Saturday 27 October 2018

The Worst Enemy

I am a fan of Ian Fleming's James Bond novels, not of the films. However, for the purposes of this post, the films are relevant. Patrick McGoohan's The Prisoner TV series (see also here) borrowed from the Bond films the idea of a powerful evil organization with numbered members led by the mysterious Number One.

Who is our worst enemy? Are we misled by the Devil or are we alone responsible?

When Bond comes face to face with Number One, he learns that that ultimate enemy is Ernst Stavro Blofeld whereas, when the Prisoner comes face to face with Number One, he learns that that ultimate enemy is himself but this is allegory because no one can literally meet himself except in science fiction where there can be both time travel and personality duplication. Poul Anderson's download Guthrie identifies:

"'The worst enemy I could have...Myself...My duplicate.'"
-Harvest Of Stars, 2, p. 35.

The plot thickens.

2 comments:

David Birr said...

Paul:
Heck of a coincidence; I just today made a comment referencing The Prisoner on another site.

paulshackley2017@gmail.com said...

David,
You are one synchronous guy.
Paul.