Goldfinger

It was going to be fun playing hare and hounds across Europe. The sun was shining out of a clear sky. Bond felt a moment's sharp thrill down his spine. He smiled to himself, a hard, cold, cruel smile. Goldfinger, he thought, for the first time in your life you're in trouble - bad trouble.

Bond is drinking bourbon in the Miami airport and philosophizing about life and death. He has just neatly taken care of heroin distribution ring. You may think of Bond as a cold, hard killer – but actually in the books he is very philosophical and is always thinking about life, death, and his place in the world.

Bond's flight is delayed and he's approached by a rich American named Du Pont, a small character from Casino Royale. This character is having a spot of trouble and Bond agrees to help him. It appears Du Pont, a millionaire, is being cheated at cards by a strange fellow named Auric Goldfinger. Du Pont can't figure out how Goldfinger is cheating him and tells Bond he'll give him $10,000 for solving the mystery. Bond, bored with his 'rough work' and in need of a break, agrees.

Goldfinger is, of course, a cheat. And Bond busts his game wide open and obtains proof, $10,000, and a gorgeous young woman named Jill Masterton who has been helping Goldfinger fleece people. Unfortunately for Bond, Goldfinger is involved in much more serious criminal activity than cheating at cards. And he loves revenge almost as much as he loves gold.
…

This book is a fascinating Bond book on many levels.
…

OFFENSIVE
Let's get the offensiveness out of the way first. This book is very offensive. It is derogatory towards the following: Mexicans, Jews, blacks, Koreans, lesbians, people with a cleft palate, gay men, feminists, Americans who live in the South... I think that's it.

The really offensive stuff is poured on Koreans and lesbians. Fleming just does not stop with his comments about these two groups. The book lets us know that:

Koreans have no respect for human life.

[Retired policemen] have a respect for human life. That is no good if I wish to stay alive. The Koreans have no such feelings. That is why the Japanese employed them as guards for their prison camps during the war. They are the cruelest, most ruthless people in the world.

Koreans enjoy eating cats.

“I am tired of seeing this animal around. You may have it for dinner.” The Korean's eyes gleamed.

Koreans enjoy hurting/raping/killing white women.

“The women are not much to look at, but they are white and that is all the Koreans ask – to submit the white race to the grossest indignities. There are sometimes accidents...”

Koreans are less than human.

...Bond intended to stay alive on his own terms. Those terms included putting Oddjob and any other Korean firmly in his place, which, in Bond's estimation, was rather lower than apes in the mammalian hierarchy.

You can find tons more – those are just the highlights.

Fleming also exhibits some rather bizarre ideas about lesbians and homosexuality in general. For instance, he blames women's lib for homosexuality in general. He's also confused about what a “lesbian” really is. Allow me to illustrate:

Bond came to the conclusion that [she] was one of those girls whose hormones had got mixed up. He knew the type well and thought they and their male counterparts were a direct consequence of giving votes to women and 'sex equality'. As a result of fifty years of emancipation, feminine qualities were dying out or being transferred to the males. Pansies of both sexes were everywhere, not yet completely homosexual, but confused, not knowing what they were. The result was a herd of unhappy sexual misfits – barren and full of frustrations, the women wanting to dominate and the men to be nannied. He was sorry for them, but he had no time for them.

Wow. I honestly was laughing so hard during this passage I thought I was going to choke. You could say, “Carmen, how could you possibly be laughing at this? You are a strong feminist.” Well, I'll tell you why: it's just so absurd. It's just so ridiculous that anyone ever thought this way that it cracks me up. Oh, gosh. Poor, confused Ian Fleming, you still had so much to learn about life.

And this is why I say Fleming doesn't understand what the word “lesbian” means:  One of the allegedly lesbian characters ends up in bed with James Bond. When he says, They told me you only liked women. She said, “I never met a man before. Get that!??? Lesbians are only lesbians because they haven't met a “real man” who can put it down in bed for them. I couldn't help laughing hysterically at this thought, either. I have quite a few lesbian friends and it cracks me up that Ian Fleming really believes this. Too pathetic.

