Ask Militant Ginger

We haven't had an edition of 'Ask Militant Ginger' for a while - and this month we had some doozies of questions! So after an inexplicable absence, here is a question and answer session based on real-life questions that people have typed into search engines - and been taken to 'Militant Ginger' as a result. First off, two questions related to the same movie!

Does the guy smoke in 'He's Just Not That Into You?'

In the romantic comedy He's Just Not That Into You, Bradley Cooper plays a philandering husband married to obsessive-compulsive Jennifer Connelly. It's not his affair that upsets his wife, though - it's the suspicious that her husband is sneakily smoking behind her back (he promised to quit, because Connelly's father died from lung cancer.)

In the final moments of the movie, Connelly is lamenting losing her husband... Right up until the moment she finds a packet of smokes in his suit pocket. Enraged that he'd own up to his affair - but lie about smoking - causes her to finally kick the ungrateful lug out of her house.

So, gentle reader, the answer is yes. Bradley Cooper's character in He's Just Not That Into You is
sneakily smoking behind his wife's back - revealing just how immature and deceitful men can be about seemingly innocuous things.

What car does Ben Affleck's character drive in He's Just Not That Into You?

Bradley Cooper's best friend is played by Ben Affleck - a man with a fondness for 'boy toys.' In addition to his fifty-foot yacht, he has an utterly awesome 'woody' - a wood panelled car.

Thanks to an episode of Pimp My Ride I'd seen earlier that day, I was correctly able to identify Affleck's classic car as a Jeep Wagoneer - one of America's first 'sports utility vehicles.'

They were manufactured virtually unchanged from 1963 to 1993 - making it very difficult to identify the specific year Affleck's was. However, I found the actual car for sale on eBay and can confirm that it was an '87 model.


Why doesn't Socialism work?

This is a question I tackled here. Although I don't think socialism is remotely close to the scary, evil bugbear the conservatives nail it as - I don't think it works.

There are all sorts of reasons why socialism is sketchy, but the root cause behind all of them is 'human nature.' Humans don't want to live in a society in which we're all equal. Man is programmed to want more than his neighbor.

Personal gain is the major incentive to work harder. When a community takes the profits of its hardest workers and distributes them to 'equalize' compensation, it takes away the reason for that one worker to work so hard. He reduces productivity - and the entire community loses out as a result.

But while socialism makes for a crappy business model, but it's not entirely worthless. When it comes to vital infrastructure - like railways, postal services, schools and the like - state ownership often means more flexibility in operating an important public service. Even in so-called 'Capitalist' America, many institutions are state owned because they simply couldn't operate effectively as private industry (like the Postal Service.)

Why do Christians hate gays?

Christians shouldn't 'hate' anybody, but some of them do.

These are mainly the evangelicals and fundamentalists of America (who number 80 million, although that figure is rapidly dwindling.)

Those particular Christians are hypocrites. In the words of Randall Terry, an outspoken Christian activist:

"Let a wave of intolerance wash over you. I want you to let a wave of hatred wash over you. Yes, hate is good...."

He was talking about people who voted for Clinton - but a more common target for evangelical Christian ire are 'homosexuals.' Gay people are blamed for just about everything - including 9/11. To quote Jerry Falwell, the leader of the Evangelical movement (who last year hosted the presidential debate between McCain and Obama in his 'megachurch'):

"The gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make homosexuality an alternative lifestyle -- I point the finger in their face and say "you helped this [9/11] happen.""

Those right-wing Christians claim that homosexuality is wrong because the Bible says so. The Bible also says that eating shellfish and wearing cotton is wrong, but these Christians pick and choose which bits they want to listen to (because if they had to adhere to the whole thing, life wouldn't be much fun at all!)

The Biblical debate is a big one. I've written extensively about it here. In short, though, it boils down to whether or not you think modern society's rules and standards should be regulated by a 2,000 year old piece of corporate propaganda.

