Guest Article by
Pete Swan
With a new James Bond film, Spectre (2015), upon us[i]
and with Daniel Craig rumoured to be leaving the series before long,[ii]
James Bond is taking centre stage of the world’s showbiz media once again. The
Bond film franchise has seen many changes over the last fifty odd years. For
example, James Bond no longer smokes; he no longer sits in Jacuzzis with bevies
of women all young enough to be his daughter. The last seven Bond films saw
Judi Dench play a female ‘M’, Bond’s boss at MI6.[iii]
The character ‘Miss Moneypenny’ has also now been changed to the more dignified
‘Eve Moneypenny’ and is currently played by the black actress, Naomi Harris.[iv] In another departure, a gay actor named Ben Whishaw now plays a much younger and
tech-savvy version of Q than did the old stalwart Desmond Llewelyn (who
appeared in 17 Bond films between 1963 and 1999) or his successor in the role
of Q, John Cleese. This year [2015] we even saw the black actor, Idris Elba, put
forward as a candidate to play the next James Bond.[v]
James Bond has been part of our popular
culture now for so long that we can trace back to his roots and use his
earliest narratives to ask ourselves how far we have really come as a society.
We would of course nowadays consider racism or homophobia distasteful in a
modern Bond film even if it came from the mouth of one of the villains and the
sexism in Bond films is now no worse than across the film industry as a whole.
Whatever you think of the newest Bond films, here are ten quotes from the
original James Bond novels, which were written by Ian Fleming between 1953 and his
death in 1964, that the current generation will (thankfully) never have to see
up on the silver screen. One should note when reading these quotes, by way of mitigating circumstances, that Ian Fleming was born in 1908 and the times in which he was writing (the 1950s and early 1960s) were very different to our own, where political correctness is now very much the order of the day.
1.
‘Blithering Women’ - Casino Royale (1953)
The Context:
Bond is racing to rescue his companion Vesper Lynd who has been kidnapped by
the novel’s villain, Le Chiffre.
The Quote: “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.” (Page 97)
2.
‘How
to fight Negroes’ - Live and Let Die (1954)
The Context:
Bond has been captured in Harlem, New York and is planning an escape from his
guard, Tee Hee Johnson.
The Quote: “He
stumbled again, trying to measure exactly the Negro’s position behind him. He
remembered Leiter’s injunction: ‘Shins, groin, stomach, throat. Hit ’em
anywhere else and you’ll just break your hand.’
‘Shut yo
mouf,’ said the negro, but he pulled Bond’s hand an inch or two down his back.”
(Page 72)
3.
‘All
women long to be raped...in a cave’ - From Russia
with Love (1957)
The Context: Bond
has travelled to Turkey to meet a Soviet defector and is speaking to Darko
Kerim, the head of the British service’s station in Turkey.
The Quote: “My
father was the sort of man women can’t resist. All women want to be swept off
their feet. In their dreams they long to be slung over a man’s shoulder and
taken into a cave and raped. That was his way with them. My father was a great
fisherman and his fame was spread all over the Black Sea. He went after the
sword-fish. They are difficult to catch and hard to fight and he would always
outdo all others after these fish. Women like their men to be heroes.” (Page
129)
4.
‘Chigroes’
- Dr. No (1958)
The Context:
Bond has travelled to Jamaica to investigate the disappearance of an MI6
employee and is speaking to Pleydell-Smith, the Colonial Secretary of the
island, over lunch.
The Quote: “’It’s
like this’. He began his antics with the pipe. ‘The Jamaican is a kindly lazy
man with the virtues and vices of a child. He lives on a very rich island but
he doesn’t get rich from it. He doesn’t know how to and he’s too lazy...” “Finally
there are the Chinese, solid, compact, discreet- the most powerful clique in
Jamaica. They’ve got the bakeries and the laundries and the best food stores.
They keep to themselves and keep their strain pure.’ Pleydell-Smith laughed.
‘Not that they don’t take the black girls when they want them. You can see the
result all over Kingston – Chigroes – Chinese Negroes and Negresses. The
Chigroes are a tough, forgotten race. They look down on the Negroes and the
Chinese look down on them. One day they may become a nuisance. They’ve got some
of the intelligence of the Chinese and most of the vices of the black man. The
police have a lot of trouble with them.’” (Page 51)
5.
‘Koreans
are lower than apes’ – Goldfinger (1959)
The Context:
Bond has been captured by Goldfinger and his sidekick Oddjob and is plotting
his escape.
The Quote: “Bond
intended to stay alive on his own terms. Those terms included putting Oddjob
and any other Korean firmly in his place, which, in Bond’s estimation, was
rather lower than apes in the mammalian hierarchy.” (Page 175)
6.
