HYDERABAD: With there now being an abundance of formidable female characters, each as “badass” as their male counterparts, it may be difficult to believe that the ‘realistic’ action genre of popular literature was once largely a patriarchal preserve. One capable woman set the path for her ilk. But Peter O’Donnell’s sultry, stunning and intelligent Modesty Blaise is not only the original action heroine, but also exemplifies profound literary imagination.
Inspired from a brief encounter the author had with an unnamed, nearly feral, refugee girl in Persia during his World War II service and his conceptualisation – two decades hence – of how her future might have unfolded, Modesty has had an enviable cross-media stint. Apart from the long-running (1963-2002), worldwide syndicated comic strip, spanning 99 storylines, she starred in 13 books – including two short story collections – at least two films, many radio dramas and a number of pop songs.
A planned TV series, however, didn’t materialise and Quentin Tarrantino, who planned to make a film on her, only ended up showing his “Pulp Fiction” assassin Vincent Vega (John Travolta) reading one of the Modesty novels.
But what makes the black-haired, high-cheekboned and buxom but fighting fit Modesty stand out from the other Action Girls – which are not a modern phenomenon but occur right from classical and ancient religious literature? Apart from goddesses – the Greek pantheon’s Athena and Artemis – who also inspired female “knights” in chivalric literature: Bradamante and Marfisa in Ariosto’s “Orlando Furioso” to Belphoebe, Britomart, and Palladine in Edmund Spenser’s ‘The Faerie Queene’.
But then, for quite long, the norm was an action hero, and action heroines were rare – Red Sonya or others by Robert E. “Conan the Barbarian” Howard, or say, Eowyn, Galadriel, Haleth from JRR Tolkien’s ‘Lord of the Rings’ besides comic book stars from Wonder Woman to Batgirl . Though now there’s Hermione (‘Harry Potter’), Annabeth Chase, Reyna, her elder sister Hyalla and others (the Percy Jackson cycle), Thursday Next (Jasper Fforde) and, of course, Steig Larsson’s Lisbeth Salander, all these are either comic book superheroines or from the mythology, fantasy or science fiction genres, save Salander. And while in the “real” world, she is unconventional and anti-social. Having collected half a million pounds before she was 26, she wound up her network, and “retired” to Britain, but comes back to active status to do an odd job or two for British intelligence, or when her close friends are threatened, or some criminal mastermind drags them into his nefarious schemes. Recalling that fleeting meeting, he fleshed out a possible future and the character was born and a movie followed. It sees Modesty, aided by her trusty aide and friend, the rough-hewn-turned sophisticated Willie Garvin, foil an attempt to hijack a large and valuable diamond consignment being shipped to an Arabian sheikh by the British government.
“And then what sets Modesty’s adventures apart? There is plenty of action and sex. The key difference is her close, platonic relationship with Willie, based on complete openness, understanding and trust– and so devoted that threatening one will draw the other’s unflinching wrath (as many villains learn).