Tom's Thoughts and Ideas

It appears, as one might say, that I have remembered my password finally. During all this time I have mostly been reading long books. Amongst other things I have been barreling through Dune and Lord of the Rings, which will be forthcoming semi soon. But now the promised continuation of the James Bond saga, featuring: Diamonds are Forever, From Russia with Love, and Dr No. Clearly spoilers ahead.

Within the cinematic Bond zeitgeist I think Diamonds has something of a weird reputation, as it is Connery returning to the jacket after the best Bond film with a new leading man “failed”; this combined with Connery returning as an older man made many parts of the film really odd. Many parts of the film exist as a pull on former ideas and concepts rather than new ones. OHMSS’s humanization of Bond and his emotional developments were fully scratched from memory in favor of the old formula. I think that this cemented the “Bond doesn’t change” reality that we see going up until the modern day. These metacinematic issues combined with the heightened cartoonishness carried over from You Only Live Twice (cough cough volcano ninjas) and the entrenched Connery brutality towards women made for stark tone shifts and a rather discombobulated final product. That is not even touching the Mr Wint and Mr Kidd everything. Yet the film is entertaining and delivers on the Bond formula better than the bad movies and not as well as the best ones. Do I wish that Lazenby got a second film? Yes, but I prefer Diamonds as we got when compared with the death of the franchise.

Going into the novel of the same name was interesting since coming off Moonraker being a wonderful book filled my heart with hope that was quickly rewarded. Diamonds, while not being better than Moonraker, is a worthy continuation of the series. In this book we see the most human Bond yet; he actually falls in love with Tiffany Case and shows some real emotional vulnerability and fear at potentially losing her. Bond committing to an actual relationship is more common, at least in his internal monologue, than in the films; but his affection for Tiffany feels the most genuine thus far (besides Vesper clearly) and goes a long way in making the stakes of the book genuine. Bond’s emotional reaction to her near death, and vis versa, is powerful and captivating. Bond must also go semi undercover in this book and pose as Peter Franks the diamond smuggler. He does not really manage to commit to the part very well, as he lacks any form of subtlety, and this makes for a funny series of events where Bond is very clearly not a bad guy as he is drinking and hanging out with Felix a lot yet somehow manages to keep his cover intact. This brings us to the most interesting facet of the book. Diamonds is a really good travel book. The two main places that the book takes place are Saratoga Springs and Las Vegas. Since the mafia are the enemy in this book, these locations should not be surprising. Many pages are dedicated to describing the culture and environments in these places, down to the dirt and grasses. The level of corruption and sliminess in Saratoga oozes out of the page and Las Vegas in Diamonds is second only to Fear and Loathing in its details, atmosphere, and sand-blasted heat. The Vegas section is the high point of the book by a large margin. Yet, I enjoyed the Saratoga section despite it dragging and being not nearly as tight. On to beiger pastures. From the second he lands in Vegas, Bond is sweating and dazzled by the lights and cigarette girls that surround him. Unlike Thompson’s work this is a Vegas in its prime with more neon than a star. Bond takes a taxi down the strip and every building and person are given space to shine in the text; it is such a comprehensive and lived in world that it makes the detailed settings of the other books feel like hastily written messes. Fleming is however, not distracted from the reality of the city and for as much gilts and glamor as one sees on the surface, the gun-metal greys still pervade the background at every casino and street. The final act of the book then takes place in a converted Nevada mining town where the head villain lives in a turn of the century millionaire luxury train. Ending the main story so strongly and pulpy was really pleasant for me since during the first two thirds of the book Fleming comes pretty close to choosing the gritty brutality over the pulp entirely. While that brutality is gripping, I think that Bond as a series works best in the middle between pulp and brutality and leaning too far to either side makes for a weaker overall work. There are pulp elements before the end of the book, but they are not nearly as common nor as outlandish as in previous works. But wait, there is yet more, similarly to the film there is an epilogue where Bond and Tiffany are being chased by Wint and Kidd on a ship, and Bond must kill them to finally be safe. I enjoyed this final section, but it was too long and did not really add enough to justify itself I think. It did not make the book worse by any means, but I think the final product would be superior if it ended after the train chase. Despite all this praise, I do think that much of the first half of the book was too aimless and did not commit to the undercover story enough. Also, while I love Felix as a Pinkerton cyborg his addition to the book felt at odds with more gritty tone that prevailed through most of the novel. Since he served as Bond’s guide to America in Live and Let Die, his character needed to evolve more than it did in my mind. Tiffany was also a fairly competent Bond girl, being an antagonist for much of the story, but I found that she did not really have the proper motivation to be so emotionally committed to Bond as she was.

