The informant is a graduating senior at the University of Southern California, studying Creative Writing and Social Sciences with an emphasis in Psychology. She was born in Egypt and originally held Egyptian citizenship, but moved to the United States when she was quite young and is now an American citizen.

This piece relates to the informant’s father’s variation on James Bond stories.

“He also told me his version of James Bond stories, like to the best of his abilities. My dad’s not very good at remembering things. So, essentially, he made up a James Bond crew, um, including, what was his name? Moustafa Lookatmymuscles. [laughs] And he was basically this guy, who was um, he was the brute strength of the group, and he just lifted doors and opened things. And his last name was Lookatmymuscles, so. Aaaand, what else?

He [her father] was, he would just tell me and it started out with, “Little did you know about James Bond that he had a backup crew.” Cause we knew James Bond just fine. Um, and he would tell me about his muscles, and there was this brainy girl who like operated all the computers, and there was this other guy who rode horses, I think. And there was this other guy who was the guns, basically. Basically he was the physical gun. So, they all followed James Bond around and basically did his dirty work after he, like infiltrated things. And Moustafa Lookatmymuscles always opened doors cause his muscles were very useful for that. And he sounded a lot like Arnold Schwarzenegger.”

Analysis:

James Bond’s backup crew interests me because it originates from authored literature rather a variation on existing folklore. What I find most notable about this piece is that the informant’s father brings in a female character and a character whose name suggests he may be from a similar ethnic background as the informant. This might allow the performers of this tale to feel more like an integral part of the James Bond narrative, which is known for featuring white men.