Monday, March 17, 2008
Fleming and Bond: One in the Same?
Michel Foucault's essay, "What Is an Author?" deals with the question of how we as readers should handle the issue of how present the author is in any of their works. This then led me to think about the relationship between Ian Fleming as the author of the novel and James Bond as its debonair protagonist. In our analysis of Dracula it was commonplace on the blog to claim it was the ideas of Stoker that were bleeding into the work when analyzed by gender critics. The same connection is true between Fleming and Bond. While I am sure that the author and his greatest creation are very different in some regards, I think that Bond mirrors some of the anxieties of Fleming in his actions. Bond's world is preoccupied with the fear of Communism much the same as Fleming's is. However, since Fleming is no secret agent all he can do to allay his fears of the reds is to create a fictional Englishman who was a member of her Majesty's secret service will save the day and get the girl every time.
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I agree to a large extent to which you state Fleming's actual fears being projected onto the English character of James Bond, a sort of imaginary hero to defeat the evil "reds". I think you underestimated Flemings true involvement in similar works though. As the small biographical blurb states, "His [Fleming's] wartime experiences provided him with a first-hand knowledge of secret operations". To say that Fleming is "no secret agent" seems to overlook his truly biographical information.
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