But wait – it gets worse. And this part I'm NOT laughing at, at all. The part where Fleming tells us that lesbians are created when girls or teenagers are raped. He believes being a lesbian is a defense mechanism in response to rape at a young age. Pussy Galore admits to Bond that the reason she's been a lesbian for over a decade is because she's from the South and her uncle raped her when she was 12 and it put her off men. But of course, now that she's met Bond, she's no longer a lesbian! And will now immediately be ready to jump into a sexual relationship with Bond with no problems. Yeah, that's realistic. *rolls eyes* I never laugh about rape and am unable to find any humor in this misconception of Fleming's.

Okay, let's get off the topic of “James Bond books are very offensive” and instead get to the fun!
…

VILLAIN
Auric Goldfinger is a rather underdeveloped character. Bond is convinced that he is an evil criminal because he is a short and ugly man. Bond believes he can psychoanalyze every villain. I never agree with him, actually.

The only thing Goldfinger is really good for is making villain speeches. He is great at this. There are two very notable ones (although he gives about 6 or 7 villain speeches throughout the course of the novel). One is on his love for gold. It's creepy and you really see how gold is everything to him and how obsessed with it he is. The other notable villain speech is when he's lecturing Bond about how there have been no great criminals (until now!) and how he, Goldfinger, is the best and most original of all criminals, blah blah blah, you know how these criminal egomaniacs can never shut up about themselves. Bond seems to sit patiently and listen to every single speech, and I feel sorry for that long-suffering man. If I was with Goldfinger I would tell him to put a sock in it already. Jeez Louise, the man never shuts up. It's very fitting to the book, though, and really adds to the “James Bond-ness” of the whole thing.

I don't believe anything about Goldfinger's working for SMERSH. I just don't believe it. With his amazing love of gold and his insatiable greed, it's very strange to me that he's donating incredible amounts of money to the evil Russian organization. It doesn't make any sense. Bond figures he's after an Order of Lenin, but I'm just not buying it. It makes no sense and doesn't fit in with his motives and personality at all. I was scratching my head at this one. Especially since he was a refugee from Riga, a Balt who was fleeing the Russians as they swallowed his country up. It makes zero sense.

Oddjob is another villain in this book that I believe deserves a mention. This huge Korean man is built like a tank. Ian Fleming also gives him a cleft palate, which serves to further enslave him to Goldfinger, who is the only man who can understand what he's saying. He enjoys eating cats. He smells like a zoo. He is famous, of course, especially for his bowler hat which is lined with metal and he throws it at people to kill them. He kills Tilly Masterton this way in the book, breaking her neck. But, Oddjob has no background or personality. We get no indication that he has any intelligence higher than a dog – (this is exactly how Bond describes him, by the way.) Bond doesn't ever acknowledge Oddjob as a human, instead comparing him to various animals throughout the book and treating him as such.

JAMES BOND IS SHOWS MERCY AND GIVES HIS PROTECTION
One thing I really enjoyed about this book is how merciful Bond is. First of all, in the opening pages, Bond shows mercy on one of the men in the heroin ring. He could have easily killed this man or let him been arrested. Instead, he calls the man on the phone, disguises his voice, and warns him to quit the ring and quit dealing in heroin. He feels the man is basically a good man who just got caught up in something evil. My heart always melts when Bond is kind like this. It's not very frequent, especially towards a man.

The other shows of mercy and protection pertain to attractive young women. Bond shocked and amazed me with his treatment of Jill Masterton. Bond is bringing down Goldfinger for cheating at cards in the first part of the book. Now, from the minute Bond enters the room where Jill is helping Goldfinger cheat people, she's already dead. There's no way Goldfinger would forgive any kind of betrayal or even the fact that Bond is emasculating him in front of a woman (who's not even sleeping with him, by the way, only letting people think that she is. I was very worried about her. She is worried herself! She begs Bond not to expose Goldfinger.

