Books and Movies

I mentioned in an earlier post that after having reread Albert Camus' The Stranger, I moved on to rereading H.G.Wells' The Invisible Man.

This must have been a "reread cycle". Following The Invisible Man, I took up Franz Kafka's The Castle. It's been years since I read - or more accurately - attempted to read The Castle and I was finally able to finish it. Years ago, I looked at the character, K as being a recreation of the character Joseph K from The Trial, but I no longer interpret him in that manner. It's obvious that in The Trial, Joseph K is in no way responsible for the persecution he faces. Looking at the main character in The Castle, I see a man who is a liar who uses people, and as someone who has no right to enter the castle, and as someone who should have left the village immediately after having spent his first night there.

While reading The Castle, I came upon an online discussion of the origins of the theme music used in the James Bond films. That led me to search for the earliest James Bond films online. I've found the first five films at ok.ru - Dr, No - From Russia With Love - Goldfinger - Thunderball  and You Only Live Twice. Unfortunately, the last one is dubbed into Russian and I haven't found an English version available.

Watching these old films led me to search for ebooks of the James Bond novels. These books are in the public domain in Canada and can be found at fadedpage.com. I decided to read all 15 in the series. I've finished the first, Casino Royale and have started on the second, Live and Let Die.

I haven't seen the 2006 version of Casino Royale and the 1967 film - which I saw in '67 - doesn't follow the novel in anyway. Prior to reading the book a day or so ago, the only thing I knew of the story was the famous "open seat - carpet beater" scene.

Live and Let Die has been full of surprises for me. I've been most surprised by the - how should I say it? - less than politically correct language in the book. I can't even write the title of Chapter Five  here.

Another of the more surprising elements of the James Bond novels, is Fleming's description of Bond's appearance as being similar to that of Hoagy Carmichael. Not exactly Sean Connery.