Münevveran - PowerPoint Presentation

Slide1

Münevveran

Deniz

JasonSlide2

It’s

BOND…

James BOND…

James Bond is

the

definition

of

the

alpha

male

:

handsome

,

stylish

and

tough

.

He

is

also

an

elitist

,

imperialist

,

white

,

protestant

,

heterosexual

English

gentleman

.Slide3

007 Essentials

First

published

in 1957

Tatiana

Romanova

Red

Grant &

Rosa

Klebb

Moscow, Istanbul and the Orient Express

1963 - James Bond played by Sean ConnerySlide4

The plot is about a SMERSH plan to assassinate James Bond and disgrace MI6. SMERSH is a fictional death squad of the KGB and the story starts by revealing the villains within this group such as a master chess strategist,

Kronsteen

,  a sinister burly female killer,

Klebb, and a deadly Irish psychopath, called Grant. Since they recognize that Bond’s only real weakness is his desire for women, they plan on ensnaring him with a beautiful woman to create a sex scandal and kill them both. A beautiful Russian clerk called Tatiana Romanova is forced into carrying out the mission of attracting Bond but she does not know what will happen to him or her.

PLOT

1/3Slide5

SMERSH contacts MI6, as Romanova, claiming that she has fallen in love with Bond and wants to defect to the west and will bring a decoder machine and KGB secrets with her. MI6 does not believe her but they want the decoder so they send Bond to meet with her in Istanbul. Bond’s helper in Istanbul is a Turkish agent called Ali

Kerim

. Kerim

and the Bulgarians and Russians are fighting a cold war in Istanbul and there is a bomb attack on Kerim’s office and an attack on a gypsy camp where Kerim has tried to hide Bond. Bond survives and when he returns to his hotel, he finds Romanova waiting for him naked in his bed. As they make love they are secretly filmed by SMERSH.

PLOT

2/3Slide6

Bond and Romanova leave Turkey together on the Orient Express. Kerim travels with them to provide protection but is murdered. A reinforcement agent from MI6 gets on at the next station but it turns out that this agent is the assassin, Grant. He drugs Romanova, holds Bond at gun point and tells 007 that he plans to shoot him through the heart, then kill Romanova and create a sex-murder-suicide scandal about them both involving the secret sex tape and a forged letter.

Bond manages to escape and kills Grant but after delivering Romanova and the decoding machine to MI6 in Paris, he is attacked by

Klebb

who scratches him with a poisoned blade in her shoe. As the story ends, Bond is fighting for his breath, apparently dying.

PLOT

3

/3Slide7

“SMERSH is the official murder organization of the Soviet government. It operates both at home and abroad and, in 1955, it employed a total of 40,000 men and women. SMERSH is a contraction of 'Smiert

spionam

', which means 'Death to Spies!’ It is a name used only among its staff and among Soviet officials. No sane member of the public would dream of allowing the word to pass his lips.”

Part One, The Plan, Chapter 4, The Moguls of Death, pg. 29

It

is

suggested

that SMERSH is a very

aggressive, efficient and

highly classified

organization, and

an organization that

no «

sane

»

person

work

in

or

for

.

Death

is

what

this

organization

deals

in,

especially

death

for

spies

.

During

the

Cold

War

this

means

a lot since a

spy

is a

greater

threat

than

an

invasion

.

Dealing

death

also

shows

this

organization

is

similar

to

Bond’s

00

licence

to

kill

from

MI6, but

unlike

MI6, SMERSH is

shown

to

be

cruel

,

extreme

and

uncivilized

in

its

ways

.Slide8

“The naked man who lay splayed out on his face beside the swimming pool might have been dead.”

Part

One, The Plan, Chapter 1, Roseland, pg. 1

The

man

naked

lying on

the grass is

Red Grant who has betrayed

his country by

going

to work for

the

Soviets

.

This

description

signifies

the

death

of

his

soul

and

foreshadows

his

fate

when

he

tries

to

kill

Bond.

