James Bond 007 is handsome, tall, drives a fast car, has an unlimited expense account, and always gets the girl. That’s just the actor. The character he portrays also has a licence to kill.
James Bond debuted in Ian Fleming’s novel Casino Royale in 1953. The novel was adapted for television in 1954, featuring Barry Nelson as 007. The first Bond movie, Dr No, was released in 1962, starring Sean Connery. David Niven took the lead in a spoof version of Casino Royale in 1967; it is not recognised as part of the Bond franchise. Since Dr No, the equivalent of half the world's population have seen at least one Bond movie.
Sean Connery starred in seven Bond movies (including the “unofficial” Never Say Never Again in 1983), George Lazenby in one, Roger Moore in seven, and Timothy Dalton in two. Pierce Brosnan was issued his fourth licence to thrill in the 21th Bond movie, Die Another Day. Daniel Craig had his martini shaken, not stirred, in the 22nd Bond movie, a remake of Casino Royale. He will also kiss the girls in the 23rd (officially 22nd) Bond movie, to be called Quantum of Solace. All the 007 actors are over 1,8 metres (6 feet) tall.
In the 22 movies, Bond has 23 vodka martinis, 6 of which he orders himself but two of those he never receives. The rest are prepared and brought to him. Most surprisingly, in his 7 appearances as Bond, Sean Connery utters the phrase “shaken, not stirred” only once, in Goldfinger. In Fleming's novels, Bond drinks gin martinis instead of vodka martinis.
The Bond character was said to have been based on Dr John Dee, the very first British secret agent. Dee, who lived from 1527 to 1608, was an advisor to Queen Elizabeth I. He was a brilliant mathematician, magician, philosopher, alchemist, and astrologer. During his time, England was at war with Spain and fearing spies, Dee designed the 007 code for his correspondence with the Queen. The 2 zeros indicated "for your eyes only", and the 7 was a cabalistic or cryptic number. Dr Dee was not the only secret agent of the time. Seeing Spain amassing a new vast empire in the "New World" (the Americas), Queen Elizabeth secretly sent the pirate-turned-explorer Englishman Francis Drake (1540-1596) west with the added intent to harass the Spanish. It is known that Dr Dee and Drake actually met to discuss strategies.
However, Fleming explained the creation of Bond: "I extracted the Bond plots from my wartime memories, dolled them up, attached a hero, a villain, and a heroine, and there was the book."
Ian Fleming (28 May 1908 - 12 Aug 1964) was attached to the British Naval Intelligence Division during World War II. After the war, Fleming purchased a patch of land in Jamaica and built a bungalow on it, calling it Goldeneye. It was here, in his forties, on 14 July 1952 that after three attempts the first words of the first Bond novel were created: "The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning."
The Bond name was simply borrowed from the author of Birds of the West Indies. The character M was modeled on Admiral John Godfrey, Director of Naval Intelligence Division (NID), to whom in 1939 Fleming was made personal assistant.
In the novels, James Bond and Q actually never meet. Fleming wrote about Major Boothroyd and the Q branch but never mentioned a character called Q.
Author John Gardner took over the writing of Ian Fleming in 1981 with his first novel Licence Renewed. Sixteen years later he reliquished the 007 pen to Raymond Benson who debuted with Zero Minus Ten and ending with his last offering called The Man With the Red Tattoo in 2002. Three years on, Charlie Higson was awarded the challenge to depict the teenager Bond in a 1930s setting in a series of 5 Young Bond books, starting with Silverfin.
In the movies, Bond is told 35 times that he will die. He doesn't, of course. What he does, however, is make love 81 times: in a hotel room (20 times), London flat (2), at her place (15), someone else's place (2), on a train (3), in a barn (2), in a forest (2), in a gypsy tent (2), hospital (3), in a plane (2), in a submarine (1), in a car (1), on a motorised iceberg (1), in, around, under, or by water (25 times). Of the 62 Bond girls, 31 were brunettes, 25 blondes, and 4 redheads. Women moaned "Oh, James!" 16 times.
Minggu, 07 September 2008
Sabtu, 06 September 2008
The Best Novels
According to the Modern Library, the three best novels of all time are (1) Ulysses by James Joyce; (2) The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald, and; (3) Portrait of an Artist as a Young Man by James Joyce.
Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe) is often cited as the founder of the modern English novel. Defoe established principles for the genre that are still followed today. Those rules include a dominant, unifying theme, a strong thesis, and an attempt to depict reality.
Henry Fielding (Tom Jones) was the first writer to call himself a novelist. Though many of his contemporaries considered the form “lowbrow” writing and shied away from the title of novelist, Fielding embraced it.
Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice) is often characterized as the greatest novelist of manners. Her books deal exclusively with the minutiae of upper-class society and landed gentry.
Daniel Defoe (Robinson Crusoe) is often cited as the founder of the modern English novel. Defoe established principles for the genre that are still followed today. Those rules include a dominant, unifying theme, a strong thesis, and an attempt to depict reality.
