[PREV - WINNING_VESPER]    [TOP]

GALE_OF_THE_WORLD

                                  August 10, 2004


Reading Casino Royale (1953) 
by Ian Fleming                                           SPOILERS

     Bond frowned.  "It's not difficult to get 
     a Double O number if you're prepared to 
     kill people," he said.  "That's all the 
     meaning it has.  It's nothing to be               
     particularly proud of.  Ive got the             
     corpses of a Japanese cipher expert             
     in New York and a Norwegian double agent         DEADLY_CIPHER
     in Stockholm to thank for being a Double O. 
     Probably quite decent people.  They just 
     got caught up in the gale of the world 
     like that Yugoslav that Tito bumped off. ..."
                                  -- p. 51
           
     "... History is moving pretty quickly these 
     days, and the heroes and villains keep 
     changing parts."     -- p. 110  
                                     
The John le Carre like stabs at
moral ambiguity are interesting.     Bond's character
                                     transformations 
The film version of bond,            seem a little   
is of course more black              unconvincing.   
and white.                                
                                       Wavering from The Cause    
   (Or black and black.)               after being tortured,    
                                       that makes some sense,     
           BRAIN_PULP                  but he returns only       
                                       after learning the       
                                       details of how "Vesper"
                                       had been manipulated;  
                                       as though he didn't       
                                       already have personal   
                                       reasons for a grudge.   
     "Surround yourself with                                   
     human beings, my dear                                    
     James.  They are eaisier                             
     to fight for than              LIGHT_EXPECTATIONS              
     principles." -- p. 113                   
     
--------
[NEXT - BONDED_TIGHTLY]