The

image

of

death

also

continues

the

theme

of

the

Bond

spy-action

hero

series

that

those

closest

to

death

and

living

on

the

edge

are

the

most

truly

alive

.Slide9

“The blubbery arms of the soft life had Bond round the neck and they were slowly strangling him. He was a man of war and when, for a long period, there was no war, his spirit went into a decline.In his particular line of business, peace had reigned for nearly a year. And peace was killing him

.

”

Narrator, Part One: The Plan, Chapter 11

James Bond is

the

typical

action

adventure hero. His

very being is connected

to «

living» on the

edge of the

death and

excitement

.

Living

a

simple

life

with

tea

,

toast

and

fancy

jam

is not

the

right

environment

for

a

globe

-

trotting

super

spy

. He

craves

danger

and

ironically

it is

waiting

for

him

right

outside

his

door

because

SMERSH is

watching

his

home

.Slide10

This book has major roles for Tatiana Romanova and Rosa Klebb, so isn’t it unfair to accuse Fleming of sexism?Discussion Question 1/3Slide11

I think that this novel , like most of Fleming’s Bond stories in our more enlightened age, is rather sexist and homophobic. Romanova only exists to demonstrate Bond’s heterosexuality and desirability. Klebb

is described as being repulsive and a lesbian (when she interviews Romanova she attempts to seduce her).

Yet, in

the end it is Klebb, and not Grant, who gets the closest to killing Bond because he doesn’t take her seriously but it could be argued that Fleming doesn’t take women seriously enough either.

Discussion Question 1/3Slide12

Why do you think that Fleming chose Istanbul for most of the action of this book?Discussion Question 2/3Slide13

Fleming appears to associate Istanbul with the danger of both the cold war and the middle east. Most of the Turks and the Bulgarians are described in very unflattering ways and obviously serve as The Other for this upper-class English spy who echoes his author’s anti-Russian ‘reds-under-the-bed- paranoia and xenophobic orientalist attitudes towards the east.

Discussion Question 2/3Slide14

How is this book different to how you perceive James Bond from the films?Discussion Question 3/3Slide15

Bond seems much more invincible in the films - he appears tougher and better equipped on screen than on paper. There is a wonderful scene in the book which describes Bond at home with his motherly house keeper enjoying a quaint English breakfast with tea and an exclusive brand of jam served on expensive china. It’s hard to imagine any of the much tougher on-screen Bonds effectively living with their mum and getting excited about imported jam and exquisite china crockery. I really can’t see Daniel Craig pushing a shopping trolley around Harrods with the posh old ladies.

Discussion Question

3/3Slide16

“Personally I think from Russia, with Love was, in many respects, my best book, but the great thing is that each one of the books seems to have been a favourite with one or other section of the public and none has yet been completely damned

.”

Ian

FlemingBased on the few Bond novels that I’ve read, I agree with Fleming that this is probably his best novel. Although it’s tarnished by his usual elitist xenophobia and sexism and Bond seems a bit

hapless and unexceptional,

I love the way that the book builds up the tension in the opening

chapters. Also, the

glimpse of Bond at home getting bored and listing off all his tasteful designer stuff is hilarious. The setting of the Orient Express is perfect for evoking cold war espionage and old Istanbul with its ancient windy narrow dark streets is suitably

menacing but I would have liked to see more use of different locations (a sniper in

Galata Tower maybe) and a better awareness of the geography of the city. The villains are very colourful,

Kerim is a brilliant side-kick, and you do feel sympathy for him and for Romanova. I would have liked to have seen more gadgets and Bond behaving more heroically. Grant revealing his exact plan to shoot Bond through the

heart ‘in the next tunnel’ (giving Bond an opportunity to escape), rather than actually

just shooting him, is such a cliché, but the cliff-hanger ending was a nice touch, and the book is short enough to read in

an afternoon and still better than the film.

My ReviewSlide17

Münevveran – quotations, essentials and slides

Deniz

-

quotations, introduction and slides

Jason – summary,

discussion, revisions of the quotations

and review

Who did what?