[HN Gopher] Becoming James Bond
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Becoming James Bond
Author : pepys
Score : 50 points
Date : 2023-10-09 17:32 UTC (1 days ago)
(HTM) web link (literaryreview.co.uk)
(TXT) w3m dump (literaryreview.co.uk)
| dn3500 wrote:
| https://archive.li/VJm5r
| zeenyaonatop wrote:
| Ian Fleming also fancied Rolex watches and it transferred on to
| the James Bond character.
|
| https://www.rolexmagazine.com/2008/11/list-of-all-watches-wo...
|
| https://www.bobswatches.com/rolex-blog/watch-review/original...
|
| Later on, James Bond moved from Rolex to Omega. I'm not sure how
| Fleming would have felt.
|
| https://www.gearpatrol.com/watches/a68536/james-bond-watch-g....
| justin66 wrote:
| You'd think he would have a much greater objection to Bond
| driving a BMW during Pierce Brosnan's era.
| MarkusWandel wrote:
| Let's not forget that in the original book he was driving a
| Blower Bentley, probably the most masculine car ever built.
| It's all downhill from there!
| Xenoamorphous wrote:
| A Ford Mondeo in Casino Royale.
| justin66 wrote:
| I reject the implication that Fleming would find Bond
| driving a Ford anywhere near as serious an affront as
| driving a luxury car made by the Krauts.
| ayandutta wrote:
| aston martin or nothin! agree w this
| HL33tibCe7 wrote:
| That "rolex? ... no, omega" scene on the train was absolutely
| painful
|
| Although I will say that the Bond Seamaster 300 is a beauty of
| a watch. It's just a shame it has 007 branding all over it.
| permo-w wrote:
| James Bond is odd because of how brazen and normalised the
| product placement is. I can't think of any other film or tv
| show of the size where branded products are so central to the
| theme
| smackeyacky wrote:
| I don't think the product placement in the books is like
| product placement in movies and TV today. The products were
| things that he liked (Rolex Oyster Perpetuals, "Sea Island"
| cotton shirts, getting your cigarettes made for you or
| smoking "Senior Service", eating scrambled eggs etc).
|
| It only seems weird in retrospect now that it has become
| common.
| permo-w wrote:
| of course this legacy is why it's acceptable to a degree
| unacceptable in almost anything else, but I feel it's worth
| pointing out nonetheless
|
| also is it scrambled eggs or is it having extra eggs
| RcouF1uZ4gsC wrote:
| I guess I will have to read me some Shakespeare to learn more
| about James Bond.
| zvmaz wrote:
| Is James Bond the fictional character realistic? I always felt
| that he is an exaggerated persona that appeals to the male
| fantasy of hyper competence, boldness, and hence sexual appeal.
| mellosouls wrote:
| I doubt it. George Smiley is generally held up as a more
| representative figure, though I suspect (without any personal
| knowledge or evidence) he also is more a useful focal point for
| stories in which the supporting colleagues have more in common
| with their real life counterparts than either the owlish Smiley
| or the predator Bond.
|
| Eg.
|
| https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2017/sep/28/mi6-boss-geo...
| gonzo41 wrote:
| Learn about the life of Sir Christopher Lee.
| simonh wrote:
| The books are a lot more grounded. Fleming referred to Bond as
| the blunt instrument of government.
| ghostpepper wrote:
| I agree with this. The character in the book is full of self-
| doubt, insecurity and other complex emotions that he hides
| externally. In this films, all of that complexity is simply
| left out.
| cloudyq wrote:
| [dead]
| neonate wrote:
| http://web.archive.org/web/20231010174110/https://literaryre...
| JoeDaDude wrote:
| Not mentioned in the brief bio is Fleming's work during WWII.
| Notably, he conceived of Operation Ruthless, a plan to stage a
| German plane ditching, and capture the German rescue ship with an
| Emigma code book.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Ruthless
| rmason wrote:
| Fleming was also the first to suggest planting papers on a
| corpse to mislead the enemy. This was in a widely circulated
| memo of ideas. It later was successfully tried in Operation
| Mincemeat to conceal the invasion of Italy.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ian_Fleming
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_Mincemeat
| gumby wrote:
| There's almost a full paragraph on his war efforts in the
| article; from the rest of that article we can imageine it's
| dissected at length in the book:
|
| > In a book not short on detail - more of this in a moment -
| Shakespeare expends vast amounts of ink in trying to work out
| exactly how adept Commander Fleming, as he soon became, was at
| his job and how widely his operational net extended. Whatever
| Fleming's precise achievements in Room 39 at the Admiralty
| Office, he clearly found himself at home in a milieu far more
| suited to his administrative and imaginative talents than any
| employment previously offered him. He was a resourceful and
| consistently adept man-manager at the very centre of the
| British intelligence machine, Shakespeare concludes, often seen
| at Bletchley Park and 'a war-winner', according to his old
| boss.
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