James Bond is unaging in modern prose, screen and graphic adaptations. This is unacceptable, in my opinion. An author can play clever tricks with his character's age - and Ian Fleming did - but should not simply deny it. In fact, Fleming's character worried about aging.
Asimov...
...wrote that he decided to keep his Black Widowers unaging. I disagree with this but it probably did not matter in this case since each twelve-story volume represents twelve monthly banquets and there are only six collections. The characters did not endure unchanged for decades.
Poul Anderson...
...got it right, as we would expect, with Dominic Flandry who begins his series as a teenage ensign, then matures over decades to become a respected Fleet Admiral. Other authors can probably learn by reading Anderson's Flandry series.
I commend Fleming's treatment of Bond and Anderson's of Flandry.
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
I agree, Anderson did it right, showing series characters aging as time passes.
Ad astra! Sean
But. more slowly than we do, because Technic society has (moderately) effective anti-aging treatments.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
True, Technic antisenescence could enable people to live in good health till about age 110 in Terran years.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: about that. My father had the same belt measurement at 85 that he did at 18 -- he was a champion cross-country runner and nearly made the Commonwealth Games, and died at 92. The antisenescence treatment would bring everyone up to that level.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Good, I'm glad your father was so strong and healthy for most of his life.
After my unhappy experience with cervical myelopathy in 2022 I am not so confident of achieving such an age!
One book I read in 2022, IMMORTALITY, INC., by Chip Walter, discussed how there are researchers and start-ups trying to find ways of preserving good health and seriously extending life spans. Frankly, I'm skeptical of the claims I saw in that book, which seemed too fantastical to be believed. But I can see some moderate extension of life spans a la Technic antisenescence being someday possible.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean: yes, pretty much. Aging isn't inevitable -- there are animals that don't -- but in humans it's "built in'.
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