ext_18840 ([identity profile] davidkevin.livejournal.com) wrote in [personal profile] davywavy 2008-12-09 03:44 pm (UTC)


In Moonraker (the original novel, not that awful movie), Bond has dinner with M before beginning his evening of cards with Sir Hugo Drax, and drinks ice cold vodka (sprinkled with pepper, a habit he got into when drinking contaminated Russian vodka while undercover in the Soviet Union), which would render his taste buds useless -- but that was okay, because his dinner was broiled filet of sole, the driest, most tasteless way a fish can be prepared. Then he drops a small envelope of Benzedrine powder into his first glass of champaign to counter the alcohol he'll be ingesting the rest of the night -- and he still puts so much away that the stimulant effect is countered.

I can't imagine a more awful evening.

Fleming's Bond habitually puts away far more alcohol than any one human can be expected to imbibe without damage, and he is damaged, which is why M has him taking a rest cure at a spa in the beginning of Thunderball.

This volume of drinking is a habit he shares with Raymond Chandler's Philip Marlowe, who sits and drinks whiskey the rest of the night upon awakening after being knocked unconscious by blows to the head!


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