Cold War Bond, my student-group discussion

My contributions to my student group discussion of "Cold War Bond" were diverse. I helped organize, create, and present. There really wasn't an aspect that I wasn't involved in. But, I'm not trying to brag. All of the group members were really involved; we tried to create a balance of effort, and I believe we succeeded.

For organization, I sent out and responded to e-mails. I had stern suggestions for the inclusion of all the members in the project, such as we all should come to class with at least one discussion topic.

For creativity, I prepared three different discussion topics. In the end, we didn't get to discuss any of my prepared topics. However, I was prepared if we couldn't get a discussion moving.

One such topic I'll go over here. I wanted to talk about differences between the book and film of "From Russia With Love." I found an interesting discrepancy. In the film Bond is saved at the end by Tania. Tania knocks the gun from the villain's hands, giving Bond freedom to incapacitate her. But, in the book Bond goes to meet the villain alone. He fights with the villain one-on-one and is injured in the process. Because of this, in the movie Tania seems to have a more personal interest in Bond, opening up to him more quickly. While in the book, Tania is more cold and mission oriented and mysterious. What could account for this difference? I was thinking it could be the peace talks between USA and Russia during the 60s, just before the film came out. During the time the book was written, the Cold War was very much alive, which could account for the coldness of Tania. But the film came out after the peace talks, so I figure it influenced the Tania character to be warmer towards Bond and more personal.

And, finally, for presentation. I kept the discussion moving by asking questions, and responding to questions and statements. One of my notable questions was "Is Bond propaganda?," this being a reference to the Cold War propaganda.