Re: RARA-AVIS: The size of his toys


Bruce Townley (btownley@sirius.com)
Fri, 26 Nov 1999 07:35:19 -0800 (PST)


On Thu, 25 Nov 1999 at 07:43 Martha Pennigar sent: The size of his toys

>According to some article I read sometime somewhere, the reason for all
>the loving details of Bond's wardrobe, cuisine, car, and so forth, is
>that England was still on strict post-WWII rationing when Fleming began
>writing the books. He deliberately embellished those details, providing
>vicarious gustatory and sartorial thrills for readers whose lives were
>pretty dreary.

Watched the film, DR. NO (the first of the Connery Bonds, I believe), the other night. Bond's aggressive pursuit of the Good Life is, of course, carried over into the movies. Seems like there's no end to little set-piece scenes like the one where the room-service guy delivers his drink to his Jamacian hotel room and recites in a near-sing-song the now cliched
"shaken, not stirred" instruction for JB's vodka martinis. There's also a moment where the spheres of high-tension espionage and PLABOY Magazine consumerism seem to intersect. Bond almost unbends while praising the stopping power of his beloved Baretta, when confronted with a management-urged switch to the Walther PPK. His lines could almost have been directly lifted from one of Hugh Hefner & Co.'s hosannas sung to the latest swinging bachelor hi-fi system. Guess the PLAYBOY ethos also sprung from post-war conditions though, admittedly, across the pond.

Bruce T. = btownley@sirius.com
<><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>

"Sure I live bad. But at least I don't have to work at it."

-SLACKER

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