when we are given consistent access to his thought life since there was no longer any Tiger or Dikko to serve as a foil on current world events. Here we see Bond transcending to an enlightened state as he reflects on life and muses on true beauty and happiness.
The epilogue was a mixed bag of moods, though all seemed consistent with Fleming’s state of mind mentioned above. Fleming's tongue-in-cheek send-up of the novels and Bond’s pop-culture status is further evidence of his loosening up and having fun; however, that section did seem abrupt in the midst of Bond’s escapist wish-fulfillment as he suddenly checks out of conventional life, contented to spend his days in idylic bliss rowing out to the ocean for Kissy.
Curiously, only after hearing its narration did I feel the punch of YOLT’s ending, which was like watching a train-wreck unfold. With Kissy not realizing anything of Bond’s history and what a trip to Vladivostok ment, I wanted to scream “Noooo!” as she reluctantly helped Bond leave Kuro. Many speculate that Fleming intended YOLT as Bond’s absolute swansong and appropriately so, I think he was trying to make an absolute statement on life as he new it by sending Bond to certain doom. Just like the “death” of Sherlock Holmes in the Final Problem, the ending of YOLT was nicely poetic in how stylistically Fleming granted immortality to his creation by sending Bond off to a blazing glory, though implied. Not as dramatic as Holmes’ death at the Reichenbach Falls (also implied), in true Fleming style that transforms the mundane into the fantastic, James Bond’s epic end was served to us in cleverly loaded subtext. How does this speak to me? ...in our mundane existence we are not unlike James Bond on this epic journey of life.
What a really preceptive write up of YOLT! I agree that "hearing" the novels is an interesting way to gain a greater appreciation of their content. I already have a few of the novels on CD and actually plan to gather all of them.
The idea that the novels appeal to a person differently as one matures, mirrors my expierence and speaks to Fleming's skill as a writer, that he could produce a series of novels with a such a broad based appeal.
Fleming's dialoge is really a treat, and deserves to be studied more closely. Too often the focus of reviews is on Floris Bath Essence or Dom Perignon champagne, which are window dressing.
Again, great observations that really make me want to pick up the novel ....
Thanks!
{[]
Bond’s Beretta
The Handguns of Ian Fleming's James Bond
I was stuck by "revelation" that Fleming may have abandoned the homosexual aspects of Scramanga's charecter. In spite of the fact that I have read the novel many times. I had dismissed this information about Scramanga in the dossier, since there was no overt follow-up later in the novel.
Looking back, it seems that playing up Scramanga's attraction to Bond would have made this a very different novel, even if the action had not been drasticly changed. Scaramanga's hiring of Bond because he was sexually interested in him would not only have challenged Bond's preception of himself, but also the readers preception of oo7. Recently having read and listened to "The Spy Who Loved Me", a novel I find rather "disturbing" in parts, I thnk that "The Man With The Golden Gun" could have been a much creepier and more effective novel.
I would suspect that Fleming, toned this angle of the book down in the wake of the criticism he recieved regards "The Spy Who Loved Me". Which was the only novel he insited have the story gutted if made into a film. Little did he know that EON would toss all but the titles of his novels on the trash heap after his death.
So a GRAND THANK YOU! to the authors of this article, who through their research brought out another fascinating aspect of Ian Fleming's writing.
-{
Bond’s Beretta
The Handguns of Ian Fleming's James Bond
http://www.ajb007.co.uk/articles/a-licence-to-read-colonel-sun/