| Author | Message | ||
     Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.74.96.200 |
Sebastian Faulks as Ian Fleming. He wrote it in six weeks, as apparently, is traditional for the Fleming novels. But . . . is it worth reading? Has the golden golly done the business? Anyone care or had a nose? Has he taken it seriously or done a John Banville, who says almost apologetically of writing his Benjamin Black crime novels that he's found he has a dreadful facility for cheap fiction? | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.100 |
The poor bastards* in Borders books are being forced to wear taxedos and hand out Mocktails to the punters. Humanities graduates that are £20K in debt and little hope of graduate jobs. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.24.122.40 |
Six weeks? So he did two drafts, then? | ||
| John_l_probert (John_l_probert) Username: John_l_probert Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 90.203.130.155 |
At least, I hope | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.249.146 |
Srves them right for taking a degree in humanities, Griff - they should've done engineering or something else useful. :-) | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.100 |
Ha!  | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.24.122.40 |
Zed: the man who spends his whole life wishing he didn't have to do anything 'useful' and could engage with the humanities permanently. ;<) | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.74.96.200 |
Nah, he just wants the tuxedo . . . | ||
| Zed (Gary_mc) Username: Gary_mc Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 81.96.249.146 |
Zed: "a walking contradiction, partly truth and partly fiction." :-) | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.43.119.208 |
Faulks must be pissing himself laughing as the cheque comes in.... Dear me, i'm surprised he could type for the tears of mirth running down his face. I jest. maybe he did it because he was fed up being meaningful. Mind you, I did like Birdsong very much. Mark Lynch - Thanks so much for the payment mate! - i couldn't reply to you at the time because i had no internet. Big cheers ol'pal. gcw | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.1.146.147 |
"Thanks so much for the payment mate! - i couldn't reply to you at the time because i had no internet. Big cheers ol'pal. " That was a dig at me wasn't it! I'm no feeling guilty. | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.1.146.147 |
*loosens suddenly tight collar* | ||
| Gcw (Gcw) Username: Gcw Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 217.43.119.208 |
...Oh talking to me now eh?! gcw - ) | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.24.122.40 |
Weirder and weirder... | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.1.146.147 |
Don't worry, Gary. It just makes you more interesting. ;-) | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.24.122.40 |
Kafka discursing with Dali with the occasional interjection from Camus couldn't manage such a trick thataway, old chap. | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 92.1.146.147 |
That's one for Pseuds Corner! | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.145.131.242 |
Six weeks. That number will forever be etched in my mind. | ||
| Gary Fry (Gary_fry) Username: Gary_fry Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.24.122.40 |
Shouldn't there be a possessive apostrophe involved somewhere in "pseuds". That's another joke, by the way. | ||
| Griff (Griff) Username: Griff Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 195.93.21.100 |
That would be Pedantses Corner, Dr Fry. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.74.96.200 |
>>Thanks so much for the payment mate! - i couldn't reply to you at the time because i had no internet. Big cheers ol'pal. No,l thank you, GCW. Thanks for the interest-free loan! I figured you hadn't the net, so no worries about silence. Fleming used to knock them out in 6 weeks, Tony, that's why Faulks wrote it so quickly. He does say he spent a good few months pre-plotting it, though . . . | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.145.131.242 |
I've just found out rewriting is quite lovely. It's like growing another brain. Wonderful feeling; like walking round an old house and seeing what was good again, and of course what needs doing, only with people around you, living, and you seeing their actions unfold. Six weeks, though. I feel a self challenge coming on. | ||
| Tony (Tony) Username: Tony Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 86.145.131.242 |
'fed up being meaningful' Sigh. Sounds lovely. | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 212.74.96.200 |
Bond is back, twice. Not only is DEVIL MAY CARE the fastest selling Penguin hardcover ever (44,093 copies in four days), but the one true Bond has a new Paddington story out soon . . . | ||
| Mark_lynch (Mark_lynch) Username: Mark_lynch Registered: 03-2008 Posted From: 89.168.136.51 |
Well, I've read DEVIL MAY CARE now. What to say? It's not Fleming, I suppose. Seb Faulks said that in writing it it was like asking someone who wrote symphonies to compose a three and a half minute pop song. He could be right, because, funa s it was to have a new Bond book out, it did feel a bit like Lord Webber had tried to write a rock'n'roll classic. The problem with this book isn't the prose. It's the plotting and implausability of things. Things happen for no reason. Bond is unconcerned as to why Russia's not been blown up, when for all he knows it has been or is due to be, just as he arrives there. I got the feeling that Faulks, though trying to be true to Fleming, was actually thinking he was writing down and that what he produced in slap-dash fashion would be good enough, because Fleming did the books ina couple of months. Therefore, so could he. Nope. He should've taken as long as it took to get right. This was Fleming's terriotory, and it was wrong to assume you could saunter in as an interloper and go about your business with impunity and then casually saunter back out. Worth a read, from an interest point of view, but only if you overlook the massive plotholes. The real achievement of this book is that it reminds you to go back and look at the original Bonds again. Because when the character drops out of copyright I'd imagine he'll appear in as many spin offs as Shelock Holmes has done. (Oh, and Bond's licence to shag seems to have been revoked in this one as well.) |