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Ian Fleming |  |
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| Dr No and Thunderball | ||
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Ian Fleming | |
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| Dr No and Thunderball | ||
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Dr No first published by Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1958. Pan paperback published 1960.
Thunderball first published by Jonathan Cape Ltd, 1961. Pan paperback published 1963.
Although I was aware of these naturist snippets in the Bond books, I held off their inclusion for a long time. This was partly because they are merely incidents, but mainly because there seemed to be rather more significant tales to be celebrated. However, my desire that Yarns Without Threads should offer as comprehensive coverage as possible has driven me to give Fleming the same courtesy extended to the many other authors of naturist snippets found in these pages.
Suave, sophisticated Commander James Bond was very much at home amongst the jet set. Those people had strict standards of decorum. There was a correct mode of dress for every occasion, and it seems nudity was kept for sexual encounters or purely private situations. Of course, I am talking here of the books - not the films with their increasingly revealing opening credit sequences and explicitly sexual encounters. The extracts from novels used as the basis of two early Bond films show attitudes to private nudity fairly clearly. In Dr No, once Honeychile realises she is not alone, she feels obliged to cover herself as best she can. In Thunderball, an anonymous sunbather also panics on being observed.
As in other aspects of his work, these snippets indicate that Fleming was somewhat prudish. Unlike the films, the books give little detail of Bond's sexual conquests (and the unequal relationship between men and women implied by that word is seen throughout the canon). Sex is understood to take place, rather than being depicted. Obviously, true gentlemen do not discuss the bedroom behaviour of their companions, any more than they would dream of swimming without trunks. Interestingly, the later generation of decidedly ungentlemantly spies penned by le Carré and others may have been open about their sex lives, but never had the time to relax on a beach, so naturism within spy novels remains unusual.
| Nudity | Naturist nudity | A good read? |
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Last updated 2004 August 25.
Images Copyright © various authors, photographers, graphic artists, illustrators and publishers
Other content Copyright © author Tim Forcer
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