Saturday, 14 November 2020

Flandry And Bond

After publishing the previous post, I thought of comparing Dominic Flandry and James Bond but first checked and found that this has been done frequently before. See here. The next non-blog-related rereading will probably be Goldfinger. Ian Fleming, like Poul Anderson, presents more densely detailed fictional narratives than might have been expected, especially if the reader's only idea of Bond comes from the films. It is to be hoped first that Anderson's Technic History will indeed be filmed and secondly that Anderson's books and the films named after them do not part company in the way that notoriously happened in the case of Bond.

3 comments:

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Paul!

Or in the analogous way JRR Tolkien's THE HOBBIT and THE LORD OF THE RINGS simply were not accurately used by Peter Jackson for HIS movies.

Ad astra! Sean

S.M. Stirling said...

Similarities would also arise from the fact that Poul and Fleming were drinking from the same well -- dashing, urbane, dangerous spies were a staple of fiction since the 19th century.

Eg., Sandy Arbuthnot in Buchan's stories, like Greenmantle and The 39 Steps.

Sean M. Brooks said...

Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

Alas, I've not read Buchan's stories. But William F. Buckley's character Blackford Oakes was certainly urbane and dashing, and every bit as dangerous as Flandry and Bond.

Ad astra! Sean