The leading lady of Jeffery Deaver's Carte Blanche is named Felicity Willing. Bond is amused by the name (chapter 42), and presumably the name was meant to amuse readers too. Sebastian Faulks' Devil May Care featured Scarlett Papava, which was a pun on the botanical name and colour of the opium poppy, one of the book's plot devices (and in case the reference was too obtuse, Scarlett's sister is called Poppy). In both cases, the authors devised exotic names for their heroines; names designed to raise a smile or smirk. A Times review of Carte Blanche claims that the character is named in the best Fleming tradition. Examination of the names Fleming gave his heroines, however, suggests that while many of the names are undoubtedly exotic, only a few are as suggestive as the names used in more recent literary efforts. What's more, Felicity Willing and Scarlett Papava and others are named more in the tradition of the film series than Fleming.
Fleming chose names that interested him. Some were named after things. Vesper Lynd, the heroine of Fleming's first novel, Casino Royale, was named after a cocktail that Fleming was served in Jamaica (not the same recipe as the cocktail he invents for the book). Both Solitaire (Live and Let Die) and Domino Vitali (Thunderball) were named after Caribbean birds. Gala Brand (Moonraker) was named after Galatea, the sea nymph of Greek mythology. Judy Havelock, who appears in the short story, 'For Your Eyes Only', was named after a havelock, a flap at the back of an army cap that protects the neck from the sun.
Other heroines were named after people Fleming knew. For Honeychile Rider, Pussy Galore and Vivienne Michel (who feature in Dr No, Goldfinger and The Spy Who Loved Me respectively), Fleming took the names or nicknames of his friends and acquaintances. Kissy Suzuki, who appears in You Only Live Twice, was named after a masseuse or prostitute Fleming met in Japan.
Admittedly, Tiffany Case (Diamonds Are Forever), referring to a jewellery box provided by the New York store, was a play on words reasonably close in style to Scarlett Papava, and Mary Goodnight, Bond's secretary and leading lady of The Man with the Golden Gun, is on a par with Felicity Willing, but these are rare occurrences.
In contrast, names used for the films are more likely to have elements of sexual innuendo. For the first film, Dr No, Honeychile Rider is shortened to the far more suggestive Honey Ryder. In Goldfinger, Bond's response to Honor Blackman's introduction, 'I'm Pussy Galore', is 'I must be dreaming', emphasising the sexual connotation. In Moonraker, Gala Brand is replaced by Holly Goodhead. In the short story, the eponymous Octopussy is the name of an octopus, not Bond's love interest. And, although a villain rather than lover, GoldenEye's Xenia Onatopp's name raises Bond's eyebrow, if nothing else.
The advice for future continuation authors is clear. Look to the names of friends or interesting things, rather than the films, for inspiration of the names of the books' heroines.
Reference:
Chancellor, H, 2005 James Bond: the man and his world, John Murray
Showing posts with label carte blanche. Show all posts
Showing posts with label carte blanche. Show all posts
Sunday, 3 July 2011
Monday, 13 June 2011
James Bond: licensed to travel
Jeffery Deaver’s Carte Blanche places James Bond in Serbia, then after briefly returning him to England, takes him to Dubai, followed by South Africa. Travel and exotic destinations was part of Ian Fleming's original novels, and Deaver follows the tradition. Deaver has said that the Bond of his novel is Fleming's Bond, and while I agree with this, in the case of exotic travel, he seems to have been influenced to a larger extent by the films.
One measure of the difference is the number of countries that feature in a book or film (though not necessarily visited by Bond). Let's examine the full-length novels first. Excluding England, the action of Casino Royale (1953) is set in just one country, France. In Live and Let Die (1954), it is two countries – the USA and Jamaica. In Moonraker (1955), no countries are featured, as the narrative is set entirely in England. No more than three countries ever feature in a Bond novel (unless one counts the incidental states that Bond travels through on the Orient Express in From Russia, with Love (1957)). Taken together, the average count of featured countries in a Bond novel is 1.83.