‘Japanese
women; insipid slaves’ - 'Quantum of
Solace' (1960)
The Context:
Bond is at a dinner party and is making small talk with the host.
The Quote: “’It
would be fine to have a pretty girl always tucking you up and bringing you
drinks and hot meals and asking if you had everything you wanted. And they’re
always smiling and wanting to please. If I don’t marry an air hostess, there’ll
be nothing for it but marry a Japanese. They seem to have the right ideas too.’
Bond had no intention of marrying anyone. If he did, it would certainly not be
an insipid slave.” (Page 62)
7.
‘The girl who drove like a man’ - Thunderball
(1961)
The Context: Bond
is in the Bahamas and is following Domino Vitali, the girlfriend of the main
villain, SPECTRE No. 1, Emilio Largo.
The Quote: “Women
are often meticulous and safe drivers, but they are very seldom first-class. In
general Bond regarded them as a mild hazard and he always gave them plenty of
road and was ready for the unpredictable. Four women in a car he regarded as
the highest danger potential, and two women as nearly as lethal. Women together
cannot keep silent in a car, and when women talk they have to look into each
other’s faces. An exchange of words is not enough. They have to see the other
person’s expression, perhaps in order to read behind the other’s words or to analyse
the reaction to their own. So two women in the front seat of a car constantly distract
each other’s attention from the road ahead and four women are more than doubly
dangerous, for the driver has to hear, and see, not only what her companion is
saying but also, for women are like that, what the two behind are talking
about.
But this girl
drove like a man. She was entirely focused on the road ahead and on what was
going on in her driving mirror, an accessory rarely used by women except for
making up their faces. And, equally rare in a woman, she took a man’s pleasure
in the feel of her machine, in the timing of her gear changes, and the use of
her brakes.” (Page 100)
[James Bond Film Link: Compare this with,
say, the scene where Roger Moore as Bond makes a series of sexist comments on
“women drivers” to Barbara Bach’s Major Anya Amasova (Agent XXX) in the tenth Bond
film The Spy Who Loved Me (1977)]
8.
‘Homosexuality; the stubborn disability’ - On Her Majesty’s Secret Service (1963)
The Context:
Bond is being briefed about Hypnosis as it is suspected that the villain Ernst Stavro Blofeld is
using it to brainwash women in his mountain layer in Switzerland.
The Quote: “Now, there is
plenty of medical evidence of the efficacy of hypnosis. There are
well-authenticated cases of the successful treatment by these means of such
stubborn disabilities as warts, certain types of asthma, bed-wetting,
stammering and even alcoholism, drug-taking , and homosexual tendencies” (Page
172)
9.
‘The
Japanese; a violent people without a violent language’ - You Only live Twice (1964)
The Context:
Bond has been told that there are no swear words in Japanese by the head of the
Japanese secret service, Tiger Tanaka.
The Quote: “Well I’m...
I mean, well I’m astonished. A violent people without a violent language! I
must write a learned paper on this. No wonder you have nothing left but to
commit suicide when you fail an exam, or cut your girlfriend’s head off when
she annoys you.’
Tiger laughed.
‘We generally push them under trams or trains.’ (Page 77)
10.
‘Gay
men can’t whistle’ - The Man With The
Golden Gun (1965)
The Context: M
is reading a file about Francisco Scaramanga, a Cuban assassin suspected of
killing MI6 agents.
The Quote: “’I
have also noted, from a “profile” of this man in Time magazine, one fact which supports my thesis that Scaramanga
may be sexually abnormal. In listing his accomplishments, Time notes, but does not comment upon, the fact that this man
cannot whistle. Now it may only be myth, and it is certainly not medical
science, but there is a popular theory that a man who cannot whistle has
homosexual tendencies. (At this point, the reader may care to experiment and,
from his self-knowledge, help to prove or disprove this item of folklore! –
C.C.)’ (M. hadn’t whistled since he was a boy. Unconsciously his mouth pursed
and a clear note was emitted. He uttered an impatient “tchah!” and continued
with his reading.)’ (Page 27)
[i]
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2379713
[ii]
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-34514701
[iii]
http://jamesbond.wikia.com/wiki/M_(Judi_Dench)
[iv]
http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0365140
[v]
http://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2015/apr/09/why-idris-elba-shouldnt-give-up-on-playing-james-bond
TBB Article No. 23.
© Pete Swan, 2015.
Guest Author Pete Swan lives in
Bristol and studied War History and Propaganda at Swansea University. Pete's
interest in James Bond is an extension of his interest in popular culture and
the history of the Cold War. Most of his free time is spent in pubs and books.
A big "thank you" goes out to Pete Swan for this article! - The Bondologist Blog.
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