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The Melancholy Touch: Romantic Shades of John Barry’s Bond included in new book "James Bond in World and Popular Culture: The Films are Not Enough."
August 19, 2010
Karl Madden, Professor, Dept of the Library, Medgar Evers College, City University of New York, has written a book chapter entitled The Melancholy Touch: Romantic Shades of John Barry’s Bond – which is included in a new book to be available this September 2010 by Cambridge Scholars Publishing: "James Bond in World and Popular Culture: The Films are Not Enough".
Edited by Robert G. Weiner, B. Lynn Whitfield and Jack Becker, the book can be pre-ordered via amazon.com and although (currently) quite expensive ($82) it consists of an impressive 515 pages containing 40 original essays with new insights, scholarship, and understanding to the world of James Bond. Topics include the Bond girl, Bond related video games, Ian Fleming's relationship with the notorious Aleister Crowley and CIA director Alan Dulles. Other articles include Fleming as a character in modern fiction, Bond Jr. comics, the post Fleming novels of James Gardner and Raymond Benson, Bond as an American Superhero, and studies on the music, dance, fashion, and architecture in Bond films. Woody Allen and Peter Sellers as James Bond, are also considered as is Japanese imitation films from the 1960s, the Britishness of Bond, comparisons of Bond to Christian ideals, movie posters and much more. Scholars from a wide variety of disciplines have contributed a unique collection of perspectives on the world of James Bond and its history.
Madden: "I tried to explore a subtle sadness – a deeper dimension than is usually recognized – I feel John Barry brings to the character of James Bond."