Turning to the films, Dr No, released in 1962, is principally set in one country, Jamaica, and in this regard matches the novel. The next three films also match their respective novels. However, You Only Live Twice (1967) diverges from this pattern, as three countries are shown, compared with one in the novel. The film with the highest count is Diamonds are Forever (1971), with six, although a number of these are shown fairly fleetingly. Overall, the average count per film is 3.36.
There is another interesting observation to make. Looking at the chart showing the count of locations by film, there is a trend for a gradual increase in the count over time. The later films generally feature more countries than the earlier ones. This trend, or selection pressure, may be driven by the idea that Bond films must be globetrotting and show lots of exotic places. And with each film, that idea, or meme, is reinforced, which in turn pushes the number of countries upwards.
We see, then, that Carte Blanche's count of three countries is closer to the film average than that of the novels. A review of Carte Blanche in Private Eye (no. 1290) claimed that the James Bond of public imagination is that of the films. In terms of locations and travel, the filmic Bond is Deaver's Bond too.
One measure of the difference is the number of countries that feature in a book or film (though not necessarily visited by Bond). Let's examine the full-length novels first. Excluding England, the action of Casino Royale (1953) is set in just one country, France. In Live and Let Die (1954), it is two countries – the USA and Jamaica. In Moonraker (1955), no countries are featured, as the narrative is set entirely in England. No more than three countries ever feature in a Bond novel (unless one counts the incidental states that Bond travels through on the Orient Express in From Russia, with Love (1957)). Taken together, the average count of featured countries in a Bond novel is 1.83.
Turning to the films, Dr No, released in 1962, is principally set in one country, Jamaica, and in this regard matches the novel. The next three films also match their respective novels. However, You Only Live Twice (1967) diverges from this pattern, as three countries are shown, compared with one in the novel. The film with the highest count is Diamonds are Forever (1971), with six, although a number of these are shown fairly fleetingly. Overall, the average count per film is 3.36.
There is another interesting observation to make. Looking at the chart showing the count of locations by film, there is a trend for a gradual increase in the count over time. The later films generally feature more countries than the earlier ones. This trend, or selection pressure, may be driven by the idea that Bond films must be globetrotting and show lots of exotic places. And with each film, that idea, or meme, is reinforced, which in turn pushes the number of countries upwards.
We see, then, that Carte Blanche's count of three countries is closer to the film average than that of the novels. A review of Carte Blanche in Private Eye (no. 1290) claimed that the James Bond of public imagination is that of the films. In terms of locations and travel, the filmic Bond is Deaver's Bond too.
Monday, 6 June 2011
Carte Blanche - a review
Times have changed. During the tenure of continuation authors John Gardner and Raymond Benson, James Bond adventures were published with short print-runs and to little fanfare (good news for those who purchased the first editions, which are now worth a lot of money). Now the publication of a Bond novel is an international media event. Sebastian Faulks' Devil May Care (2008) had the works, and so too has Jeffery Deaver's Carte Blanche. Its launch was accompanied by a glamorous Bond girl, a straight-from-the-factory Bentley, and a team of abseiling marines. Sebastian Faulks seemed somewhat embarrassed by the publicity surrounding his book launch, but Deaver had no such feelings, and by all accounts, he was as excited at the end of the project as he was the moment he was commissioned to write the book. And it shows in the writing, for Carte Blanche is a novel written by a master of the thriller, and now a master of all things Bondian.
Like most of Ian Fleming's adventures, Carte Blanche opens in the thick of the action, in Serbia. Bond, a veteran of Afghanistan and now working for M and the Overseas Development Group, an ultra-secret government outfit that sits a fraction outside the law, is trying to stop a train loaded with extremely hazardous materials from being derailed. This is, of course, just small part of something much bigger. Bond is chasing down a lead in a plot to detonate an unknown device at an unknown location and at an unknown time. The trail takes Bond to South Africa via Dubai and to the villain with the curious name of Severan Hydt, who, when not planning world terrorism, runs a global waste processing and recycling operation.
