--- On Sat, 6/21/08, Mark D. Nevins <
nevins_mark@yahoo.com> wrote:
The Bond series is of particular interest in this regard, and
I'm glad to see that the newest edition puts numbers on the
spines. While I have not yet gotten there in my re-read of
the series, having just re-read THUNDERBALL, I am aware that
there is a tight connection between THUNDERBALL, MAJESTY'S
SECRET SERVICE, YOU ONLY LIVE TWICE, and MAN WITH GOLDEN GUN.
(Next up for me is the "palate cleanser" of SPY WHO LOVED ME,
which is an example in one of my favorite themes,
"unconventional genre novels," but that's a topic for another
post.)
*******************************************************************
This series by Ian Fleming was a great inspiration to me long
before they were made movies. I read them each as they were
published in the late 1950s & early 60s and have re-read
the Avon omnibus editions recently(which are not in
chronological order btw). I must say I don't see the "tight
connection" you mention. CIA operative, Felix Leiter, who
barely survived a shark attack in LIVE AND LET DIE, is a
fixture in most of these novels. I'd call him a loose
connection, not a tight connection. There is a significant
relationship between FROM RUSSIA WITH LOVE and DR. NO
primarily due to the change in Bond's choice of weapons. In
RUSSIA, Bond's at that time famous .25 Beretta got stuck in
it's equally famous chamois pouch and he was nearly poisoned
by and evil (and ugly!) female SMERSH assassin. So, in DR.
NO, British armorer Major Boothroyd explains to M. that its
time for Bond to upgrade his weapon to the (now famous)
Walther PPK and the Martin spring
powered triple draw holster. This is the best reason I
can think of to read those two books back-to-back but I
wouldn't say it's important to do so. Bond is a typical
ageless super hero. All these book might take place in
exactly the same year if that were possible. Bond does not
change. His landlady notices the puncture wounds in his skin.
He always drives a supercharged Bentley and I suppose if you
owned a supercharged Bentley there would be no need to ever
replace such a car.
Boothroyd, by the way, was a real person who wrote to Fleming
to say he loved his stories but that he must be crazy sending
Bond into situations like that with a .25 automatic pistol
with a silencer. He said one can hardly hear a .25 go off
anyway and what the silencer did primarily was weaken an
already weak load. He also pointed out that due to the length
of the Beretta's barrel, it's very unlikely you can add a
silencer to it. Fleming took him seriously and changed Bond's
weapon of choice in the next book.
Academically it may be interesting to read this series in
order to see how Fleming evolved as a thriller writer. From a
story point of view I can't think of any reason to do so
however.
Patrick King
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