Casino Royale

[f4f3]

Well, having a train ride to fill and not sure I'd get on-line, I picked up Casino Royale in its spiffy Penguin Classic guise. A good call, since the seats around me were occupied by Ally, Daniel and their mum, and while the inquisition on "What colour is your bedroom?" and "Do you have a giraffe?" was fun, their sticker books didn't leave much room for my Powerbook.

I've never actually read much Fleming, having come across one of his Bond stories somewhere or another when I was a teenager and not enjoying it much. I'd been told that the Bond books were misogynistic, but, being a late 20thC male, I've become used to cries of "Sexist!" being addressed at anything which portrays women as anything less then heroic figures of the sexual revolution, or men as anything more than snivelling wretches waiting dutifully for their princess to orgasm, so I was prepared to find that he was a bit unreconstructed. Well bugger me gently with a hedgehog if Bond is not the biggest woman hater this side of a haute couture designer, and that to call him a misogynist is like saying that Samson was a bit touchy around Philistines.

Any book that ends with the words "the bitch" is always going to be dificult to read as merely a product of its unenlightened times, but this is only one example of the relentless bad mouthing that any female unlucky enough to wander through the story receives. Coupled to a torture scene that leaves me wincing still, I found this a thoroughly unpleasant read, and probably the most unlikely source for a film icon since Steve Speilberg stumbled on the memoirs of an SS Colonel called Hans "Bavaria" Jones.

I'm looking forward to seeing how the film finesses this, since I've seen it described as faithful to the book...

Comments

[chickenfeet2003.livejournal.com]

None of the Bond films have been anything like the books which are several shades of black darker than anything the Brocollis dare touch.

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

Well I don't expect to see Daniel Craig strapped naked to a whicker chair with the seat torn out, and then have his nads repeatedly thrashed with a carpet beater.

Which, I know, will come as a disapointment to some.

[deililly.livejournal.com]

Don't think I will be reading that then...unless I get a copy I can throw when it annoys me. But then I am getting touchier at these things :P The reruns of the Champions have me barking in irritation at the tv every time one of them patronisingly tells the female champion to not worry her 'pretty little head' about something. It is really starting to grate!

[f4f3.livejournal.com]

See, the "Don't worry your pretty little head about it" I can put up with - it seems stupid, dated, and crap writing, but not actually hostile - Fleming, on the other hand, has Bond go around hating this perfectly nice woman on no grounds other than her being female. Horrible stuff.

[billking1959.livejournal.com]

Fleming was a strange man. I have Andrew Lycett's biography on my shelf and its a morbid read. The interesting thing with Bond is how blatantly one man's obsessions, lusts and prejudices leap off the page. I've always thought this sort of personal projection was almost a requirement for creating a succesful popular hero- see Tarzan, see Conan, see Elric for details.