Suddenly she reached out and put a hand on his sleeve. There was a Claddagh ring on her middle finger – two gold hands clasped around a gold heart. There were tears in her voice. “Must you? Can't you leave him alone? I don't know what he'll do to me. Please.” She hesitated. She was blushing furiously. “And I like you. It's a long time since I've seen someone like you. Couldn't you just stay here for a little more?” She looked down at the ground. “If only you'd leave him alone I'd do -” the words came out in a rush - “I'd do anything.”
Bond smiled.

No wonder men like these books so much.

(Well, now I know where Frank Miller got his inspirations for females in distress begging for mercy and offering their bodies up as payment for protection. o.O I seriously was plunged right back into SIN CITY and Miller's insane masturbatory fantasies.)

And I'm thinking, “Bond, you bastard.” And then he turns her down and says he must do the job – he's getting paid, and also Goldfinger is a horrible person who needs to be punished. And now I'm convinced that Bond is a real bastard because anyone could see that the woman is fried. “Have you no mercy, Bond?” I asked. I thought he was going to leave her to the wolves, I honestly did. Then he surprises me and melts my heart by taking Jill “as his hostage” and getting her out of Goldfinger's clutches. I was cheering. :)

He does even more – not only is she safe, far away from Goldfinger's clutches  she stupidly decides to go back to his employ and gets herself killed when Goldfinger paints her with gold paint, but Bond gives her the $10,000 instead of keeping it for himself. He's worried about her and he really doesn't want her to go back to her job with Goldfinger. This way, she has the funds and means to escape and start a new life for herself.

Some people would, “Say 'Oh, this just is Bond making her into a whore.'” I completely disagree. Yes, the payment happens after they just spent 24 hours together in bed, but that's not why she did it, and it's certainly not why Bond is paying her. He's really worried about her safety. There's nothing 'dirty' or wrong in what happens between Jill and Bond and I was very happy and satisfied with the way he treated her. He went above and beyond his call of duty, I feel (in more ways than one, see WOMEN). I thought this whole relationship was charming and sweet. That's two mercies, plus the man one.

Another mercy - Bond trying valiantly to save Tilly, even though she's fighting him every step of the way, and putting his own life in danger for her.

So in the end that's four mercies. I don't count  when Bond shields Pussy Galore with his body as the plane is going down in the final pages. I expect that of him and it's his responsibility. Even though this was a good thing he did in the book, I don't count it as “Bond showing mercy.”

So our grand total is 4. Pretty good, Mr. Bond.

WOMEN
Ah, yes. The women. Definitely one of the highlights of any James Bond books. Besides his complete obsession with breasts, which he always goes on and one about, I have to say I always really enjoy seeing what woman is going to enter the picture and how she and Bond will interact. Yes, I don't mind the sex at all, but his paragraph-long descriptions of a woman's breasts get a little tiring. (What can I say? I'm a heterosexual woman and this does nothing for me.)

Now, a notable difference between the book Bond and the film Bond is that the book Bond is less of a womanizer. Now, don't get me wrong, he's still a womanizer (M is always on his case about it), but he usually only has sex with one woman per novel, unlike in the films where the sky's the limit.

This is a rare instance of him sleeping with more than one woman in a single novel. He has sex with two different women in this book.

There are three women/love interests in the novel.

1.) Jill Masterton. Bond saves Jill from Goldfinger's clutches and takes her away from his sphere of influence. She has the palest blonde hair and deep blue eyes. She is 5'10” and has a swimmer's body. When Bond takes her away (“as a hostage”, LOL) they spend 24 hours on a train in which they have sex 5 times. Wow. That's pretty impressive, Bond. ;) And it's at her insistence: too.

It was as if the girl was starved of physical love. She had woken him twice more in the night with soft demanding caresses, saying nothing, just reaching for his hard, lean body. The next day she had twice pulled down the roller blinds to shut out the hard light and had taken him by the hand and said, “Love me, James” as if she were a child asking for a sweet.

However, we never really get to know her or know much about her. But I was more or less happy with this relationship as Bond is very good to her and he treats her right and does so much for her, I was pleased with his behavior.

2.) Tilly Soames real name: Tilly Masterton. Jill's sister. Tilly is an enigma to Bond. Their relationship really starts long before they meet face to face, when Tilly passes James on the road in her convertible and he builds up in elaborate fantasy in his head about how much he'd like to spend the week with her exploring France. LOL No, but seriously, the fantasy is really sweet and cute and was also winning Bond points from me. It wasn't at all offensive and I was actually charmed by him when he's doing this.