Some Christians are unable to remove the Bible from their moral equation - and are therefore unable to judge something based on anything other than their own blinkered standards. Those evangelical Christians 'hate' gays because they believe the Bible told them to. If the Bible told them all to jump off a cliff, presumably they'd do that, too (we can only wish.)

But not all Christians are as limited as these ones. For example, Mummy Militant and I attend a church which welcomes gay people, and even has a few same-sex couples in the congregation. This is because some Christians are evolved, and have realized that Christ's message of love is more important that some fine-print minutia condemning homosexuality.

Why do pirates wear eye patches?

When I was a kid, I got told that pirates wore eye-patches because splinters or swords had popped their peeper out (much the same reason for the prerequisite wooden legs and hooks on their hands.) In actual fact, though, even biopic (i.e. two-eyed) pirates never went into battle without an eye-patch.

This is because the ocean could be a very bright place. On deck, the sun beat down mercilessly. Once you went below deck, however, the bowels of a pirate ships were dark and dim (pirates roamed the seas before electricity was invented.)

It takes up to thirty seconds for your eyes to adjust from bright light to near-dark - so when a raiding pirate stormed below decks, he'd be literally blinded until his eyes adjusted to the dark. That's why they took to wearing eye-patches.

Before the battle, a pirate would don his patch and one eye would adjust to the gloom. The other he'd use normally, and would be all squinty in the sunlight. After battling the enemy on deck, our raiding buccaneer could jump into the gloom below decks and lift his eye-patch - revealing his pre-adjusted eye and having instantaneous vision even in the gloom of the galley.

It's a neat trick - and one that's still used today. My father taught me a trick he used on guard duty with the RAF. Stand with one eye scrunched shut, so if the enemy cut the lights, you'll still have some pre-adjusted night vision and be able to react much faster than waiting for both peepers to adjust to the blackout.

What does Quantum of Solace mean?

'Quantum of Solace' was a fantastic short story from the James Bond anthology 'For Your Eyes Only.' It hardly features Bond - and was more about the story of two young lovers and their doomed love affair.

In it, Ian Fleming coined the term 'Quantum of Solace' to describe the smallest smidgen of love or respect that keeps somebody in a relationship. 'Quantum' is the smallest amount measurable by man. 'Solace' comes from the Latin word for consolation or comfort.

It's generally the 'Quantum of Solace' that keeps somebody in a bad relationship. If a boyfriend ignores his girlfriend, goes out with the boys without her or cheats on her, she might want to leave him - but when he does that one thoughtful thing - like making a mix-tape of 'their' songs or something equally inconsequential - it reminds her of 'why she fell in love with him' and the whole vicious cycle starts all over again.

But, more than that, the 'Quantum of Solace' is that essential spark which keeps love alive. As long as there's that 'Quantum,' a relationship can exist. When it's extinguished (by, perhaps, one thoughtless act too many) love can never be rekindled.

"The Governor had presented Bond with a theory concerning love, betrayal and cruelty between marriage partners. Calling it the 'quantum of solace,' the governor believed that the amount of comfort on which love and friendship is based could be measured. Unless there is a certain degree of humanity existing between two people, he maintained, there can be no love. It was an adage Bond had accepted as a universal truth."

High Time to Kill, Raymond Benson

How do I start writing adventure stories?

It's easy! Pick up a pen and get scribbling!

As readers of Militant Ginger will know, I love old-fashioned adventure stories. In fact, a constant thread throughout my life has been my efforts to get 'Adventure Eddy' into print.

