Skip to main content

Interview with Faulks. Sebastian Faulks.

Entertainment Weekly grills Sebastian Faulks on being the new Bond author, his new Bond book, Devil May Care, and David Craig's take on the franchise:
Oh, he was certainly a lot tougher than Roger Moore, who was very soft. You felt that if you punched Roger Moore in the stomach it would be like punching a bag of marshmallows. And Fleming does stress the cruelty of Bond, particularly in the early novels. I think that was one of the things that made the creation appealing and rather shocking when it first came out. But if you actually analyze the way that Bond behaves, both towards his enemies, and towards women, it isn’t actually a sadistic or unnecessarily cruel. He only kills in self-defense, or if absolutely necessary for his mission. Although he is an incurable womanzier, he doesn’t actually treat the women badly. In fact, he frequently falls in love with them and is jilted by them sometimes.
I totally agree. Roger Moore was such a total wimp, I'm perplexed as to why he survived being Bond for seven films.

George Lazenby is the best Bond evah!!!11

Comments

  1. no he's not ted. no he's not. *shakes head in sadness*

    ReplyDelete
  2. Oh ok. Daniel Craig is numero uno. George Lazenby comes next.

    ReplyDelete
  3. George Lazenby? Ya, he was so good they retired him after one Bond flick so he didn't top himself again.

    Timothy Dalton also had just one Bond flick.

    Actually, IMHO, the best Bond was David Niven who apparently had been Ian Fleming's preference for the part of James Bond, but the production company chose Sean Connery. (Source: Wikipedia: David Niven) And Niven was in a Bond flick, the satire Casino Royale (1967 version).

    ReplyDelete
  4. Actually, response to the movie was good enough, Lazenby was scheduled to shoot Diamonds Are Forever (the movie after On Her Majesty's Secret Service) when his agent suggested to him that the Bond franchise was going nowhere. Unfortunately he listened! Gah!

    David Niven? Hah! Between him, Peter Sellers, Woody Allen and Ursula Andress as James Bond in that version of Casino Royale, I'd take Ursula Andress anytime!

    btw, has anyone seen the 1954 adaptation? Peter Lorre has a great role as Le Chiffre! That smarmy bastard in the 2006 version doesn't even come close!

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Lesson: Commemorative Covers are Lame.

Well, I got the first day cover that commemorates the 35th anniversary of the establishment diplomatic relations between China and Malaysia that I mentioned a couple of posts ago. Except that it's not a first day cover, it's a commemorative cover, which is a slightly different beast. I guess I should read the news article properly next time! The difference between the two is that first day covers are specially-designed envelopes stuck on with specially-designed stamps, and marked with a specially-designed postmark. A commemorative cover is a specially-designed envelope... and that's it. All in all, it's an unremarkable affair, especially if you're used to well-designed first day covers (not that Malaysian first day covers are well-designed... but I digress). Oh sure, a commemorative cover has a stamp printed right on to it but that's just like an overglorified aerogramme. Lame. On the whole, what a disappointment. I haven't been collecting first day cover

HOWTO: Get Rid of Silverfish

The bane of every book collecting person: the Silverfish. DUN DUN DUNNNNN!!! How to get rid of them? If one book has been infected, place it inside an air-tight plastic bag along with some silica gel desiccant. The silica gel is important to get rid of moisture, because you will now place the sealed plastic bag with the book in it inside the freezer. Leave it in there for a couple of days so that those bugs catch their death of cold. If you're feeling particularly paranoid, (like I usually am) feel free to leave the plastic bag in there for a week. If they're not dead, then you might likely have an infestation of zombie silverfish , which is out of the scope of this blogpost. But what if a whole colony of silverfish decided to invade your whole bookcase? Then you have to make sure you're ready for war. Place a generous amount of silica gel (or if you can find it, diatomaceous earth) behind your books at the back of the shelves so that moisture levels remain low.

An Ipoh Ghost Story.

When I was growing up in Ipoh in the 90s, the only good bookshops around were Mubaruk's, which specialised in textbooks (and still does), and Novelhut, the second-hand bookstore that used to be in Yik Foong (and maybe still is there, but I haven't checked in years since I prefer going to their Ipoh Parade outlet when I'm in town). There was also a pretty good bookstore in the Parkson Grand in Ipoh Parade which could have been a Berita outlet, but I don't remember. This was in the days before they expanded Ipoh Parade into what it is today. (And temporarily causing the Convent school next door to consider moving.) I recall this because I was thinking of when exactly I started reading "serious" fiction, trying to pinpoint the years when I moved from young adult/fantasy/sci-fi books into non-genre fiction. I still can't remember, but it brought back memories of a book I bought from a short-lived bookshop in Old Town. Mum had brought me there, because she must