Contemporary And Futuristic Fiction: 007 In New York And Flandry In Archopolis

Ian Fleming wrote "007 in New York" about where James Bond eats, drinks, sleeps and does other things while he is in New York. He gives Paris the same treatment in several paragraphs of "From A View To A Kill," e.g.:

"Since 1945 [Bond] had not had a happy day in Paris. It was not that the town had sold its body. Many towns have done that. It was its heart that was gone - pawned to the tourists, pawned to the Russians and Roumanians and Bulgars, pawned to the scum of the world who had gradually taken the town over. And, of course, pawned to the Germans. You could see it in the people's eyes - sullen, envious, ashamed."

-Ian Fleming, "From A View To A Kill" IN Fleming, For Your Eyes Only (London, 1964), pp. 7-37 AT pp. 12-13.

We get the impression that Fleming knows the score - and I think that he did. My question is: would Poul Anderson have been able to write a comparable "Flandry in Archopolis" passage? Yes, but not as easily. An author of contemporary fiction has it easy. He can refer to Russians, Romanians, Bulgars and Germans and know that we know what he means. Anderson would have had to have written several earlier Technic History instalments to establish the reality of four or more social/ethnic/national/planetary groups that he would then have been able to refer to in the same kind of way. Not easy. But we appreciate what Anderson did do with Ythrians, Merseians, Wodenites, Cynthians etc. The Technic History is the most "lived in" future history series.

I love these far gone comparisons.