When they meet, however, things don't go exactly as Bond had hoped. For one thing, he introduces himself to her by deliberately backing his car into her's and rendering it undrivable. We get more of this Frank-Miller-type writing and dialogue. Observe his thoughts:

Sorry, sweetheart. I've got to mess you up. I'll be as gentle as I can. Hold tight.

He then proceeds to back into her car. Then he says, “If you touch me there again you'll have to marry me.” That earns him a hard slap across the face. Bond thinks, If only pretty girls were always angry they would be beautiful.

I'm laughing at all of this, of course. Not only because I find Bond's antics amusing, but because the joke's on him. Tilly Masterton is a lesbian! She never goes to bed with Bond for the whole book and it drives him nuts. And he doesn't even figure out that she's a lesbian until 63 pages later. 63 PAGES!!!! Come on. A little slow on the uptake there, aren't we, James? Jeez. It was getting very obvious. Goldfinger even basically tells James that Tilly bats for the other team, and James STILL doesn't understand what's going on. It's hilarious. At least, I found it hilarious.

She later has a huge crush on Pussy Galore and it gets her killed. She gets a hat in the neck from Oddjob. Bond was trying his best to save her, but she was running to Pussy and it got her killed. Bond blames himself, as usual.

Again, not much character development or personality with her. She has black hair and deep blue eyes. She's an ice skater. Here's another little exchange with Bond to give you an idea of how things are between them:

Suddenly her eyes flared. “Only don't ever touch me or I shall kill you.”
There came a click of Bond's bedroom door. Bond looked mildly down at Tilly. “The challenge is attractive. But don't worry. I won't take it up.” He turned and strolled out of the room.

LOL It was fun to see these two spar. :)

3.) Last, but certainly not least, we have Miss Pussy Galore. She is a lesbian from Harlem who runs a gang of lesbian cat burglars/acrobats called The Cement Mixers. She has black hair and striking violet eyes.  However, as I've said before, she ends up in bed with James. She was only lesbian because a.) she'd never met a “real man” before, and b.) she was raped by her uncle when she was 12. Because she's from the South. See also OFFENSIVE.

Sadly, she is the most underdeveloped woman in the whole book. We barely get to know her. I was disappointed.

In summary on women, this is why I like the books where James Bond is with only one woman (which is the norm). This way, we get to actually know and (hopefully) like the female character and we get to really see a development of a relationship between her and Bond. Sometimes it's serious, sometimes it's just for fun, but either way, I like getting a more fleshed-out woman character in the book. I felt like this book was a rip-off. Three women but no chance to get to know them as people and see how they would interact with Bond in a relationship. And this is the funnest part for me. So I was disappointed.

HUMOR
As my final point, I must add that there is a hilarious scene where James Bond thinks he has died and believes he's going to/in heaven. It's a hoot and a half. Especially when he tries to figure out how he's going to introduce all his girlfriends to one another. I am adding a whole extra star just for this scene. It was the only time in this book when I felt I was laughing WITH Fleming instead of AT Fleming. He doesn't usually add humor to his books and I appreciated this little scene.

SUMMARY – All in all, this book was exciting, fast-paced, riveting, and a fun adventure. There were a few boring parts – for instance, Fleming's obsessed with cards and there were a few pages of boring card game descriptions. Also, as a warning, there are 18 (EIGHTEEN!!!!) pages of golf. Straight golf. Bond vs. Goldfinger. Honestly, I was sort of nodding off at this part. Fleming really does try to keep it interesting and I have to say it was not nearly as bad as it could have been, but I mean... come on. 18 pages of golf?! Have mercy on your poor readers. Another drawback to the book is how offensive it is. No holds barred. Especially the Korean stuff. There's almost no one left unoffended – the only people who are treated as people by Fleming are heterosexual white males who are NOT Jewish and preferably are British. If you can laugh at/brush off the homophobia, racism, and misogyny in the book – then it is a fun, gripping ride. If you can't – avoid this like the plague.