While I haven't been altogether successful, my years of writing have taught me A LOT about penning adventure stories - specifically:

• You've got to grip the reader from the first paragraph - like in the Adventure Eddy story 'Science Lesson,' in which he opens a package somebody mailed him and finds a deadly fat-tailed scorpion inside!
• You need to have an unanswered question which keeps the reader motivated to continue reading - like just who sent Adventure Eddy that deadly scorpion!
• The characters must have good motivation for doing what they're doing. Characters drive a story forward, not plot. Give the characters believable motivation (like revenge, or a need to clear their name) and it'll make the whole unlikely scenario believable.
• Instill a sense of urgency! Time limits, or being chased by bad guys or police, give characters that extra bit of motivation to do dangerous things, and take risks they might not normally.
• Set up a few action set pieces - There are moments in a book that you'll remember forever - like James Bond's escape down the mountainside in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. Think of some really thrilling, really dangerous obstacles to overcome and it'll rack up the sense of peril.
• Put your characters in real danger - In Live and Let Die, James Bond's eponymous best friend Felix Leiter was mauled by a shark - a trick Fleming used to let his readers know that the dangers Bond faced were real, and there was no guarantee that even 007 would make it to the end of the book.
• Have a twist in the tail! The hardest trick is to throw a satisfying denoument into the mix. At the climax of the book, you've got to turn things around in such a way to blow the reader out of the water - and leave them breathless, yet satisfied. A good example is in the climax of Hugh Laurie's book 'The Gun Seller.' I won't spoil it, but it's a cracker and involves an exploding helicopter.

Do Nephilim die from copper shotgun rounds?

This is probably the oddest question I've ever been asked - linking back to my synopsis for a story called 'The God Squad.'

In it, a band of Vatican-approved 'monster hunters' would face off against an evil Nephilim - one of the half-angel, half-human creatures God had attempted to wipe out with 'The Great Flood.'

As far as I know, Nephilim are not noted for having any specific vulnerability to copper, so I'm not sure what significance that would make - but that wouldn't stop my band of morally ambiguous monster hunters riddling him with shotgun shells, if they thought that would get the job done!

What does 'Quantum of Solace' mean?

"The Governor had presented Bond with a theory concerning love, betrayal and cruelty between marriage partners. Calling it the 'quantum of solace,' the governor believed that the amount of comfort on which love and friendship is based could be measured. Unless there is a certain degree of humanity existing between two people, he maintained, there can be no love. It was an adage Bond had accepted as a universal truth."

High Time to Kill, Raymond Benson

The other day, I received this comment on my post 'What does Quantum of Solace mean?'

"Sorry. I still don't understand, "What does Quantum of Solace mean?" Can you give a simply synonymic phrase? It's too difficult for me to translate into another language. Thanks"

The truth is, it's not exactly an easy concept to explain. Ian Fleming, who originated the phrase in a short story from 'For Your Eyes Only,' was prone to occasional philosophical musings and the 'Quantum of Solace' was both his most memorable and mysterious.

But in my arrogance, I am going to attempt to explain it.

Empathy between people is measurable. The 'quantum of solace' is the smallest measurable iota of consideration you have for another person. Unless you have that 'quantum of solace' for somebody - as in, that smallest scrap of consideration and empathy for them and their feelings - you lack the capacity to love or befriend them.

I'll give a real-life example: A girl who was in an open relationship with an older guy (by open relationship, I mean 'friends with benefits' - as in, they occasionally hung out together and might occasionally sleep together.)

She liked him; as a friend and possibly even as a lover. She would drop last minute plans to see him if he called. She'd pick him up from the bar when he was too drunk to drive home. She wrote him emails. She brought him Chinese takeout when he'd got home from work. She didn't want to be his 'boyfriend,' exactly. She just made an effort because she liked him.

He liked her, too. Maybe. If he did, at least, he never seemed to show it. He just couldn't really be bothered. He'd cancel plans with her at the last minute. He'd sleep with other people and expect her to listen to his romantic laments - even while they shared a post-coital cigarette. He was the kind of guy who'd 'forget' to pick her up at the airport, even though he'd promised to. If she broke down at midnight, he'd ignore her call, roll over and go back to sleep.

In many ways, their relationship proved another Ian Fleming maxim: "In love, there is always one partner who kisses; and another who offers the cheek."

As in, there's always one partner who makes the effort, and the other who'll let them make the effort.

He was with her merely because it was convenient. She was generous to a fault, she was easy to get along with, she was fun and non-judgmental. She was always doing kind things for him, without expecting anything in return - and when there wasn't anybody else around, she was available to go to bed with him.

