Monday, March 17, 2008
Richness in Description
Throughout the text so far, Fleming has filled a lot of pages with specific descriptions. The narrator, expressing Bond's thoughts and feelings to the reader, uses a lot of very specific description of characters, settings and events. As a secret agent, the reader is to understand that Bond must be incredibly perceptive and must be able to pick up on even the smallest of details, and that mindset comes through strongly as almost every situation is described down to minutia. There are paragraphs upon paragraphs describing Lynd (38-9), Leiter (55-6), and Bond himself (58-9). A similar attention to detail was to be noticed in Dracula as well, as Stoker includes detailed and repeated descriptions as to enrich the text, as well as put the reader as close to the action as possible. This technique makes for more interesting reading and helps the author to share his vision through text as faithfully as possible.
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3 comments:
I think that Fleming's writer is not as similar to Stoker's as it is to that of Arthur Conan Doyle. Both Doyle and Fleming's main characters are extremely keen to detail as it is the lifeblood of both the protagonist's respective professions. As a detective Holmes relies upon his study of detail in order to gain as many clues as possible about the case so that he may solve the mystery. Bond's attention to detail comes from the fact that he has a very dangerous job in which every detail counts. This is why Fleming goes into such detail when describing how Bond searches his room to make sure no one else was there.
There is a lot of attention to detail in both novels that we have read so far. I think that in the Fleming book there seems to be more description. Although Dracula was essentially that, Casino Royale seems to get into more insignificant details, but at the same time it would not be the same if they were not there. The descriptions that he gives leaves less to the imagination, unlike Dracula, although there were a lot of descriptions, much was left to the imagination (in my opinion). I think that the details is necessary in Casino Royale because it is creating a world which many of us may not know (not to say that Dracula didn’t do the same) but Fleming is trying to give us as much information as artistically possible to get his point across.
Although I will agree with you that Fleming brings Bond to life with feelings and emotions to the reader compared to Stoker and Dracula. But Flemings numerous attentions to detail is over bearing at times and cause you to not want to turn the page compared to Dracula where you want to turn the page to know what will happen next and as you say ‘makes for a more interesting reading’.
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