Thursday, 8 September 2022

Deferred Retirement

 "...intelligence officers never really retire, they just slip into the shadows."
-Stieg Larsson, The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest (London, 2010), CHAPTER 5, p. 106.

Are they not already in the shadows? Why should they not retire? I suspect that this is just a romantic fictional perspective.

"Flandry could retire whenever he chose: to a modest income from pension and investments, and an early death from boredom. He preferred to stay in the second oldest profession. In between adventures and enjoyments, an Intelligence officer - a spy - must needs do a vast amount of grubby foundation-laying."
-Poul Anderson, A Stone In Heaven IN Anderson, Flandry's Legacy (Riverdale, NY, June 2012), pp. 1-188 AT III, p. 32.

How many real-world Intelligence officers have "adventures"? If retirement is boring, then what is the point of living?
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4 comments:

  1. S.M. Stirling9 September 2022 at 03:27

    Depends whether your job is just something you do to keep fed, or whether it's what you do for satisfaction.

    I'm going to write until I die or get too senile, for example. Writing fiction is what I would do for a hobby if I couldn't make a living at it.

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  2. paulshackley2017@gmail.com9 September 2022 at 08:57

    Right - su you are not going to be bored in retirement!

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  3. paulshackley2017@gmail.com9 September 2022 at 14:04

    so

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  4. Sean M. Brooks28 September 2022 at 02:30

    Kaor, Mr. Stirling!

    And your "hobby" has given many, many readers great pleasure!

    Ad astra! Sean

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