Yet the mismatched balance of their relationship wasn't sustainable. Eventually, after months of feeling unappreciated and exploited, this girl decided enough was enough. She was going to end their 'friendship' because she made all the effort and received no consideration in return.

He ignored her. He took her for granted. He made her feel like she was entirely inconsequential to his existence. That 'quantum of solace' - the small part of him which acknowledged and was considerate of her feelings - no longer existed. She felt like if she walked out his life forever, he probably wouldn't even notice.

And then he did something entirely unexpected. He made her a mixtape of U2 songs - the ones they'd listened to when they'd gone to a concert together (she'd got free tickets and given them to him.)

The fact that he'd sat down for twenty minutes and made that tape for her - not for anybody else, and in remembrance of something they'd done together - was enough to rekindle their relationship and she abandoned plans on walking out of his life.

The 'friends with benefits' relationship continued. He continued being a shit to her. Their mismatched relationship continued and he never stopped making her feel unappreciated and taken for granted. But that mixtape somehow represented that tiny iota of consideration he had for her. He'd done one inconsequential act to make her feel 'special' and that was enough to sustain something unsustainable.

While I might not be able to explain exactly what the 'quantum of solace' is in a short, easy to understand way, I can give you that true-life example of the concept in action.

I've really no clearer way of explaining it: The 'quantum of solace' is nothing more than homemade mixtape of U2 songs, or some other seemingly inconsequential, almost immeasurable thing that makes the difference between indifference and affection.

Quantum of Solace

If you only watch the opening minutes of the latest Bond film, Quantum of Solace, you'd be forgiven for assuming that it's THE GREATEST JAMES BOND FILM OF ALL TIME.

Kicking off mid-way through a breathtaking car chase, which sees Daniel Craig fend off bad-guys and Italian carbinari in a gadget-free Aston Martin, before moving swiftly onto a rooftop chase in Sienna, during their famous palio, it's high octane thrills from the word 'go.'

But while the blistering pace continues from that point on, the quintessential qualities of a James Bond movie dry up - making Quantum of Solace, on the whole, more like a Jason Bourne style spy-thriller than anything resembling the James Bond franchise we've come to know and love.

Director Marc Forster is deliberately trying to steer the Daniel Craig-era movies away from what went before, but he wildly oversteps the mark by shedding some of the staples of the series. Gone are the gunsight opening credits. Bond, despite drinking a large quantity of them, never orders his martini 'shaken, not stirred.' There are no gadgets, barely any witticisms and Bond-girl Olga Kurylenko receives nothing but a rather chaste 'hard kiss on the mouth' in the final scenes.

Don't get me wrong - Quantum of Solace is, as far as action adventure movies go, blisteringly exciting and well made. It's just, instead of being 'all mouth and no trousers,' it's the other way around. There's so much action and so many thrills that the complex plot is pared down to the barest essentials and the exposition ends up being entirely inadequate, leaving us all one step behind Bond's deductions as he tracks the evil 'quantum' organization across the globe.

That got my goat as well - it's all very well to plunder the original Ian Fleming novels for inspiration, but taking such a completely unrelated story and concept and shoehorning the title into the script is pretty clear proof that neither Marc Forster nor producer Michael G. Wilson or even writers Neal Purvis, Robert Wade, Paul Haggis, and Joshua Zetumer really 'get' what Ian Fleming's James Bond is all about.

Only in the final moments of the movie, where James Bond finally tracks down the man he holds responsible for the death of Vesper Lynd, do we see a flash of the character Ian Fleming invented. As Daniel Craig stomps off sullenly, into the snow, he manages to communicate to all of us that we shouldn't worry.

The scriptwriters, producers and directors might not 'get' Bond - but he does. And, at the end of the day, that's what really matters.

