Ian Fleming revealed something about James Bond by spending the holidays with the spy on a special occasion.
Whatever vice or trapping you imagine for the character, chances are all of the above involves excitement.
Its been the appeal of the character from the very beginning when he sprang from authorIan Flemings typewriter.
Yet the literary James Bond, it should be noted, is not the cinematic superhero he inspired.
Flemings original 007 of the page was grittier, often meaner, and frankly more of a snob.
He wanted to put more reality into the fantasy.
That is where the book truly offers a window into Bonds world… and perhaps Flemings as well.
But thats all spur of the moment excitement.
Ultimately, these chapters offer a curious insight into the personal lives of Bond and his employer.
But he still lives the life of a seaman, if regrettably by trees instead of water.
Throw them out, M bellows.
Give em to the schoolchildren.
Everywhere there were mountainous seas, crashing cannon, bellying sails, tattered battle pennants, Bond observed.
All gone, all friends now with one another.
Not a sign of the enemies of today.
In fact, it is Flemings backstory that gives the sequence its other more intriguing contrast.
By the time of the First World War, he was an officer aboard the HMSEuryalus.
Here is a relic of a bygone age.
Merry Christmas, James.
