ALL OF A SUDDEN WE'RE ROOTING FOR BLOFELD

From: French intelligentsia contemplate the meaning of Bond (Elaine Sciolino, International Herald Tribune, January 19th, 2007)

For three days this week, French and foreign researchers came together in a conference sponsored in part by the National Library of France and the University of Versailles to dissect and psychoanalyze, criticize and lionize Ian Fleming's debonair creation.

Titled "James Bond (2)007: Cultural History and Aesthetic Stakes of a Saga," the conference —— France's first scholarly colloquium on James Bond —— was aimed at developing a "socioanthropology of the Bondian universe."

"James Bond is a fascinating cultural phenomenon who transcends nationality and politics," said Vincent Chenille, a historian at the National Library who helped organize the conference, which ended Thursday. "He's very human. His faults are identifiable."

Hubert Bonin, an economic historian from Bordeaux, who spoke on "the anguish of capitalist conspiracy and overpowering," had a different explanation. "In France we have the myth of the savior, the Bonaparte, the de Gaulle," he said. "Here, we're always searching for the providential hero. James Bond is a very reassuring figure for France."

The conference was a breakthrough in French scholarly circles....

"This conference is a revolutionary act," said Luc Shankland, a lecturer on media and cultural studies at Sorbonne University who is writing his doctoral dissertation on Bond and British cultural identity. "To put this artifact of popular culture in a setting like the highbrow National Library is a kind of provocation. It's been a taboo in intellectual circles to say you like James Bond."

You think you’re quite something, eh, messieurs? Well, the world is passing you by. Have you not heard about globalization? Any third world intelligentsia today could come up with a socioanthropology of the Bondian universe before lunch. Like your wine and your army, you are slipping badly. If you hold out any hope of retaining French world leadership in distilling high-falutin’ drivel and abstract polysyllabic gibberish out of thin air, you will have to remember la gloire de la patrie and set your sights much, much higher. Why don’t you give this one a try?