Wednesday, September 09, 2009

James Bond Daily: 007's Thoughts During the Monologue

As Ernst Stavro Blofeld explains his plots and purpose in life to a captive Bond, his prisoner ponders his captor, on pp.192-193 of You Only Live Twice:
Blofeld was a big man, perhaps six foot three, and powerfully built., He placed the tip of the samurai sword, which has almost the blade of the scimitar, between his straddled feet, and rested his sinewy hands on its boss. Looking up at him from across the room, Bond had to admit that there was something larger than life in the looming, imperious figure, in the hypnotically direct stare of the eyes, in the tall white brow, in the cruel downward twist of the white lips. The square-cut, heavily draped kimono, designed to give the illusion of bulk to a race of smallish men, made something huge out of the towering figure, and the golden dragon embroidery, so easily to be derided as a childish fantasy, crawled menacingly across the black silk and seemed to spit real fire from over the left breast. Blofeld had paused in his harangue. Waiting for him to continue, Bond took the measure of his enemy. He knew what would be coming -- justification. It was always so. When they thought they had got you where they wanted you, when they knew they were decisively on top, before the knock-out, even to an audience on the threshold of extinction, it was pleasant, reassuring to the executioner, to deliver the apologia -- purge the sin he was about to commit. Blofeld, his hands relaxed on the boss of his sword, continued. The tone of his voice was reasonable, self-assured, quietly expository.
----------------
Listening to: Blonde Redhead - Misery Is A Butterfly
via FoxyTunes

No comments:

Post a Comment