Henry Fielding (Tom Jones) was the first writer to call himself a novelist. Though many of his contemporaries considered the form “lowbrow” writing and shied away from the title of novelist, Fielding embraced it.
Jane Austen (Pride and Prejudice) is often characterized as the greatest novelist of manners. Her books deal exclusively with the minutiae of upper-class society and landed gentry.
Jumat, 05 September 2008
The History of Novel
The modern concept of the novel (a sustained work of prose fiction in one or more volumes) derives from the ancient Italian, novella, which means 'a work of the imagination grounded in reality'. Among the forerunners to the modern novel were the Satyricon by the Roman writer Petronius (first century A.D.) and The Tale of Genji by Japanese noblewoman Lady Murasaki (eleventh century). However, most scholars consider Don Quixote (1605 and 1615) by Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes (1547–1616) to be the first true novel. The story represents the first extended prose narrative in which characters and events are depicted in a realistic manner. It influenced such works as Madame Bovary (1857) by French novelist Gustave Flaubert (1821–1880), The Idiot (1868) by Russian novelist Fyodor Dostoevsky (1821–1881), and The Adventures of Tom Sawyer (1876) by Mark Twain.
Kamis, 04 September 2008
Chairil Anwar
Indonesian writer who lived wildly and died young, but who had a deep influence on Indonesian postindependence poetry and prose. Chairil was the primary architect of the Indonesian literary revolution in both poetry and prose. He released poetry from the bonds of traditional forms and language, and his idealistic challenge, “I want to live another thousand years” have made him an artistic icon. With his energetic devotion to literature he is regarded as the principal figure of the Angkatan ’45 (generation of 1945) and one of the greatest poets of his country.
Anwar Chairil was born in Medan, East Sumatra, 1922, into a family which had moved to Jakarta. Nothing much is known about his parents. Chairil’s formal education was short. He attended elementary school and the first two years of a Dutch-language middle school in MULO. He began to write as an adolescent, before he moved to Jakarta in 1940, but none of his early poetry have survived. According to the author, he destroyed them. Among his earliest spared poems is “Life” from December 1942: “The bottomless ocean /is always banging,/ banging, as it tests the strength of our dikes.” (...)
In Jakarta he became the pioneering force among young writers and artist, the “Generation of ‘45”. Chairil served on the editorial board of one of the most important literary journals of the period, Siasat (Strategy), which appeared in 1947. Its cultural column, called “Gelanggang” (Forum), attracted a number of young writers belonging to the “Generation of ‘45”. Charil also was active in political and patriotic issues. The politically conscious literary and cultural movement, describing itself as the voice of the Indonesian revolution, identified with European modernism in the search for new literary forms and accents. From this generation emerged among others such writers as Pramoedya Ananta Toer , often called Indonesia’s greatest modern prose-writer, and Mochtar Lubis, a courageous political journalist and novelist.
The most celebrated work of fiction in Dutch by an Indonesian author was the novel Buiten het gareel (1940) by Suwarsih Djojopuspito. Bahasa Indonesia, a language which formally came to exist in 1928, became through Chairil’s writings a vital literary language. The earliest Indonesian novels were published in the 1920s. Pudjangga Baru (The New Writer) literary school, which was established in 1933, influenced greatly the development of literature. It advocated the idea that traditional literary forms had to be replaced by modern means of expression. Its founders and first editors were Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana and Armijn Pané, the brother of Sanusi Pané. Another movement, 45 Group, reflected the ideas of the independence struggle. It has been said that the difference between the Pudjangga Baru generation and that of 1945 was the difference between hope and impetuosity. Chairil Anwar and other its members tried to released the poetry from the bonds of traditional forms and literary language. Other important writers were Idrus, Surwarsih Djojopuspito, Achdiat Karta Mihardja, Toha Mochtar, Mochtar Lubis (imprisoned by the Soekarno regime for four years), Pramoedye Ananta Toer. The first Indonesian dramatist to gain wide recognition was Utuy Tatang Sontani (1820-1979). Poetry in Javanese since independence were dominated by St. Iesmaniasita and Muryalelana (b. 1932). In preindependence fiction in Sundanese the central figure was Mohamad Ambri (1892-1936). Liem King-hoo has been considered the finest Chinese-Indonesian novelist.
Chairil’s poetry is marked by his emotional and sometimes unconventional use of language. His works convey a powerful, vitalistic individualism; they have a strong sexual tension, as in the poem “Lagu Biasa” (1949). Chairil absorbed influences from such Western writers as Rilke, T.S. Eliot, Emily Dickinson, and Dutch writers (H. Marsman and J.J. Slauerhoff). Although he had little formal education, he translated the poems of Rilke, Marsman, and Slauerhoff, and modelled his Indonesian poems on them. His own approach to writing he once described: “In Art, vitality is the chaotic initial state; beauty the cosmic final state.”
