Anonymous Asked: Much Appreciate Your Homage Posts To The Late Sean Connery. Made Us Proud For All Us

Anonymous asked: Much appreciate your homage posts to the late Sean Connery. Made us proud for all us Scots. Sorry to put you on the spot but in your opinion who was the best James Bond and why? What’s your favourite Bond line?

I feel terribly sad too at Big Tam’s passing. But Sean Connery had - and I hope he forgives me as a half Anglo-Scot for using a very English idiom - a very good innings to go out at 90. He left us with a huge legacy of a surprisingly good body of film works but he also left his mark on how we talk about modern masculinity.

So who was the best James Bond?

It is a question that has been asked time and again, and we can be certain it will get a whole new airing when Daniel Craig’s tenure eventually comes to an end. Answers generally come in three categories. The first are the traditionalists. Sean Connery was Bond, he will always be Bond and anyone else is a poor imitation. The second camp - the majority of whom seem to be Generation X-ers in my millennial experience - who think Bond is about driving a Lotus underwater, wrestling in space with Jaws and – ahem – attempting re-entry with Lois Chiles, and so Roger Moore is their man. Finally, there are those who are not afraid to move with the times, and think the modern day production values mean the films of the Craig era are on a superior level than all that has come before.

These are all reasonable enough views, but they leave out one important consideration: which Bond are we talking about? Because there were only two kinds when we look across the range of actors who portrayed the iconic British spy. There is the cinematic Bond and there is the literary Bond.

Let me explain.

Because there’s nothing like Ancient Greek Philosophy to look at this vexed question of who was the best Bond. So let’s first consider Plato, Forms, and the Allegory of the Cave. Way back when in the long, long ago, Plato, and by extension Socrates, postulated the idea of Forms in which a second, ethereal world contained the eternal, perfect “Forms” from which all physical manifestations derive. To explain this, Plato proposed the concept of prisoners chained in a cave since birth and forced to gaze at a wall in front of them, lit from behind by a raging fire. In front of this fire, and behind the prisoners, puppeteers would hold up puppets that cast shadows. In time, these shadows became reality for the prisoners, for they would have no concept of the physical items themselves. Thus I, very much a modern day Plato, propose that were the puppeteers to hold a tattooed toupee-wearing former coffin polisher in front of the fire, the prisoners would rub their eyes and see… James Bond.

In other words, Sean Connery was the best cinematic James Bond. He is the Bond of cinematic imagination and hence more popularly known in our wider culture.

What Connery offered in his seven-film tenure is a near-perfect balance between all subsequent imperfections and a command of the role that prompted either below par impressions or a significantly different approach so as not to overlap with Connery’s sizeable footprints – footprints too deep enough for the other Bonds that followed to fill. Some people might suggest it was simply because Sean Connery has the luxury of being the first actor to play Bond. However, being the first actor in a role doesn’t always guarantee audiences will consider you the best.

It’s telling that Connery never fancied himself as Ian Fleming’s James Bond. Nothing in his training (largely classical theatre and romantic melodrama) let alone his working class Edinburgh background had prepared him for playing a part that Michael Caine remembers everyone thinking would go to the smoothly cultured Rex Harrison.

Nor did Connery help matters when he turned up to audition for the part of Ian Fleming’s gentleman spy wearing a lumber jacket and torn jeans. “You take me as I am or not at all” he told the producers Harry Saltzman and Cubby Broccoli, but though they were eventually won over by what Broccoli called “the most arrogant son of a gun you’ve ever seen”.

As the creator of Bond, Ian Fleming remained unconvinced. Indeed Connery’s casting was much to the chagrin of Bond creator Ian Fleming, who had envisioned Bond in his own image of an upper-class Eton educated Englishman and an officer and a (rogue) gentleman - Fleming himself was a lieutenant-commander in Naval Intelligence, Connery was also in the navy but as an able seaman on HMS Formidable. Fleming remarked, “I’m looking for Commander Bond and not an overgrown stuntman.” Fleming wanted Cary Grant, David Niven or Roger Moore to play his character. Not until the Bond movies were earning him far more money than his books ever had would he stop referring to Connery as, “that fucking truck driver”.

#ProtectTheoAtAllCost

Bringing this back, who’s in?

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ilovebooks89

7 years ago

bts memories of 2016 dvd (eng sub)

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ilovebooks89

6 years ago

reblog this with a Seventeen song that makes you really happy every time you listen to It.

Writers as Marvel Characters

Steve Rogers: Diligent. Politically, scientifically, anatomically, emotionally correct. Posts on time. Sticks to the schedule and their own well-mapped-out-and-classic-plot. Actually enjoys constructive criticism because it will help them improve but has been known to reply with, “Well, actually...” Always trying to help. Annoying but has good intentions.

Bucky Barnes: A writing machine in Winter Mission Mode when a plot idea takes over their minds. In between missions they are lost and shopping for plums in a Romanian farmer’s market. Has moments where they can’t remember how to write themselves out of writostasis. Easily triggered by words. Eternal Internal Screaming. Made a grave mistake letting Steve Rogers beta their stories. Might be a mess. Might need rehab.

