Myths, Films And Anderson

Sometimes, what I post on the blog is neater than I realize when I post it, like here:

first, Ian Fleming referred to Sherlock Holmes;

then, both Poul Anderson and Stieg Larsson referred to both Sherlock Holmes and James Bond;

thus, both Holmes and Bond have become myths while Anderson's and Larsson's characters have mythic potential.

Although Conan Doyle's, Fleming's and Larsson's works are good and successful as prose fiction, they have obviously been boosted by film adaptations, particularly Bond. I have had to tell people that Holmes is not Basil Rathbone and that Bond is not Sean Connery. Nygel, borrowing my Bond books and reading them for the first time, is surprised to find not only good writing but also a character whom he had not realized existed. We have even had one actor playing both Bond and Blomkvist.

Of these four authors, Anderson is the only one whose series have not yet been filmed. High quality screen serializations of the Technic History and the Time Patrol would lead to reissues of all the books and might raise van Rijn, Falkayn, Flandry and Everard to their deserved place in popular culture.