After Dahl also Jan Fleming, and who knows how many others in the future. On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of Casino Royale, in English and American bookshops from April, in fact, each new edition will have a Trigger Warnig of this type: «This book was written in an era in which terms and attitudes that can be considered offensive by modern readers they were commonplace. Numerous changes have been made to this edition, while keeping the text closer to the original and to the period in which it is set”. In other words, the adventures of secret agent 007 were written in dark times, in the Middle Ages of the day before yesterday, and therefore had to be amended with a work of correction and attenuation of at least some terms that could appear racist (and perhaps they are) .
Jan Fleming had built a rather contradictory hero: indeed, according to his enemy friend John Le Carré, born David Cornwell, a true gangster, “a fascist, one who ignores international politics and would work for any country”, as he said in a youthful interview with the BBC in 1966. Really? It must be said that the inventor of 007 was certainly inferior, in terms of writing, to the author of The spy who came in from the cold, but above all, despite an almost parallel biography because both had frequented the same circles, including that of the secret services, the two they represented a sort of polar opposite in the 20th century of the cold war. On the one hand George Smiley, highly intelligent and tormented, a “moral” man; on the other James Bond, very cunning and indifferent.
There is a suspicion that it also annoyed Le Carré physically – the characters often become creatures of flesh and blood. “I don’t love him,” he proclaimed, “and I’m not even sure he qualifies as a spy. Indeed, I believe that placing it in the category of spy literature is a great mistake». “In fact, it seems to me,” continued his indictment, “that he behaves rather like an international gangster, having, as they say, a license to kill.” When the interview was relaunched years ago, Le Carré gave the impression of wanting to correct such severe judgments a little, admitting that his point of view did not change, but perhaps now he would have been, on balance, «much kinder ». A delightful understatement: his kindness actually materialized in recalling how, after all, «at the root of James Bond» there was «something neo-fascist and materialistic. One can’t help but think – concluded his comment speaking on English radio – that he would have done the same things for any other country, as long as the women were always very beautiful and the Martinis very dry ».
Steps for the martinis. But having said that, will that already be a good reason to correct it? Many must have thought of it, from the parts of the Jan Fleming Foundation, which holds the rights, not without an eye to the commercial potential that has been in decline for some time. It must be said that in Italy Fleming’s works have been relaunched in a very elegant guise by Adelphi, starting from 2012 with Casino Royale – and then all the other novels every year – in a splendid editorial guise that recalls the original cover, and sumptuous afterword by Matteo Codignola. And if we’ve all seen the 007 films, perhaps the lyrics came as a surprise to many. Because, let’s face it, although John Fitzgerald Kennedy liked him, Fleming wrote rather badly – and the excellent Massimo Bocchiola, who translated Casino Royale, dutifully refrained from improving it. The incipit is enough: «Smoke, sweat: at three in the morning the smell of a casino where you play hard is nauseating. It will be the smell, the smoke or the sweat… The senses arouse and twist with disgust».
The senses twisting? As for women, the tomboy 007 lets himself be seduced by a still water named Vesper. We read that when they were down to business, he “slided his hands up Vesper’s rounded buttocks and gripped them hard, pressing the cores of their bodies together.” Then the two lovebirds sit on the bed, “while the tide of passion was flowing back in their veins”. Perhaps the piece is a candidate for the Bad Sex Award, a humorous English award for the worst sex scene in a literary work. We don’t know if the good Fleming will be censored and rendered harmless, but we hope not, considering his involuntary comedy. How much sincere amusement would be lost.