To Mr. Bond

This is a letter from Agent George Smiley from Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy to James Bond in Casino Royale.  Two books I have just finished reading. Both are espionage novels set in the Cold War.

Falling in Love With the Villain

              We all have our favorite hero or heroes. But generally, we don’t think about our favorite villain—but we all have one. Villains have become increasingly popular in the past decade. Despicable Me proved that with a story all about rooting for the villain. Jack Sparrow—Captain Jack Sparrow, is obviously the villainous figure in the Caribbean. The Governor and his men are clearly the ones who stand for good and democracy and Jack stands for revolt and piracy. However, everyone roots for the pirates and you want Jack to get away with it and have it “be the day when you almost caught Captain Jack Sparrow.” There’s a certain thing about these sorts of villains that turn them into more of anti-heroes and make the audience like them. And part of this is because of the increasing amount of prequels coming out of Hollywood in the past decade.

                Darth Vader is the most beloved villain of all time. In Return of the Jedi he becomes good and he ends the reign of the Emperor, dying in the process. From then on, Darth Vader/Anakin Skywalker becomes a villain people enjoy and they don’t want to see him lose. Then when George Lucas creates the prequels and we see Anakin as a child and learn why he becomes Darth Vader, we fall more and more in love with seeing the ominous, masked villain. Throughout the Harry Potter series we learn more and more about Lord Voldemort’s childhood and his history. We learn it’s not the best childhood and we sympathize a little with him. A better example is Professor Snape. He is portrayed as a more villainous character throughout the series until we go back in his life and see that he was scarred by the loss of a loved one and we see why he was so villainous. We sympathize with their stories.

                Villain’s stories are the best stories. They’re often better than the actual protagonist’s story and you can learn more from the villain than you can the hero. That’s why the world has fallen in love with the villain.  

The Best Scene So Far

The chapters in Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy are somewhat short and can sometimes be choppy, skipping into different characters and different points of different days. But my favorite scene so far has been chapter two, when we are introduced to George Smiley, who is having a pretty bad, was recently separated from his wife, and let go from the agency, and has the last name Smiley which is just something no person should have to live with. What I love about this George, is he just doesn’t know. Or maybe I don’t know. There’s lots of mystery between characters. But one of my favorite parts in chapter two is when he is invited to Roddy Martindale’s house for dinner and Martindale tells George why he lost his job and that George’s supervisor, whom he was very close with, really isn’t dead. Can you imagine having a horrible day, you lost your job, then your wife leaves you and takes out most of the money in your account, then some guy you just met tells you why you really lost your job and that one of your good friends and old boss isn’t really dead? Can you imagine that day? And having the last name Smiley? So there’s all that and then it twists into what Martindale thinks, and Martindale believes for “reasons” that Smiley didn’t really lose his job and is still running something confidential within the agency. Chapter 2 has been my favorite scene so far because of the constant piling of strange, sometimes depressing, mystery. 

My Top 5 Books. Ever.

5. The Sense of an Ending by Julian Barnes
The story and plot twists in this book are extremely screwed up and unthinkable. However, the book was very well written and I loved Julian Barnes style, minus his sick and disturbing plot twists.


4. Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix by JK Rowling
Yes, I'm choosing a Harry Potter book. This is my favorite book because there is so much to it. I can't imagine writing as much as JK Rowling did just for one book and there is so much mystery to it.


3. The Shack by William Paul Young
The Shack is a fictional Christian book but whether you're a devoted Christian or a hardcore athiest you'll love the plot of this novel. There is continuous mystery and danger and really convicts a person on if they're holding grudges or not and right when you get to the end and you think everything is ok, it's not.

2. Catcher in the Rye by JD Salinger
One of the best stories ever written. Even if you think Holden Caulfield is a snobby little punk you have to appreciate Salinger's style of writing and how much he crafts his characters, especially Holden. Loved this book.



1. The Great Gatsby by F. Scott Fitzgerald
This is the American story. The roaring 20's were a giant pop culture party with corruption everywhere. Something I've always like about The Great Gatsby is comparing it to today's society and how things are still pretty similiar. Plus, a character like Gatsby doesn't come along in a lot of stories and he is probably the most fascinating character in any story I've ever read.

Casino Royale to Big Screen

Casino Royale was a fantastic film! I ended up watching the 2006 version, with Daniel Craig as James Bond.

