Wednesday, December 15, 2010

And then Bond fought a giant squid

I know when I was reading this I found lots of ridiculous quotes but I didn't mark them down and I can't find them right now.  So that title isn't a quote but it is what happened and is just as ridiculous.  It's too bad there were no lasers.  Also I guess this kind of includes spoilers but the title does as well and you've probably already read that.  Sorry.  Don't worry, it wasn't a huge surprise.

This would have been
awesome too.
Dr. No by Ian Fleming was a fun book and if you're a big fan of the movies I'm sure you would have enjoyed this more than I did.  For me it was entertaining.  At least a third of the entertainment came from the fact that it shows it's age and I enjoyed reading my friend passages that I would not feel comfortable reading to the general public.* The rest of it is the same sort of entertainment you'd expect from a Bond film.  A Bond film pre-Daniel Craig, where it's cheesier and has the evil-maniacal super-villain with a secret lair built into the side of a mountain.  Also a pain obstacle course that ends in giant squid fight!  I mean all of this as a compliment.  It's not a deep book with complex characters or subtle themes but really, if you're reading Bond for those things you're doing it wrong.

I would like to mention the part that I seem to keep dwelling on in the book and that goes along with the I-would-be-uncomfortable-reading-this-aloud-in-public, though apparently not discussing it publicly here:  Chigroes, which were a regular feature throughout the novel.  I want to explain why I've brought them up multiple times and not just because I thought they were horribly racially insensitive.  It's also because I can't think of too many other races/nationalities that you can smoosh the 2 together to create a descriptor for the person.  What I mean is Boyfriend is Puerto Rican** and Chinese and refers to himself as China Rican***.  (Or Chinarican.  I should ask him to spell it out for me.)  I haven't heard this happen with different nationalities but if you can think of examples, or want to make some up, please throw them out there.  So I guess this was just my "I swear I'm not racist and just find this funny.  I'm sure that makes me kind of a bad person but whatever" excuse.

*I'm not saying Fleming was a racist (probably sexist in a Don Draper kind of way) but that it was just the time.  It just makes it awkwardly funny now.  To me anyway.

**Blogger spell check does not recognize Puerto Rican as a set of words.  If I go with their first spell check options I get Puerile Rica.  Yup, that's what I was going for.  Thanks for the help.

***The classic sensibilities of a Chinese man mixed with dynamic flair of a Puerto Rican.  Boyfriend is a fan of Conan and the Pimpbot 5000.