MOVIE UPDATE IN COMMENTS DUE TO LACK OF SPACE #11

It's been 50 years since I first read this novel. I recently stumbled upon a leather-bound set of all the James Bond books, and am slowly working my way through them again. Re-reading Ian Fleming reminded me of his consummate skill as a wordsmith and storyteller. Sure, some specifics are off (you cannot see the Gulf from the Miami Airport) but in general, Fleming's writing crackles with details and color. Read these books for entertainment. And read them to remember a simpler time, when Don Draper and James Bond were truly exotic spirits.

I can’t tell you how fucking disgusting this book is. I was expecting some unfortunate boys will be boys type misogyny, but virtually every page of this book is fully utilized to take shots at various minorities, remarking on the “slow work ethic of colored help”, or describing Koreans as cruel and dangerous savages somehow lacking the motor skills to pour wine, or decrying the election of women politicians which somehow caused a sexual confusion that leads to homosexuality. Like in the unfortunate case of Tilly Masterson, who runs to her lesbian crush Pussy Galore for protection instead of to Bond causing her to be killed. Bond reacts “Poor little bitch, she didn’t think much of men.”

The few moments of intriguing espionage don’t do a thing to settle the stomach from the constant bigotry and the cringebarrassment of the male power fantasy of the embodiment of western patriarchy. Ian Fleming was a fucking loser and I’m very glad he has passed.

This was a very entertaining Bond tale. Fleming is a good writer, stylistically, and the fact he made a very long chapter about a golf game entertaining shows to me that he was a master of this type of fiction.

As per Fleming's other work, there is some racism in the book, and then some homophobia towards lesbians in particular. I didn't think any of it was too egregious, but YMMV.

Definitely thought Pussy Galore would be a bigger part of the book, though. :(

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Goldfinger - Ian Fleming

My project to read all the original Fleming Bonds continues!

Published in 1959 Goldfinger is the seventh book in the original James Bond series. Yet again (as with Live and Let Die and Dr. No) we see Bond having to sort out an American problem; plus he offends most readers along the way, for example:

* Bond bemoans "giving the votes to women"
* Bond is such a man that lesbian Pussy Galore falls for him (the “cause” of lesbianism being child abuse or woman winning the right to vote)
* Koreans are sub-humans
* Avoid all homosexuals and Mexicans, and
* People who suffer with cleft palates are generally unintelligible

There are lots more examples of sexist, misogynistic, homophobic and racist passages, these are just the highlights (or lowlights). But like I’ve said in previous reviews that these books should be set into context of the time in which Fleming wrote them. I tended to mentally skip over them allowing me to enjoy Goldfinger as a thrilling and enjoyable adventure.

The book is almost like three short stories which Fleming glued together. The first "Happenstance", concerns Goldfinger cheating at cards, next we have "Coincidence", containing the extended golf match (more of which below) and finally "Enemy Action", the raid on Fort Knox. While there are common threads running through the whole narrative it is at times a little wordy and sprawling. Towards the end of the book the suspense starts to dip and the story struggles a little as Bond seems to be more of an observer as opposed to an instigator or driver of the action.

The novel opens with Bond musing over life, death and how he fits into the world. The literary Bond is much more philosophical than the cinema version and unlike From Russia With Love the focus of Goldfinger is on Bond himself. This allows the reader to gain insights into the self-doubts which plague Bond showing him to be a fallible human and not at all a superhero.

In Goldfinger we also see more humour than normal, especially the scene where Bond believes that he’s dead and worries about how all his girlfriends are going to react when he’s with them all in heaven.

Also at the start of the book, somewhat unusually, Bond shows mercy on a man who has become embroiled in a drug ring. He believes that he’s a good person who got caught up with the criminal underworld. He also takes pity on Jill Masterton too as he tries to help her escape from Goldfinger and gives her $10,000 to help her start afresh. These displays of humanity are uncharacteristic and it helps to flesh Bond out as a character.