Highlights:

• Wrecking an Aston Martin during the opening moments.
• Judi Dench is sublime as a fussy, motherly, but ultimately ruthless 'M'
• Brutally realistic violence
• Indulgent location filming in Sienna, Haiti, Bolivia and beyond
• Daniel Craig, who keeps his 'Bond' persona pitch-perfect, despite script and direction conspiring against him.
  

Lowlights:

• It's simply not a 'Bond' film
• The plot zips from points 'A' to 'B', but bypasses 'C' and rushes straight to' Z' via '27.'
• The fight scenes are great, but the action sequences are totally unbelievable.
• It's all too fast paced - we need longer to take a breath between stylish, stunt-laden set pieces.
• That awful theme, although not as bad in context, still remains a stunningly poor choice.
  

The New James Bond Theme...

What the HELL is this crap?

Because it certainly isn't a Bond theme. Crikey, it makes Die Another Day by Madonna look acceptable. It's just TERRIBLE.

Ask Miltant Ginger

It's time for our regular question and answer column - answering the queries that have been entered into search engines and have sent the reader to this blog.

Should people with a nut allergy eat Honey Nut Cheerios?

The answer to this question is: 'No.' Followed by 'What?!?'

Or, even, answering that question with another question: 'Are you retarded?'

The stuff people enter into search engines boggles the mind sometimes. Was this a legitimate question?

Did somebody with a nut allergy really wonder if it was okay to eat honey nut cheerios? Which, it would be safe to assume, contain nuts. Otherwise they'd be breaching the Trade Descriptions Act!

Good grief! It's idiots like this that force us to print instructions on toothpicks!

More to the point, it's idiots like this that force us to write 'May Contain Nuts' on packets of peanuts (leading to the response: 'Well, I should bloody well hope so!')

So, to answer this question: "You know what, chum? Why don't you go ahead and pour yourself a big bowl of honey nut cheerios and dig right in?"

It would be nice to see Darwin's Theory of 'Survival of the Fittest' in action just to prove the conservatives wrong on creationism.

What does it mean when a New Jersey resident has Pennsylvania Plates on their car?

Well, it could mean that their car is registered in Pennsylvania!

People can live and work in New Jersey, but still keep their auto insured and registered at an address over in the Keystone State. I had two friends who lived in New York, but kept Pa. plates on their cars because the insurance was so much cheaper.

But, just as likely, it's owned by an illegal alien who's got hold of a set of Pa. plates so he can drive about without being pulled over by the local cops.

Where I live, in an almost entirely Spanish neighbourhood, a significant number of cars have battered plates from Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland and even Texas. They're all driven by illegal aliens (and mysteriously, the local cops do nothing about it.)

In either event, I'd recommend keeping your distance from cars with out of state plates. If somebody's living and working in Jersey, but have their car registered elsewhere, insurance companies often refuse to pony up if they have an accident.

If you get into a smash with an illegal driver, on the other hand, they'll normally speed away from the scene of an accident just as fast as their piece-of-shit cars will let them.

What does Quantum of Solace mean?

As I explained in this post, the Quantum of Solace is a reference to a short story written by Ian Fleming and first published in his anthology For Your Eyes Only.

The Quantum of Solace is the almost immeasurable spark of love and compassion one person has for another. They say that the opposite of love isn't hate, but indifference. If that quantum of solace is extinguished, the relationship is over.

James Bond himself, British actor Daniel Craig, perhaps explains it better than I can: "Ian Fleming says that if you don't have a quantum of solace in your relationship then the relationship is over. It's that spark of niceness in a relationship that if you don't have you might as well give up."

Quantum of Solace is also the name of the upcoming James Bond movie, set for release this November.

What does the nickname Simon James and Hill mean?

Simon James and Hill are two talented radio presenters I've had a bit of an antagonistic relationship with ever since they took the helm of Original 106's breakfast show.

I suggested that they weren't right for that audience - and the bosses at Original clearly agreed with me, since my old colleague Pat Sissons soon took over the coveted Breakfast show.

But the boys are talented - and swiftly got got promoted to breakfast show presenters on Keerang! radio, following smug git Tim Shaw's well overdue dismissal. Their rambunctious antics make them a perfect match for the popular rock-radio's audience.

