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Page 148
against his will to visit a doctor, to undergo a nature cure (Thunderball), to change his gun (Dr. No)makes so much the more insidious and imperious his chief's authority. We can, therefore, see that M represents certain other values such as Duty, Country, and Method (as an element of programming contrasting with Bond's own inclination to rely on improvisation). If Bond is the hero, hence in possession of exceptional qualities, M represents Measure, accepted perhaps as a national virtue. But Bond is not so exceptional as a hasty reading of the books (or the spectacular interpretation which films give of the books) might make one think. Fleming always affirmed that he had thought of Bond as an absolutely ordinary person, and it is in contrast with M that the real stature of 007 emerges, endowed with physical attributes, with courage and fast reflexes, but possessing neither these nor other qualities in excess. It is, rather, a certain moral force, an obstinate fidelity to the jobat the command of M, always present as a warningthat allows him to overcome superhuman ordeals without exercising any superhuman faculty.
The Bond-M relationship presupposes a psychological ambivalence, a reciprocal love-hate. At the beginning of The Man with the Golden Gun, Bond, emerging from a lengthy amnesia and having been conditioned by the Soviets, tries a kind of ritual parricide by shooting at M with a cyanide pistol; the gesture loosens a longstanding series of narrative tensions which are aggravated every time M and Bond find themselves face to face.
Started by M on the road to Duty (at all costs), Bond enters into conflict with the Villain. The opposition brings into play diverse values, some of which are only variants of the basic couples listed above. Bond represents Beauty and Virility as opposed to the Villain, who often appears monstrous and sexually impotent. The monstrosity of the Villain is a constant point, but to emphasize it we must here introduce a methodological notion which will also apply in examining the other couples. Among the variants we must consider also the existence of vicarious characters whose functions are understood only if they are seen as 'variations' of one of the principal personages, some of whose characteristics they carry on. The vicarious roles function usually for the Woman and for the Villain; one can see as variations of M certain collaborators of Bondfor example, Mathis in Casino Royale, who preaches Duty in the appropriate M manner (albeit with a cynical and Gallic air).
As to the characteristics of the Villain, let us consider them in order. In Casino Royale Le Chiffre is pallid and smooth, with a crop of red hair, an almost feminine mouth, false teeth of expensive quality, small ears with large lobes, and hairy hands. He never smiles. In Live and Let Die Mr. Big, a Haitian, has a head that resembles a football, twice the normal size and almost spherical. "The skin was grey-black, taut and shining like the face of a week-old corpse in the river. It was hairless,

 
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