True Sixties Story

Her Word is her Bond

My "BondJamesBond" and I looking agent-ish on a vacation. I used to think me his aide-de-camp on trips.  

My "BondJamesBond" and I looking agent-ish on a vacation. I used to think me his aide-de-camp on trips.  

AdventureGirl Romance notes  - a start:  how James Bond has grown and changed - and may continue the morphing.

Nancy Drew fanatics in girlhood in the 50s simply evolved into Bond girls in the sixties. A family friend and lifeguard at our nearest beach was bingeing on the books and I couldn't put them down.  How we gasped at the adventures, and cried for a month when ... well, you know about Traci.   The following today has grown, not decreased and scroll down for the best links for it.

I lost track of Bond completely when I married into a fine family with plenty of interesting work, and some of them agents for real.  I had no real connection, except thru my man who made medicine.  Both of us worked with children and arts and science and occasionally did our bit for America.   Our son, oddly enough, heard about Bond through a friend, when "Octopussy" released - when we were still reading Tolkien and Hobbiteses around the fireplace.   He never mentioned it, but made a  huge octopus for a class art project with the film name on it.  His insights still make me smile.

James Bond has had quite an influence on most of us, like it or not.  And is Bond the mancave come to life, really a girl thing?  Eunice Gayson, as Sylvia Trench, instigated the famous BondJamesBond epithet in the first story.  For many, Dame Judith Dench soon became a fine and logical "M" - the letter in the books was said to stand for "mother".  And one day soon, if Moneypenny can be agile and young and black, the next James Bond may be a woman named "James" for fun.

The famous gunbarrel opening - was it telling us that his brand of guy was targeted for serious improvement?  I wonder: today's Bond does not pat girls on the backside demeaningly, or smoke, but he is not as cultured and much more noire than our "gallante" of old.

 In the books, every other line reminds us that these brave life-and-death feats are being performed by an Oxford Man of finest tastes who would rather simply go to a suit fitting, or wine-tasting,  but sees his holy duty and does it.  Nobility in our heroneed refreshing, maybe?   It's not there, except in my fond memory, which I apply like a graphic filter over Daniel Craig to help me feel as elegant as I did back then, enjoying the derring-do. 

Today's James Bond is not an update on "The Scarlet Pimpernel" ...okay..but who is he?
Comment welcome!
More to come......

 

There is a lot of BOND online.  Free Video clips and the films and books in every format.  For great links for serious fans - the details, the drinks , the haberdashery and much much more, I I follow Bond James Bond on Facebook "The James Bond Dossier" and I get the newsletter from David Leigh, the "Dossier" author and faithful guardian.  He attends the openings and is quite respected and engaged.