Among Charil’s most famous poems is “Aku” (1943), a cry for freedom and life (“Aku mau hidup seribu tahun lagi”). Another poem from this period is “Diponegoro”, the title referring to an early nineteenth-century hero of the Indonesian national struggle: “Better destruction than slavery/Better extermination than oppression. /The hour of death can be an hour of new birth: /To be alive, you have to taste living.”
During his lifetime Charil published only in periodicals, but there are several posthumous books, first of which were Deru Tjampur Debu (1949), Kerikil Tadjam, and Jang Terampas dan Jang Putus (1951). Chairil wrote fewer than seventy poems, some essays and radio addresses, and some fragmentary translations. He died on April 28, 1949, in Jakarta. Due to his influence, the developing Indonesian language attained equality with other languages as a literary medium. Chairil;s complete poetry and prose has been published in English in The Voice of the Night (1992), translated by Burton Raffel. (Quoted from www.kirjasto.sci.fi)
Anwar Chairil was born in Medan, East Sumatra, 1922, into a family which had moved to Jakarta. Nothing much is known about his parents. Chairil’s formal education was short. He attended elementary school and the first two years of a Dutch-language middle school in MULO. He began to write as an adolescent, before he moved to Jakarta in 1940, but none of his early poetry have survived. According to the author, he destroyed them. Among his earliest spared poems is “Life” from December 1942: “The bottomless ocean /is always banging,/ banging, as it tests the strength of our dikes.” (...)
In Jakarta he became the pioneering force among young writers and artist, the “Generation of ‘45”. Chairil served on the editorial board of one of the most important literary journals of the period, Siasat (Strategy), which appeared in 1947. Its cultural column, called “Gelanggang” (Forum), attracted a number of young writers belonging to the “Generation of ‘45”. Charil also was active in political and patriotic issues. The politically conscious literary and cultural movement, describing itself as the voice of the Indonesian revolution, identified with European modernism in the search for new literary forms and accents. From this generation emerged among others such writers as Pramoedya Ananta Toer , often called Indonesia’s greatest modern prose-writer, and Mochtar Lubis, a courageous political journalist and novelist.
The most celebrated work of fiction in Dutch by an Indonesian author was the novel Buiten het gareel (1940) by Suwarsih Djojopuspito. Bahasa Indonesia, a language which formally came to exist in 1928, became through Chairil’s writings a vital literary language. The earliest Indonesian novels were published in the 1920s. Pudjangga Baru (The New Writer) literary school, which was established in 1933, influenced greatly the development of literature. It advocated the idea that traditional literary forms had to be replaced by modern means of expression. Its founders and first editors were Sutan Takdir Alisjahbana and Armijn Pané, the brother of Sanusi Pané. Another movement, 45 Group, reflected the ideas of the independence struggle. It has been said that the difference between the Pudjangga Baru generation and that of 1945 was the difference between hope and impetuosity. Chairil Anwar and other its members tried to released the poetry from the bonds of traditional forms and literary language. Other important writers were Idrus, Surwarsih Djojopuspito, Achdiat Karta Mihardja, Toha Mochtar, Mochtar Lubis (imprisoned by the Soekarno regime for four years), Pramoedye Ananta Toer. The first Indonesian dramatist to gain wide recognition was Utuy Tatang Sontani (1820-1979). Poetry in Javanese since independence were dominated by St. Iesmaniasita and Muryalelana (b. 1932). In preindependence fiction in Sundanese the central figure was Mohamad Ambri (1892-1936). Liem King-hoo has been considered the finest Chinese-Indonesian novelist.
Chairil’s poetry is marked by his emotional and sometimes unconventional use of language. His works convey a powerful, vitalistic individualism; they have a strong sexual tension, as in the poem “Lagu Biasa” (1949). Chairil absorbed influences from such Western writers as Rilke, T.S. Eliot, Emily Dickinson, and Dutch writers (H. Marsman and J.J. Slauerhoff). Although he had little formal education, he translated the poems of Rilke, Marsman, and Slauerhoff, and modelled his Indonesian poems on them. His own approach to writing he once described: “In Art, vitality is the chaotic initial state; beauty the cosmic final state.”
Among Charil’s most famous poems is “Aku” (1943), a cry for freedom and life (“Aku mau hidup seribu tahun lagi”). Another poem from this period is “Diponegoro”, the title referring to an early nineteenth-century hero of the Indonesian national struggle: “Better destruction than slavery/Better extermination than oppression. /The hour of death can be an hour of new birth: /To be alive, you have to taste living.”
During his lifetime Charil published only in periodicals, but there are several posthumous books, first of which were Deru Tjampur Debu (1949), Kerikil Tadjam, and Jang Terampas dan Jang Putus (1951). Chairil wrote fewer than seventy poems, some essays and radio addresses, and some fragmentary translations. He died on April 28, 1949, in Jakarta. Due to his influence, the developing Indonesian language attained equality with other languages as a literary medium. Chairil;s complete poetry and prose has been published in English in The Voice of the Night (1992), translated by Burton Raffel. (Quoted from www.kirjasto.sci.fi)
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