Speaking of characters, I felt that Auric Goldfinger could have could have been developed a little more. Sure he gives good villain speeches but why is he giving gold to the Russians, after all he was trying to flee from them earlier in his life? Strange? Also, apart from Bond comparing Oddjob to a variety of animals we know almost nothing about his henchmans backstory. And finally, Pussy Galore is the most underdeveloped woman in the entire novel. We scarcely get to know her at all.

There was a heck of a lot of cards in previous books, such as Casino Royale and in Goldfinger this is swapped with golf. And believe me there are a lot of pages about golf. While Fleming tries to keep it interesting it’s still golf. So if you like the sport then you’ll likely love this part, if you don’t then make sure you drink a couple of espressos to prevent you from nodding off.

It’s interesting to see how much the 1965 film of the same name mirrors the book. In fact there are a lot of similarities: the cheating at cards, the round of golf and the laser /circular saw threat, Pussy Galore and her flying lesbians, Oddjob and his lethal hat and the raid on Fort Knox. Also what I’ve also noticed by this point in the original series is that while Bond likes to bed ladies, he’s not as prolific as he is in the movies. He typically sleeps with one or two women in the books whereas in the films it’s there is no limit.

So, in summary Goldfinger is a worthy addition to the Bond series and helps to develop Bond further putting him in real danger against one of the all-time classic scoundrels.

Classic spy novel that was slightly disappointing, especially when compared with the more exciting film. James Bond is on the trail of the enigmatic Auric Goldfinger, a businessman obsessed with gold, who will stop at nothing to accumulate it. This pursuit leads him across France and finally to an audacious robbery attempt in the US.

This book seems very dated now, not only for the racist and sexist attitudes and the extreme version of masculinity personified by our hero, but also for the slowly unfurling plot. The build up to the main action is very laboured and Goldfinger’s unwillingness to dispose of Bond when he is in his power becomes unconvincing. Surely a villain so ruthless in pursuit of his ends would not be so whimsical about disposing of an obvious enemy?

Fleming finally provides the reader with some exciting action scenes towards the end and these are gripping and well written. I have fond memories of some of the Bond novels I read in my youth, but this is one of the weaker ones and hasn’t aged too well.

“The glamour isn’t worth the price”—Ales Kot

Well, I think I am just about done reading Ian Fleming’s stories of Agent oo7, James Bond, thank you very much. This is in spite of my being a completist; I set out to read the series and read them all I usually would do. But I think I sort of have the pattern here: Bond meets a villain, meets a “girl” and defeats the villain. You do what you can to ignore the (casual?) racism and misogyny in exchange for the glamour, and well, the best of James.

This one begins with Bond on vaca meeting a man who is being cheated at Canasta by Goldfinger; Bond exposes him, but then hangs out with him, having The Best Dinner of His Life at the Best Restaurant in the World. He plays golf with Goldfinger at the Best Golf Course in the World, where Bond finds Goldfinger also cheats at golf. They drive the Best Cars in the World, and drink the Best Whiskey. We, who want to Be Bond, take notes on all the specifically-named product placements. Sales soar.

Auric Goldfinger is the richest man in Great Britain, and he is obsessed with gold, he can’t get enough of it. One of Goldfinger’s assistants is Pussy Galore, who leads a band of mercenary lesbians. Auric (which also means gold; he’s a walking redundancy or tautology) finds Bond is Not on His Side, forces Bond to work for him in his goal to knock off Fort Knox (!). This plan does not work, but he does eventually “get the girl” and do the right thing in preventing AG from killing the 60K people he felt were expendable toward his goal. Thus proving that imperialist Bond is not as bad as Goldfinger. Goldfinger is really interested in winning, in accumulating, in money. He doesn’t really have what Bond has, which is lust for beautiful women. Goldfinger replaces the deadly sin Lust with Greed.