As for the nickname? Simon James and Hill is the duo of Simon James and James 'Hill' Burrell. It's a cute moniker that has lots of people asking; 'are Simon, James and Hill three distinct people?' Or, as I once thought; 'are there two Simons, James and Hill?'

Whatever the reason for their nickname, you can read more about the breakfast boys here.

Quantum of Solace...

This weekend, Tina bought me the latest James Bond book - a continuation of the Ian Fleming adventures written by 'Birdsong' author Sebastian Faulks.

More on the book later - but that (and a rerun of cynical Bond outing Tomorrow Never Dies) inspired me to write a bit more about the exciting new James Bond movie Quantum of Solace - due in cinemas this November.

If you want to know what Quantum of Solace actually means - and why EON Productions picked that as the title of the 22nd Bond movie - click here.

In it, bad guy Dominic Greene will be played by veteran French actor Mathieu Amalric.

I found it amusing that he had this to say about his performance:

"I modeled my performance on the smile of Tony Blair and the craziness of Nicholas Sarkozy, the worst villain we, the French, have ever had. He walks around thinking he's in a Bond film."

Amalric later 'clarified' this was not criticism of either politician - but more a criticism of how politicians rely on performance rather than genuine policies to win power.

"Sarkozy was just a better actor than Ségolène Royal – that's why he won the presidency."

Nice try, Mathieu! But I think it's difficult to back away from accusing Sarkozy of being 'the worst villain we, the French, have ever had.'

In any event, I think Quantum of Solace promises to be an exciting film and I just hope it - and bad guy 'Mister Greene' - live up to the hype.

Indiana Jones is back...

First it was Michael Knight (and KITT.) Then it was Simon Templar. Then James Bond prepared for a November return to the big screen. And now, Indiana Jones - the iconic archeologist - is making his comeback in May's hotly anticipated Indiana Jones the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull.

I have the trailer right here!



First off - Kingdom of the Crystal Skull? What kind of dumb name is that?

Secondly - as hilarious and action-packed as the trailer looked, I'm worried they're going to be relying too much on Tomb Raider-esque stunts and jumps and not enough on the good, old-fashioned rough-and tumble that made the first three Indy films so outstanding.

But one thing's for certain. Harrison Ford is living proof that you shouldn't right off any action hero just because they've qualified for their bus pass. He looks as good as ever - and more than able to fend off a legion of bad guys!

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Cystal Skull hits cinemas on May 22nd.

What does Quantum of Solace mean?

"This title is meant to confuse a little. It debates relationships and how they hurt and how people can be hurt. If you are not respecting each other - it's over, and at the end of the last movie Bond doesn't have that because his girlfriend has been killed." Daniel Craig, on the title of the new James Bond movie.

I'm so excited about the new James Bond film.

2006's Casino Royale was pretty awesome - even for a Bond purist like me. Casino Royale was always my favorite James Bond book and director Martin Campbell made a good effort to keep the story as pure as possible, yet simultaneously bring it bang up to date and include enough explosions to keep the plebs happy. [Don't you mean the 'regular cinema-goers'? Editorial Bear]

This year, the next of the 'rebooted' Bonds will hit the cinema screen with the perfectly titled Quantum of Solace.

Quantum of Solace

But what the hell does that title mean, you might ask.

Quantum of Solace is actually the title of a short story included in the James Bond anthology For Your Eyes Only. It was one of Ian Fleming's more avant-garde writing experiments - opening with James Bond at a boring dinner party in Government House, Nassau (back in the days when the Bahamas was still run by Britain.)

Bond is incidental to this story - which is actually the tale of frustrated housewife Rhoda Masters, as told by the Governor himself.

Rhoda Masters was an air stewardess who married timid diplomat Philip Masters on a whim. But instead of finding the life of a colonial diplomat's wife luxurious, the flighty young woman soon became bored and began an open affair with a local playboy.

