Which is better as spy fiction: Poul Anderson's Dominic Flandry series or Ian Fleming's James Bond series? Bond visits different countries in the 1950s and early '60s whereas Flandry visits many planets in a fictional future. Although both sets of locations are concretely realized, they are surely far too different to be comparable? Bond driving through Europe and Flandry plunging through hyperspace inhabit different conceptual universes.
However, perhaps there are some similarities between imagining an alien species like the Mersians and describing a very different human culture like that of Japan? See some previous posts here.
8 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Been reading some of the blog pieces and combox comments from the link you added.
When I think "spy stories," it's Anderson's Flandry stories, Fleming's James Bond tales, and William F. Buckley's Blackford Oakes (not "Oates) novels which comes to mind.
I remember you saying Fleming gives us a lot of the TECHNIQUES used by his spies in the Bond books. I would argue Anderson did the same for the Flandry stories. A CIRCUS OF HELLS
shows us how the Merseians used spies on Irumclaw. THE REBEL WORLDS tells us how Flandry was trained to learn foreign/alien languages more quickly than was needed by civilians. THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS begins with a frustrated Flandry wishing the Imperium would pay greater attention to its own files and records, because much that would be of value from an Intelligence POV would be found there. And we have discussed Flandry's use of sensory deprivation as an interrogation method (as seen in WE CLAIM THESE STARS). Chapter V of A KNIGHT OF GHOSTS AND SHADOWS shows Flandry explaining the various methods of interrogation. The story also shows us the use of double agents.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
An oddity, at least to me, of THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS, is how the circumstances in which Dominic Flandry came to investigate the planet Unan Besar is explained in Chapter II rather than in Chapter I. But I wanted to comment on this bit from Chapter II:
....The self-isolation of Unan Besar might mean nothing, except to its
dwellers. On the other hand, he knew of places where hell's own kettle
had simmered unnoticed for a long time. It was hard enough--impossible,
actually--to keep watch on those four million suns estimated to lie
within the Imperial sphere itself. Out here on the marches, where bar-
barism faded into unknownness, and the agents of a hostile Merseia
prowled and probed, any hope of controlling all situations grew cold
indeed.
Wherefore the thumb-witted guardians of a fat and fun-seeking Terra had
stopped even trying, thought Flandry. They should make periodic reviews
of the archives, sift every Intelligence report, investigate each of a
billion mysteries. But that would require a bigger Navy, he thought,
which would require higher taxes, which would deprive too many Terran
lordlings of a new skycar and too many of their mistresses of a new
synthagem bracelet. It might even turn up certain facts on which the
Navy would have to act, which might even (horrors!) lead to full-scale
fighting somewhere...
I think this tells us a lot about how competent Intelligence officers work and think. First we are told something about the difficulty and scale of the task, then we are told archives and records should be regularly scanned for oddities sticking out that it might be well to investigate. And some of these mysteries might need full scale military intervention to nullify unexpected dangers to the Empire. But that would require, as Flandry mordantly thought, higher taxes for a bigger Navy, with too many unwilling to agree to that.
We actually saw, some years later, of precisely such a danger, when the Ardazirho, egged on by Merseia, burst out of their solar system (located just barely outside the Empire) to begin carving an empire of their own from Terra's domain in WE CLAIM THESE STARS. It's possible there were old reports from centuries before mentioning Ardazir, including where it was to be found, which if they had been checked out, could have led to a much quicker and less costly settling of that problem.
Chapter II of THE PLAGUE OF MASTERS ended with Flandry deciding he would not settle for merely filing a recommendation that Unan Besar be investigated, because he thought nothing would be done about it. Instead, he would go himself to that planet. Here we see Flandry both showing INITIATIVE and apparently having the authority to self-assign himself to a new task.
Are there real world Intelligence officers in the UK and US who behave like this? These ruminations about intelligence work can go in unexpected directions!
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
A thought I should have stressed more explicitly in my previous comment was to wonder if UK and US intelligence officers ever have moments of frustration with both their superiors and their peoples. I mean, do they ever feel baffled at they can't or won't SEE the dangers and threats these intelligence officers KNOW they face? And get angry at how little seems to be being done to meet or avert those perils? We know Flandry certainly did!
Ad astra! Sean
Poul's better, IMHO. He's just a better writer, for starters, and has a better grasp on character and setting.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
In this context I think you mean Anderson was a better writer than Fleming? I agree because, while I have read the Bond books with pleasure, I don't think Fleming's works had the kind of literary and philosophical DEPTH you can find in Anderson's stories.
When it comes to the heroes of spy stories it's Dominic Flandry, Blackford Oakes, and James Bond which arises in my mind. And I have to say Fleming's seems to be the "lightest" of the three. Not that he was unaware of how brutal the USSR was--he makes that plain enough in his earlier Bond stories.
The later Bond stories are not as satisfactory, because I did not think S.P.E.C.T.R.E a satisfactory or convinving replacement villain for the KGB/SMERSH.
If I had read any of Le Carre's Smiley spy novels I would have included his books in my list of spy stories I had read.
Btw, Paul is "absent" because he is having computer problems. I hope he comes back soon!
Ad astra! Sean
I am back.
Kaor, Paul!
And I'm glad you are. Welcome back!
Ad astra! Sean
Welcome, incidentally!
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