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PRIDE_OF_CRAFT

                                              October 16, 2005


   Ian Fleming's "Live and Let Die" (1954)
   Mr. Big expounds, p.51:


  'Mister Bond, I suffer from boredom.  I am a prey
  to what the early Christians called "accidie," the deadly
  lethargy that envelops those who are sated, those
  who have no more desires.  I am absolutely pre-eminent
  in my chosen profession, trusted by those who occasionally
  employ my talents, feared and instantly obeyed by those whom
  I myself employ.  I have, literally, no more worlds to conquer
  within my chosen orbit.  Alas, if [sic] is too late in my life
  to change that orbit for another one, and since power is the goal
  of all ambition it is unlikely that I could possibly acquire
  more power in another sphere than I already possess in this one.'


  'Mister Bond, I take pleasure now only in artistry, in
  the polish and finesse which I can bring to my operations.
  It has become almost a mania with me to impart an absolute
  rightness, a high elegance, to the execution of my affairs.
  Each day, Mister Bond, I try and set myself still higher
  standards of subtlety and technical polish so that each
  of my proceedings may be a work of art, bearing my signature
  as clearly as the creations of, let us say, Benvenuto Cellini.
  I am content, for the time being, to be my only judge,
  but I sincerely believe, Mister Bond, that the approach to
  perfection which I am steadily achieving in my operations will
  ultimately win recognition in the history of our times.'

Page numbers Signet paperback edition.


                                             A_GAME_OF_DUMAS

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