On the whole I think that this book is firmly a middle of the pack product. It has very high highs, but compared to what Bond can be, I think it comes up short in several ways. I think Diamonds are Forever rates as a 7/10.

From Russia with Love is a masterpiece and by far the most experimental book in the series so far, and thus far is the only instance where the book and movie are equally excellent. As the second Bond film, the series had not reached its apex with Goldfinger and OHMSS, but Russia is a wonderful film and one of the most gripping in the series. Other than some famously weird story beats (I will get to the camp scene soon) Russia is one of the few movies where Bond is not the most interesting character. Kerim Bey, Tatiana, Grant, and Klebb make for a powerful and explosive cast that makes Connery’s somewhat restrained Bond feel flat in comparison.

This is even more prevalent in the book, and Bond becomes second fiddle to anyone he interacts with with startling consistency. After trying to commit to an actual relationship in Diamonds, Bond reverts to being himself and is single when we meet him a third of the way in! Yes, the first 120ish pages of the book is entirely sans Bond. That part focuses on the Russian plot to kill Bond that takes up a total of like ten minutes in the movie. This change makes the book better for several reasons: first it builds the characters of the Russians far stronger than they were in the film. Tatiana, Klebb, and Grant are all far more interesting characters since they have far longer to breath and differentiate themselves from the standard acme villainy of some other books. There is no single narrator in the pre Bond section (notably the first narrator is Grant’s Russian masseuse) and every one of our main villains is allowed to put their prints on the narrative. Having competent and fleshed out villains that are more powerful and smarter than Bond to such a degree changes the power dynamics from Bond never really being in danger to one where the reader feels strong dramatic irony and can see all the dangers far before Bond. His specific brand of brash hammer mentality looks even more foolish than normal in such a situation. The book feels less like a spy or detective story and more akin to a well laid web slowly catching Bond as he wanders into it. Bond also is less interesting than his allies in the book. Kerim Bey is one of the most electric and captivating contacts in the whole Bond universe, and his book self is even more insane and bombastic than the already insane and bombastic film Kerim. It is hard to go into detail about book Kerim since every scene he appears in is somehow more wild than the previous; his backstory is so cartoonishly weird that it is hard for me to imagine him being dethroned as the best Bond ally side character. Tatiana Romanova is another Mt Rushmore character, this time for Bond girls. Since she is also a spy, her tete a tete with Bond as people with equal power (she may even have more since she knows more about what is going on than Bond) is refreshing compared to the more “characteristically challenged” bond girls in the series. Her having to fake then “fake” being in love with Bond makes her true feelings and motivations throughout the story mercurial and constantly unsure. The immense level of dramatic irony in this book is its greatest strength since the entire premise is built on it from brick one. Fleming’s writing is also on a higher level in this book than the others, it is more gripping, suspenseful, funny, brutal, exciting, etc and the prose is tighter and more efficient than ever. Despite the long length (for a Bond book) it goes by fast and is really dense with plot and intrigue while never feeling lost or not understandable. The forward for my edition said that Fleming wanted to go all out as if this was his final Bond novel, and this dedication shows. I think that at this point I would recommend this book first to a reader unconcerned with chronological order. It shows the heights of awesome that this series can go, and is the best spy novel I have ever read. Yet, there are still issues with it. Much like the film, the scene at the gypsy camp is not good. While not as actively crass as in the movie the scene is still a low point in the book and is something of a slog to read. The orientalism for Turkey and the gypsies is bad but within the Bond series it is not as prevalent as in other works, nor is it as wound into the plot. While I do not like other parts for their orientalist outlook, they are so limited and far between that it does not destroy my enjoyment nor take me out of the book. From a plotting perspective I find that Tatiana’s decreasing agency near the end of the book somewhat depressing since she is such a good character and foil to Bond that her becoming subservient and uninteresting at the end feels like Fleming did not know how to stick the landing and reverted to old tropes with her. The fake out Bond deaths are also somewhat hamfisted I think, but I am sure they were very dramatic when readers did not know that there were nine more books. This book is also helped by the villains are monolithic. The Russians being the only villains rather than the Russians also being played by SPECTRE makes the film a bit less coherent than the book. Functionally it also makes Bond’s situation seem more dire as he has to face a threat because he has been trotting around the globe killing Russian agents and this is their revenge. In that sense this book is the result of the previous ones and Bond’s intertextual chickens coming home. In the film killing Bond always feels secondary to stealing the LECTOR machine which cuts some of the tension. (In the book it is a Spectre machine which is a fun incidental easter egg.)

