Often I find myself disappointed with the 21st century (aka The Future). No flying cars, no female Prime Minister, no dinner in pill-form.
But then you buy a Penguin Classic of the first Bond novel from 1953, and realise holy shit, maybe we’ve come further than i realise, and i quote:
“This was just what he had been afraid of. These blithering women who thought they could do a man’s work. Why the hell couldn’t they stay at home and mind their pots and pans and stick to their frocks and gossip and leave men’s work to the men. And now for this to happen to him, just when the job had come off so beautifully. For Vesper to fall for an old trick like that and get herself snatched and probably held to ransom like some bloody heroine in a strip cartoon. The silly bitch.”
Yuh huh… a popular classic eh Penguin? Right up there with Pride and Prejudice or Of Mice and Men. It’s a pretty crap book for any one who’s curious. The movie was way better.
Tags: dinner-in-pill-form, future, heroine, politics, sexism
I have heard only bad things about Ian Fleming, but I’ve never read anything of his. Except that excerpt. That’s probably the last I’ll read too!
The Sean Connery Bond movies were obviously much closer to the books than the more recent ones.
As if the real life Ms Moneypenny would have tolerated such a prick!
fortunately i’ve not heard anything about Ian Fleming or i would not get through the book and would instead spend a week on a tirade about him.
it’s his first book, so i guess that explains why it’s a little unpolished and i don’t expect it to compare with a film that had 17 screenwriters.
the rest of the book is a mildly interesting spy story. this tirade is the biggest of only a couple of other moments that made me laugh… it just makes me laugh.
it makes me glad I was born now, not 40 years earlier.