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Russia's first book about James Bond has been published
The book by Natalya Golitsyna and Andrei Shary “Sign 007: On Her Majesty’s Secret Service” opened a new series of the publishing house “New Literary Review” “Heroes of Our Childhood”. In the future they promise works of the same kind about Fantômas, Winneta, Zorro, Dracula...It really made sense to start with James Bond. Despite the fact that, perhaps, very few of us can call Agent 007 a full-fledged character of teenage dreams: for obvious reasons, Ian Fleming’s books and classic Bond films became available to the Russian public only since perestroika times. However, the image of an invulnerable and inimitable Secret Service agent with a license to kill actually became part of the collective unconscious much earlier - either in the song of Vladimir Vysotsky, or in the children's adventure story by Vasily Aksenov “My Grandfather is a Monument” (in it, I remember, the passengers transcontinental airliner "they were tearing their tummies watching Sean Connory beat a sumo wrestler with a bronze figurine"), most often in the caustic feuilletons of the Soviet periodicals with magnificent titles like "The History of James Bonditism", from which one could, if desired, draw very valuable information (and in addition, with a happy coincidence, also look at fuzzy, but no less alluring for those times, stills from films). Now all this “valuable information” is collected under one cover, and it must be said that in terms of information content and completeness, “Sign 007” can easily compete with similar Western monographs.
In the book, perhaps, you should not look for deliberately paradoxical interpretations of the image of Bond and his many adventures; it is rather an encyclopedic reference book, a kind of dossier in which “one of the most charming images of high mass culture” (as defined by Peter Weil) appears before the reader in all its glory. completeness: from favorite drinks and clothing brands to amorous preferences. Authors who have carefully reviewed and re-read the Bond film draw attention to nuances that are not widely noticed, but very important - for example, it is very nice to remember once again that it was James Bond (in the not very successful, but exciting series "A View to a Kill") who was the first a foreigner who received... the Order of Lenin!
The story of Agent 007 can be traced from the publication of Fleming's first Bond book, Casino Royale, to the very recent release of the film of the same name. Less than a month has passed since its premiere, and therefore only preliminary information has been given about the new Casino Royale. But this does not make the picture any less complete. In any case, this is “a very timely book.” From the moment Daniel Craig played Bond, it became clear that one of the most important mass cult myths of the 20th century had undergone a radical rebranding. Until now, Bond's image has changed rather extensively, but now we can already talk about fundamental changes. Most likely, agent 007 will never be the same again; he began to play by new rules, changing not only his appearance, but also most of the habits that were hitherto considered unshakable. And we will probably never see the old (some will say “old”, others “real”) Bond, just as we will never return to childhood, of which he was the hero. So it's time to take stock. And the book “Sign 007” will help you do this in the best possible way.