Friday 6 April 2018

No Flandry

Targovi says that he is a secret Intelligence agent although "'...no Flandry.'" (Flandry's Legacy, p. 331) Someone claiming involvement with British Intelligence might say, "...no Reilly," (see also here) or, if they preferred fictional references, "...no Bond," or "...no Smiley."

Reilly was a real guy with real exploits who also invented yarns about himself. In the Technic History, stories are afterwards told about van Rijn, Falkayn, Adzel and Flandry and not all of these stories will be true. Hloch tells us that van Rijn lives in folk memory either as hero or rogue. Thus, Reilly, a real person with a partly deserved and partly contrived legend, seems like an appropriate precursor of Flandry.

1 comment:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

I looked up your link to Sidney George Reilly, and he really did have an impressive record as a British Intelligence agent! I wonder if he could actually have engineered the downfall of Lenin's fledgling dictatorship in 1918? If so, it's a pity he failed!

Alas, I have to admit that fictional spies like Dominic Flandry, James Bond, or Blackford Oates are what comes to mind when I think "spies."

Sean