A future to recover

Summary 

Poster for No Time to Die in Bangkok
- not in cinemas next month

The BBC News article "Release of James Bond film No Time To Die delayed amid coronavirus fears" (2020) says that the 25th James Bond film, No Time to Die, has been delayed from April until November to limit the financial and other risks threatened by the Covid-19 virus. The producers cited "a thorough evaluation of the global theatrical marketplace" as the reason for the costly delay, with many cinemas in China, the largest market after the US, already closed due to the virus. Although some reports spoke of the need to protect fans from the virus, they also noted the studio would suffer a lot of bad publicity if an infection spread from the festivities that had been planned for March 31 in London to celebrate the opening of Daniel Craig’s last performance as James Bond.

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Response 

Just like mother's

I don't usually read the entertainment section of the BBC News, but the James Bond title caught my eye. I've been a fan of the Bond stories since I was 12 or 13 and read my first James Bond novel, Dr. No, which my mother owned. I don't remember when it was published, but I read it in the early 1970s, and my mum had bought it before she married my dad in 1959, so it must have been sometime in the 1950s. As I read it during the boring bus trip to and from my high school, it helped the 40 minutes pass quickly. I still remember the excitement I felt as Bond managed to get out of one deadly situation after another to save the world. I've also seen the movie version a couple of times, most recently about ten or so years ago. The story is still fun, but it definitely shows its age. What was high-tech. in the 1960s is very boring today. My smartphone is more sophisticated than the super high-tech. electronics of the spy world in the 1960s. And the sexism is so gross its funny, also the racism with the evil Chinese doctor. 

I've watched every Bond film, and was looking forward to the latest one. Of all the actors who have played James Bond over the last five or six decades, my two favourites are Sean Connery, the first one, who defeated Dr. No and other villians, and the current Daniel Craig, who I think is the best of them all. It will be sad to see Craig go, but I guess that with the rest of the world, I'll have to wait a bit longer for his farewell performance. I was also looking forward to seeing Rami Malek play the villian. I enjoyed his portrayal of rock star Freddie Mercury in Bohemian Rhapsody last year, so want to see his super villian. 

From my bookshelves
- decades of memories

But one thing I do not want to do is reread any of the Ian Fleming's Bond novels that I loved in my teens. I think that they were great entertainment, but like the silly American TV series that I sometimes enjoy on NetFlix, they are not great art: they are not literature, and don't age well. Great writing or other art, in contrast, seems to me to get better each time you read, watch or listen to it. I've read Jane Austen's 200-year-old novels many times each, and they are more enjoyable every time. In fact, although I've gotten rid of most of my paper books, replacing them with the much more convenient Kindle versions, for sentimental reasons I've kept all of my old paper copies of Pride and Prejudice. I have multiple copies because I read each of them so many times that they fell apart and had to be replaced. My Kindle version stays in perfect condition, but the tattered old paper copies bring back a lot of memories, all the way back to when I was in high school, and also enjoying James Bond novels. I think if I read a Bond novel, I would be as disappointed as I have been with other novels that I once loved but which really aren't very good when read with a bit more maturity. It's better to leave my happy memories of reading Bond in high school as they are, and to enjoy the movies as they come out every few years.  

I wonder what my young nieces and nephews, who grew up with smartphones, would think of antiques like Dr. No? 
 

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Question

Have you ever thought a piece of work was great and been disappointed when you came back to it later? 
(My initial idea was a response and question about the Covid-19 virus, but after when I sat down to write it, my response took an unexpected turn. After I had written the response, my title also had to be revised completely from the first idea I had had.)  

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Reference

• Release of James Bond film No Time To Die delayed amid coronavirus fears. (2020, March 4). BBC News. https://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-51744374