            Lately I’ve been talking about genres and if they’re important or not and I’ve been pretty negative about genres. I’ve said they don’t really matter. But I’ve learned that when books hit the big screen, genre is very important. When I reviewed and compared The Rum Diary the film and adaptation wasn’t that great and it was a rather boring movie. Casino Royale was a fun and very exciting film. The Rum Diary was a fictional narrative. A narrative has potential to either be an ok film or a pretty boring film. Casino Royale is a action packed, espionage thriller. Has potential to be very fun and exciting as a movie. That’s why The Rum Diary was not well received by critics and the general audience and Casino Royale was very well received by the general public—but not all critics loved it and I can understand why.

            The big game in the novel is Bond playing Le Chiffre in Baccarat at the Casino Royale. In the movie, the game is Texas Hold ‘Em and the terrorist group Le Chiffre is playing for is called SMERSH in the novel but stays unnamed in the novel. Already, this is a classic example of how all the details in the novel cannot fit into the movie. As for Baccarat and Texas Hold ‘Em, I don’t get that. Personally, I don’t know Baccarat that well, but I know Texas Hold ‘Em very well. So my only guess is the directors wanted a card game that many people were more acquainted with.

            The other big thing that I’m having trouble figure out is Bond’s morals. In the novel, Bond is confused on the line that divides good and evil believe that good and evil are based on perception, so he could be good or evil. He also does not support killing and in the novel does not kill a single person. In the movie he doesn’t really care much about what is good and evil and kills a ton of people. He shoots tons of bad guys and just destroys anything that gets in his way. My biggest problem with this is the morals. Morals are what define a character in any story. And in the novel and the movie, as much as I enjoyed Daniel Craig playing Bond, Bond’s character doesn’t match up at all. I don’ think there was anything theatrically wrong with Bond’s novel character and don’t know why it needed change. Another small thing I noticed towards the end of the movie is James Bond didn’t smoke at all! In the movie, he’s always smoking. All the time. It was things like these with Bond’s character that bothered me. The plot stayed pretty consistent, the outcome and resolution stayed pretty consistent. However, when you mess with the main character’s morals then you start to screw with who they are and it isn’t the same character as the book.

            Unfortunately, though, Hollywood has brainwashed me and all these differences don’t make too much of difference because I loved the movie. 

The Semi-Fictional Non-Fiction Truth About Memoirs

I hate memoirs and non-fiction. I think I've mentioned that I don’t read non-fiction. However, I love a book based off of a true story—based off of, but not completely true, making it not non-fiction. When authors write something based off of a true story, some of the time they write about their lives or experiences but they sensationalize whatever it is they’re writing to make it sound cool and appeal to an audience. This is still fiction, even though it’s based off of someone’s life or experiences.

There’s a reason memoirs aren't very well liked by the average community, especially teenagers. They have nothing exciting to them. James Frey wrote A Million Little Pieces as a non-fictional memoir about his life and experiences. The book was very exciting and had lots of compelling events in it. It became a best seller because of its tremendous sales and good reception. Too bad it was fake. Frey sensationalized multiple events in his book. Wikipedia—though it isn't the most credible source—describes A Million Little Pieces as a “semi-fictional memoir.” How is that a memoir though if it’s semi-fictional? That means part of it isn't real. Memoirs are non-fiction pieces that describe one’s life. So if a memoir is semi-fictional then it didn't happen in that person’s life. So, it’s not a memoir.

All of this is just one more big reason I don’t like memoirs. It won’t be good or exciting if it isn't sensationalized and fake. This would make it not a memoir. 

Labeling Casino Royale

There are some books out there that people have a hard time putting them into one specific genre. And, while I do believe a book cannot be placed into one, single genre, they all have the one general, non-specific genre it belongs too. They say Harry Potter is fantasy. Star Wars is science fiction. They all have the one obvious genre and there really isn’t anymore that they need to be. I think if you leave it to that one specific genre then that is ok. I think Twilight is a romance. Others say it’s a romantic drama or a paranormal romance or gothic romance. Why do we need all of those tags? It’s a romance. Why keep adding words at the beginning or end?

                That’s why I like James Bond novels. They have one distinct genre—espionage. James Bond novels practically invented espionage books. When people think espionage novels they think of James Bond. Casino Royale is one of the most classic examples of espionage. It’s a top secret, confidential, dangerous and risky spy mission. Some may argue that Casino Royale could be a romantic suspense novel because of Bond’s relationship with women but that isn’t the main point of the story. Its James Bond, the spy.