We know Bond is also a capitalist, and imperialist; he loves everything Goldfinger loves, the Best of Everything. He wants the Finer Things of Life, and we as readers are seduced as Bond is seduced (I admit I have noted some brands of alcohol Bond orders! I would love to own just one of his cars, even for a day!). We want those things, too. But the difference between Bond/us and Goldfinger is that we won’t do ANYTHING to get those finer things. We won’t allow 60K people to die so we can be the Richest Man in the World. He literally paints his women (normally prostitutes) gold before sex, which is a thing you know from book and film covers. Cool? Glamorous? Uh, no, painting skin all gold is not good for you, as it turns out. It can kill you. As Kot makes clear, “glamour is not worth the price you pay.” [Fleming, I am told, wanted the censors to allow calling Goldfinger Goldprick! They allowed Pussy Galore, though American publishers debated this, finally caving to Fleming.

Things I liked:

*Bond is a bit more complex in this book than any of the previous 6 Bond novels by Fleming:

“James Bond, with two double bourbons inside him, sat in the final departure lounge of Miami Airport and thought about life and death.”

*The premise is almost always ludicrous, with cartoon characters for female leads and villains, and crazy fifties (1959) pulp thriller plots, and this is still the fun part. Bond saves the world and America’s Gold and gets the Girl (why am I typing with all these caps?!) (more on the problem with the girl-getting part, later).

*I like what critique there is here of capitalism and greed, even implicated as Bond is in the process (until the end). I mean, Fleming is not critical at all of getting rich, but he ramps it up to ridiculous level in Goldfinger.

Things I didn’t like:

*Bond (and, I learn Fleming) goes out of his way to make a point about lesbians, in what is now a tired fashion: He assumes that Pussy Galore, a lesbian, and Tilly Masterson, a lesbian, just need the Right Man to “turn” them. A product of the time? Sure, but Bond has sex with both Tilly and Pussy, “changing their minds.” Fleming feels that lesbians are a product of women’s suffrage, which creates confusion about sexual identity:

“Bond came to the conclusion that Tilly Masterton was one of those girls whose hormones had got mixed up. He knew the type well and thought they and their male counterparts were a direct consequence of giving votes to women and 'sex equality.' As a result of fifty years of emancipation, feminine qualities were dying out or being transferred to the males. Pansies of both sexes were everywhere, not yet completely homosexual, but confused, not knowing what they were. The result was a herd of unhappy sexual misfits--barren and full of frustrations, the women wanting to dominate and the men to be nannied. He was sorry for them, but he had no time for them.”

Until he does:

“Bond felt the sexual challenge all beautiful Lesbians have for men.”

And so Bond “stoops” to have a brief (and we are told intense) “affair” (for one night) with Tilly. It’s a sign of righteous pity; Bond can heal a lost lesbian soul with his. . . body. And according to Fleming, he does!

Later, (lesbian gang leader) Pussy Galore (one of several offensive names for women Fleming invents, including Honeychile Rider, Octopussy, Holly Goodhead) comes on the scene and tells Bond: “You can turn off the charm; I’m immune.” But apparently she’s not. ( Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery features a character named Alotta Fagina, making fun of Fleming. But are these names funny, or misogynistic? I thought funny, as a clueless teenager; but do we have many such dismissive names for men in Fleming? I call this misogyny.

*I continue to find it fascinating, Fleming’s obsession with torturing Bond; in this one, Goldfinger’s assistant, Oddjob, is the guy for the job. Okay, a little sadistic cruelty, sure, why not, it’s an adventure story. But in every book?!

*Bond’s racism. In this one it is all about the “savage” Koreans, who are not really fully human.

*All the villains are physical “freaks;” Dr. No had prosthetic hands, after amputation, and this detail is to add to the fact that trans-humans are less than “normal,” they are monsters. Goldfinger here is very large, bald, a “freak.”

*It is interesting that Goldfinger is British, rather than American, because Bond hates the crude tasteless American style, Viva Las Vegas, but Goldfinger embodies the rich American greed here. But! Goldfinger isn’t really a “true” British citizen; he’s naturalized, actually Baltic, so he fails to meet the standard for the one-drop rule for white British superiority.

Okay, so I am done with Bond, and my juvenile fascination with him (oh, maybe for fun I’ll still rewatch some of the movies! This movie in particular I once loved, and will watch again soon, maybe. But the things that at one time for me made Bond attractive--the sex, the sadism, the vulgarity of money for its own sake—are not quite so fun anymore.