The ice man cometh

The thing that prompted this long-overdue post was going to see Quantum of Solace, the new Bond movie. But before I come onto that, a confession.

About two days after I wrote my last post, I ordered Caressed by Ice by Nalini Singh.

I hadn't really intended to get another of this series, having concluded in my last post that her romances aren't really for me. But despite my criticisms of the previous two books in the series, I was curious (particularly in light of CJ's comments). And one of the things that piqued my curiosity was the fact that in CBI, the changeling/Psy dynamic is turned on its head: this time, the Psy is the hero.

Perhaps I'll do another post on CBI later, for now, suffice to say, Judd Lauren is a classic Ice Man hero.

Which brings me onto Bond. James Bond.


It's something of a tradition in our house that I (reluctantly) go to the cinema to see the latest Bond film with Mr Tumperkin. I've never been a great Bond fan although I never much thought about why before.

I gave it some thought after watching QOS.

Not that this is some great and perfect film. It's extremely flawed in parts. In parts, I actually began to drift off completely. The plane action sequence for example.

But here's the thing. Historically, James Bond has been a pretty static character. With a few notable (and generally deemed to be unsuccessful) exceptions, his character does not develop one bit in any of the films. He is a ruthless, charming and debonair bit of manliness who is able to kill without blinking an eye and make quips in the face of torture and despair. It's a formula that's brought audiences in for decades.

But with the last two films, this has rather changed. I seem to recall that with the first Daniel Craig film, they said that they were going back to the beginning with Bond. Casino Royale and all that. The first novel. And in another sense they did indeed go back to the beginning; to the beginning of a character arc. Daniel Craig started off in Casino Royale as the Bond we've always known him. But then he fell - disastrously - in love with Vesper. So far, so On Her Majesty's Secret Service. But Vesper didn't merely die, as the heroine in OHMSS did. Vesper betrayed him. Horribly. Reluctantly.

I didn't expect QOS to start us off from where CR left off, but it does. Bond is raw and out for vengeance against Vesper's killers, whilst still feeling utterly betrayed by her. And to my amazement, it seemed to me that in the course of the film, his character did continue to develop. Oh, he's still Bond. But come the end, there's a feeling that the tiny tiny part of him that was perhaps perhaps able to love, has been shut tightly tightly away, and will never be allowed out again. (I'm talking about the Necklace in the Snow here, for those of you who have seen it.)

Previous Bonds have played him as a playboy, an easy charmer with the ability to persuade women into bed with a raised eyebrow. Daniel Craig, by contrast, is the classic Ice Man. Seemingly emotion-free, but actually a tortured hero.

I've never found Daniel Craig particularly attractive, but the Ice Man hero is a big favourite of mine. And this weekend, with Judd Lauren of Caressed taking up my reading time, I'm ankle deep in 'em.

Classic traits of the Ice Man include:-

1. A tortured past
2. A belief that they always hurt the people they love
3. And/or a belief that they are doomed or flawed in some fundamental way
3. And/or a belief that they have a fundamental lack or void or emptiness, by contrast to the 'normal' people around them
4. An emotionless facade which masks incredibly intense dammed up feelings
5. Or, as an alternative to (4), a seemingly shallow facade which masks the true intensity of their feelings.

See also: All Through the Night by Connie Brockway, Angel Rogue by Mary Jo Putney, The Serpent Prince by Elizabeth Hoyt, and the Lymond series by Dorothy Dunnett.

I'm going to end this post with one of my favourite arias. The Te Deum from Tosca by Puccini. It's featured in a key, and rather fabulous scene in QOS. It's sung by Scarpia, the villain of Tosca. His internal monologue on how he has tricked Tosca and how he intends to get rid of her lover is entwined with the Te Deum sung by the chorus and the sounds of Tosca's lover's scaffold being built.

This particular version is a visual treat and gets across Scarpia's chilling nature superbly.