I love this book, it blows Moonraker out of the sky with its quality and other than Goldfinger or OHMSS I am not sure if any of the later books will dethrone it for me. While that is spoiling my final rankings a bit it is hard to talk about this book without showing how much I love it. Easy 9.5/10 (would be 10 if not for the camp scene).

For the final entry in this star studded set of spy stories we have Dr No. This is the first of the movies and one of the few where Connery has hair. As the initial James Bond story, it is good but does not quite know what James Bond should be. That combined with the Chinese and Jamaican issues present make Dr No a good but not overwhelming start to the series. Dr No the book suffers from similar but different issues and ends up in the same place.

Dr No takes Bond back to Jamaica with all the same issues as before with even more to boot. Fleming’s treatment of Black and Chinese people is less than pleasant to read, and while it is not as all encompassing and horrid as in Live and Let Die: it is near the forefront of the issues with the novel. The last few have not been very pulpy, but Dr No turns the dial right back to serious pulp. For example at the end of the story Bond fights a giant squid with a knife and wins! While there are some serious and dramatic scenes the overall tone is very much pulp and silly. This book also returns to the format of detective spy novel rather than pure action adventure like Russia, until the ending of course where everything explodes gloriously. Further on the pulp side, Bond kills Dr No by burying him in a huge pile of guano and the Bond girl is named Honey Ryder… The book is a fairly easy and light-hearted read that does not challenge the reader very much intellectually or push the boundaries of genre. Dr No as a villain, much like the movie, is fairly bland and stoic as he lacks the personal theatrics and charisma of other villains. The joys come from the world around Dr No and his weird and silly lair farming guano with a dragon standing guard. As a Bond girl Honey is interesting but not special, she is characterized as a Tarzan type who has lived outside of modern society, which is an interesting conceit but as the book goes on get played out and old since Fleming does not give her the page space to really be anyone interesting outside of her basic character. She falls in love with Bond too quickly and becomes near totally reliant on him despite her clear skills and conceptual competency. After the Bond girls in Moonraker and Russia, Honey feels fairly bland and like Fleming is holding back on her characterization. One somewhat ironic pitfall that some of the Bond girls find themselves in compared to their film counterparts is that since there is an attempt made to make them real and interesting characters, the times where Fleming fails are more egregious.

Dr No feels like a combination of the previous pitfalls of Fleming’s writing covered over by more experience with the character and an interesting story. It is not bad by any means but it is not exemplary. Similarly to Diamonds, Dr No is good and not great but a fun and engaging read. This book is another happy 7/10.

The more I read of Fleming’s writing the more I see that he can reach great heights if he sets his mind to it. His less than amazing books are still deeply entertaining and a joy to read. The series is constantly evolving and changing with no two books being exactly the same. Yet patterns of weaknesses and strengths have appeared and, certainly in the case of his weaknesses, are becoming slightly stale. What I want from the next set of books (Goldfinger, For your Eyes Only, and Thunderball) is for Fleming to change up the formula and do something groundbreaking. Russia is a great example of what I would like going forward. As I look forward I see what are likely to be some major highlights: I.E Goldfinger, OHMSS, and The Spy who Loved me, but I also see some books that I worry will be more of the same rather than an innovation on the series. While I am certainly not at all tired of the formula I do not think I have eight more-of-the-same left in me, at least happily. Now behold, my updated rankings.

1: From Russia with Love
2: Moonraker
3: Diamonds are Forever
4: Casino Royale
5: Dr No
6: Live and Let Die