Jeffery Deaver is not writing as Ian Fleming – descriptions of dead people would not be out of place in his more usual CSI-style crime novels – but he recalls enough aspects of Fleming's works to give the novel an authentic tone. The villain, for instance, is reminiscent of Hugo Drax or Dr No, and he devises a scheme that might have Goldfinger on to his lawyers about breach of copyright. James Bond routinely takes a hot shower, followed by a cold one, and, as in Casino Royale, takes 'ridiculous pleasure' in food and drink. Such details are finely woven into the story and Deaver avoids turning the book into a checklist of Bondian clichés. Just one duff note: Bond shows too much interest in team sports. Very uncharacteristic.
As Fleming was wont to do, Deaver peppers Carte Blanche with technical detail, snippets of interesting, but not strictly relevant, information, and references to popular culture. Some of these will seem in a few decades time as incomprehensible as Bond's 'Golden K' in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, but that is perhaps no bad thing. Most of the cultural references, though, will be incomprehensible now to anyone outside Britain. Deaver squeezes in references to London Olympic mascots Mandeville and Wenlock, Asda supermarket, and even the Two Ronnies. Deaver has certainly done his research. To paraphrase Raymond Chandler reviewing Diamonds are Forever, the remarkable thing about this book is that it is written by an American.
Like all thrillers, the book relies on coincidences bordering on implausibility in order to move the plot along. Meetings are engineered and alliances are made with few problems, while Bond's state-of-the-art phone, packed with apps to enable him to eavesdrop on the villains, or track their movements, makes his job seem, well, a little too easy. Nevertheless, Deaver smooths over such concerns with the rapid pace of his story telling and sustains tension throughout.
Jeffery Deaver has said that his Bond is Fleming's Bond. That is true enough, but Carte Blanche is dated ACR – after Casino Royale (2008). If the novel was ever brought to the screen (and, admittedly, that is unlikely), Daniel Craig has his name stamped all over it.
Like most of Ian Fleming's adventures, Carte Blanche opens in the thick of the action, in Serbia. Bond, a veteran of Afghanistan and now working for M and the Overseas Development Group, an ultra-secret government outfit that sits a fraction outside the law, is trying to stop a train loaded with extremely hazardous materials from being derailed. This is, of course, just small part of something much bigger. Bond is chasing down a lead in a plot to detonate an unknown device at an unknown location and at an unknown time. The trail takes Bond to South Africa via Dubai and to the villain with the curious name of Severan Hydt, who, when not planning world terrorism, runs a global waste processing and recycling operation.
Jeffery Deaver is not writing as Ian Fleming – descriptions of dead people would not be out of place in his more usual CSI-style crime novels – but he recalls enough aspects of Fleming's works to give the novel an authentic tone. The villain, for instance, is reminiscent of Hugo Drax or Dr No, and he devises a scheme that might have Goldfinger on to his lawyers about breach of copyright. James Bond routinely takes a hot shower, followed by a cold one, and, as in Casino Royale, takes 'ridiculous pleasure' in food and drink. Such details are finely woven into the story and Deaver avoids turning the book into a checklist of Bondian clichés. Just one duff note: Bond shows too much interest in team sports. Very uncharacteristic.
As Fleming was wont to do, Deaver peppers Carte Blanche with technical detail, snippets of interesting, but not strictly relevant, information, and references to popular culture. Some of these will seem in a few decades time as incomprehensible as Bond's 'Golden K' in On Her Majesty's Secret Service, but that is perhaps no bad thing. Most of the cultural references, though, will be incomprehensible now to anyone outside Britain. Deaver squeezes in references to London Olympic mascots Mandeville and Wenlock, Asda supermarket, and even the Two Ronnies. Deaver has certainly done his research. To paraphrase Raymond Chandler reviewing Diamonds are Forever, the remarkable thing about this book is that it is written by an American.
Like all thrillers, the book relies on coincidences bordering on implausibility in order to move the plot along. Meetings are engineered and alliances are made with few problems, while Bond's state-of-the-art phone, packed with apps to enable him to eavesdrop on the villains, or track their movements, makes his job seem, well, a little too easy. Nevertheless, Deaver smooths over such concerns with the rapid pace of his story telling and sustains tension throughout.
Jeffery Deaver has said that his Bond is Fleming's Bond. That is true enough, but Carte Blanche is dated ACR – after Casino Royale (2008). If the novel was ever brought to the screen (and, admittedly, that is unlikely), Daniel Craig has his name stamped all over it.
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