James Bond and the Art of Eating Eggs

Abstract

James Bond eats a lot of eggs. He eats them in every one of Ian Fleming's twelve Bond novels. He eats eggs scrambled, fried, boiled, shirred, and 'en cocotte', as well as in omelettes, soufflés, and béarnaise sauce, and in a hangover cure known as a "prairie oyster." In one of the short stories, '007 in New York', Bond even teaches others how to prepare scrambled eggs "for four individualists." ... In Bond's (and Fleming's) hands, the humble household dish of scrambled eggs becomes elegant, assured, and sexy - combining simplicity and luxury, individualism and sharing, hedonism and comfort. Indeed, eggs, I will argue, are emblematic of Bond's paradoxical qualities, being sometimes universally accessible, sometimes exclusive, and being individual entities able to be eaten (or to act) alone, but also successful binding agents - essential ingredients, one might say, of more complex and inclusive dishes, activities, or institutions. I'll also make the case that Bond's enjoyment of eggs operates as an index of his character when viewed in the context of poshvar British consumption habits (both individual and mass) and in the context of symbolic resonances of identity, gender, death, and life.