The new Bond film's title has been revealed, and it is Qauntum of Solace. No, really. I am impressed. This is a talking point - the weirdest title of a mainstream film since The Silence of the Lambs, and surely much weirder than that. This may be up there with "A Toccata of Gallupi's" or something quarkian from Joyce.
THAT HANDSOME MAN A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought. Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that
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evidently, it's one of the last unused original Fleming titles, but i also suspect it was chosen so they could create the iconic 007 with the O in "of" and the O in "Solace". i wouldn't be a bit surprised to learn that the choice is as simple as that.
Kimmy