Fleming Bond: An Icon In Pop Culture

However, behind all the glitz and glam of a world revolving around fine food, attractive women and fast cars, there seems to be nothing more than a bottomless pit of mediocre writing, shallow ideologies and immoral perspectives.
So here I am feeling rather shaken and stirred that Bond has quite literally made the double 0, managing to have scraped up a spot alongside the literary greats as number ninety-seven in Time Magazine’s ‘Top 100 Books Of All Time’. This may not come to a surprise to most of you, as the several books and films make it clear that the popular franchise is an icon in pop culture. But yet, I think we are forgetting that a classic should be more than just petty delight.
Which leaves me asking; where is our appreciation of
Although Fleming allows some of Bond’s conscious to surface, he hastily snatches it away soon after we first catch a glimpse of the sensitive, humane side we were all unware existed. But it seems Fleming dislikes the idea of a man having emotions, as back comes the prejudice ‘hunk’ we all know and ‘love’.
Writing from The Listener, Simon Raven even went as far to dismiss Bond as an "infantile" creation. Seeing as he has the emotional and mental capacity of a teenage boy, this description seems accurate, bearing in mind his ignorant philosophies such as leaving ‘the men’s work to the men’.
Just like Bond’s opinion of women, Casino Royale is ultimately only for “recreation” and thus making it unworthy of its place amongst the long list of literary titles. Not only, does is it glorify immoral behaviour but it lacks creative vision and fails to leave the reader with any ground-breaking principles to leave with. In 1952, writer Italo Calvino stated that “A classic is a book that has never finished saying what it has to say.” But I think it’s time Casino Royale finally stops talking and moves aside to allow literary fiction to have its moment in the