The affair was scandalous because Rhoda was so brazen about it. She and her rich, handsome lover made no effort to hide their passionate romance and Philip was turned into a bit of an island joke - the timid cuckold who 'put up' with his wife's flagrant infidelity.

But the affair tooks it's emotional toll on Philip and soon his work suffered and he faced a nervous breakdown. The Governor saw the devastating results his wife's affair was having on the young diplomat, so he sent Philip off to Washington DC for a lengthy trade negotiation with the Americans.

While he was gone, the philandering Rhoda was told in no uncertain terms to end her affair before her devastated husband returned.

Rhoda acquiesced to the Governor's demands - but the man who returned from Washington weeks later was very different to the timid, loving husband she'd been cheating on.

Something inside Philip Masters had died and when he returned to the Bahamas, he was a shell of his former self. Hard, cold and utterly indifferent to his wife.

Rhoda's affair and cruelty towards her husband crushed that last 'Quantum of Solace' he held within his fractured heart. Now free of any lingering affection, Philip Masters sold up everything and left Rhoda stranded in the Bahamas, divorcing her and returning to England with his former wife left utterly penniless and scorned by the rest of the diplomatic crowd.

Huh?

A quantum is the smallest possible measurable amount of something. The most utterly tiny amount that makes the difference between something 'being something' and not. In scientific terms, it's generally considered to be an atom.

The 'Quantum of Solace' was explained as being that small, practically immeasurable spark of compassion, love or feeling that kept Philip Masters alive inside while his wife was so horrifically callous towards him.

As long as there was that Quantum of Solace, there was something between them. When she finally crushed that tiny spark, Rhoda killed the connection between her and her husband. That's what empowered him to leave his wife utterly penniless in an unfriendly community - practically driving her to prostitution before a rich Canadian rescued her (and it is Rhoda and her second husband that Bond meets at the conclusion of this story.)

Ian Fleming's books are rich with clever catchphrases and concepts, but the Quantum of Solace is one of his finest. The immeasurable speck of affection that keeps a love affair smouldering.

It's often said that the opposite of love isn't hate. In fact, love and hate are separated by the thinnest of lines. Really, the opposite end of the spectrum from love is indifference. It's that Quantum of Solace that keeps somebody caring about another human being - instead of dismissing them as utterly emotionally insignificant.

The Real World

I've only seen the Quantum of Solace flicker a couple of times before - once when I broke up with a girlfriend I was still crazy about. I'd been a terrible boyfriend - and that behaviour had crushed her last Quantum of Solace. So when we broke up, I was still utterly crazy about her, but she couldn't care less. She didn't even have the interest to be angry at me. I'd just become an insignificance and she treated me accordingly.

Another time, I cared about a girl who still held some Quantum of Solace for an ex-boyfriend. He treated her terribly. Cheating, lying and being utterly heartless. But just as that Quantum of Solace threatened to burn to nothing, he'd make some utterly insignificant gesture - like giving her a 'mix tape' of his favourite songs, or inviting her to some family gathering in an act of supposed 'intimacy' and then the Quantum of Solace would flair up again and she'd be as hooked as she ever was.

Bond Is Back

Considering I'm so drawn to the concept, it should be no surprise that I'm excited the new Bond film is called Quantum of Solace. It opens up all sorts of possibilities to explore Daniel Craig's tough, but vulnerable Bond persona.

Part of me is worried it's just from expediency - there are still a few Bond titles that haven't been used yet and they all beat the generic 'Tomorrow Never Dies' and 'Die Another Day' and other meaningless phrases with 'die' in them.

But although the plot apparently stems around foiling a coup d'etat in some South American country - so it seems unlikely that aspects of the original story will be included - I still have hope,

Casino Royale was fresh and exciting and now they've got some momentum behind them, I'm sure the team at EON Productions won't disappoint us with James Bond's next installment.

No matter how bad it's ever got (like the decade gap between Timothy Dalton's last movie and the exciting Goldeneye) I've always held a Quantum of Solace for Monsier Bond.