Tony Stark: Intelligent and knows it. Clearly educated, knows synonyms and metaphors without needing to look them up. Writes elaborate, scientifically correct stories. Reads up on thermonuclear physics just for fun research. Has an explanation for literally everything. Has a literary device for every plot hole. Obnoxious but when you need to read something reliably good, they deliver. Exhausted by constantly trying to prove and improve themselves. Sometimes forgets how to human. Wants to give advice that nobody asked for. Hard to like until you get to know them. Is a little lonely maybe.

Peter Parker: New kid on the scene. Wants to be liked. Writes A LOT. Posts A LOT. Wants A LOT of comments. Uses a lot of =))))))))) in the writer notes. Latches onto senior writers and wants to be in a clique. Often shoot their loads prematurely. Frequently gets some very good plot ideas but currently lacking the perfect execution. Gets stuck in their own web of plot holes.

Loki: Professional shit-stirrer of the fandom. You’re never sure if they’re your friend or not. Spends more time being contrary than actually writing. Sometimes leaves stories with cliffhangers that never reach a conclusion. Deliberately writes NOTPs just for fun. Needs constant validation from an audience. Is actually quite talented if they bothered to focus their energy on writing and not bickering. Just wants to be liked (on the down low.)

Wanda Maximoff: Might be a hack. Might be a genius. Has tapped into The Power of Knowledge but doesn’t actually know how to harness it into a coherent story. Flashes of brilliance followed swiftly but flashes of despair and self-loathing. Powerful but poor discipline. Likely to destroy and delete their stories on a whim because some words don’t look right or their aim was slightly off that day. Notorious for abandoning ideas and leaving a trail of incomplete stories in their wake.

Thanos: Trigger Warning-Character Death. A total sadist. The writers you get a little worried about.

Peter Quill: Hilarious. Jokes every two sentences. Pop culture references and always puts soundtrack links in their author notes. A gift for natural dialogue and conversations. Doesn’t get taken seriously because of the lack of drama in their stories but secretly writing humour in order to deal with underlying traumas of their past. One day will write a heartbreaking story and play it off as a joke.

Wade Wilson: PWP Crack writers. R-rated. Anatomically graphic. Sometimes the realism is a touch too real. 50% hilarious. 50% makes-you-uncomfortable. Might have emotional range and depth but often chooses not to show it. Probably mentions pizza, beer and mexican food in their stories. A Good Bro but needs a Mute-Button and thesaurus sometimes.

Natasha Romanoff: Better than you and you both know it. Gives off an air of superiority. Super clique-y but they also keep themselves at a distance. Good at literally every genre and writing style. Leaves no plot holes behind, ever. All stories are clean headshots with neat conclusions. Their plot twists have plot twists. Either they’ve done extensive research or they’ve actually been an assassin. The type of author you’re intimidated by and too scared to talk to.

Thor: Never Say Die Writers. Hammers out story after story. Will write themselves to God Status, no matter what it takes. Will shed blood, sweat, tears, an eye, a sibling…to achieve their goals. Honourable and respects other writers. They’ve got hustle and you can’t help but like them.

T’Challa: Feels heavily burdened by the Fandom Crown after writing one of the most badass Iconic stories of the century. Fucks off to Wakanda so you never hear from them again. It would take a Fandom Apocalypse to get them to come back. Constructs sentences so advanced that it makes you want to retire from your own writing. Infuriatingly cool. Is benevolent but doesn’t need hits and comments for validation. Gets them anyway, without even trying.

Stephen Strange: A literal wizard at world building. Known for their elaborate plots and multi-tiered-multi-character-multi-chapter stories. Cradle-To-The-Grave-type writers. Doesn’t believe in One-Shots. One-Shots are for the weak. Way too indulgent with language and minute details. Probably knows Latin. Often competes with Tony Stark writers for title of “Most Obnoxiously Complex Story Ever”. Frequently exhausting. Takes writing a little too seriously. Annoying but worth it.

Bruce Banner: Dramatic. The definition of “well that escalated quickly”. Will start off writing an endearingly small and clever story but all hell breaks loose by chapter three. Suddenly there is a lot of shouting and misunderstandings and chapters that read like glorified keyboard smashes. Everyone suffers. You don’t know what happened. Nobody knows what happened. Not even the writer. PTSD.

Clint Barton: 90% Sarcasm. 10% Plot. The master of the One-Shot because that’s all they need. Doesn’t believe in time wasting, indulgent flowery language and poetic confessions. Writes to get it out of their system so they can go back to their actual real lives. Secretly eye-rolls at Stephen Strange writers but also awed by them. Doesn’t know what a beta is.

Groot: The Holy Grail Of All Writers. Straight up literature. Can condense an entire paragraph into three words. Will write devastation and break your heart within the first five lines. Understands language in a way that most mere mortals can’t hope to achieve in one lifetime. The writer you bookmark and remember. Fandom famous. Universally loved.

Part II

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ilovebooks89

6 years ago