Bond's Back
Author Kathryn Harkup knows too much. Her book Superspy Science, subtitled "Science, Death and Tech in the World of James Bond" (2022) is, I fear, an invitation to copy cat crime. It's not the spy gadgets and formulas of the book's title (which was likely influenced by the Bloomsbury Sigma editors), but the fascinating cast of characters real and fictional, exposed.
Now, anyone who knew Ian Fleming can be considered a “person of interest,” in law enforcement jargon. The reader is introduced to Boothroyd (Geoffrey), a notorious British "gun expert." He is a person of some importance, as (we read), he owns 45 registered firearms. That's a notable private arsenal in a country of strict gun laws. Boothroyd, apparently, is to blame for Bond losing his favorite Beretta pistol in the movie, for all the reasons given in the movie by actor "Q."
Certainly most if not all of Ian Fleming's characters are based on real people. All the facts will never be known because of the secretive nature of espionage. Fleming had, in fact, been enlisted into intelligence gathering for the duration of the War. The people he met became models for his fictional characters. We may assume Fleming was fascinated by them. Fleming was, first-and-foremost, a fan.
The underworld is an exclusive club. It is one that is easier to join than to leave. Take the notorious Blofeld, Bond's nemesis. This is the sort of person whom you want to know if you don't want to get killed. But fame and notoriety are different levels of the game, and to the dapper Goldfinger, a quite different person-of-interest, Bond is merely a nuisance. Throughout the movie Bond plays gumshoe cop to Goldfinger's Public Enemy #1 character.
The new narrative is that Fleming made a better writer than a spy. Espionage rates higher than writing fiction in this order of merit. In Fleming's imagination, espionage, and the criminal underworld merge. The world of Swiss bank accounts, duty-free zones, money laundering, and high finance on the High Seas is but the tip of the iceberg of all wrong-doing to Fleming, including (but not limited to) the baser crimes of murder, extortion, arson, smuggling and prostitution.
As a man of refined taste, Fleming subtly rates his fictional bad guys' style, their "class" predicates, according to his personal order of merit. Take the fictional Largo. He is, incidentally, No. 2 on my list of favorite Bond series bad guys. Largo is a pirate, a modern-day buccaneer, and devastatingly handsome. For that reason alone, he must be dispatched (no pun intended), as pirates must always be.
Fleming is as much Largo's fan as I am. His depiction is sympathetic. Largo is an Insider. The Caribbean, Largo's backyard swimming pool, sorely tempted Fleming's integrity. Fleming loved the Caribbean. The best years of his life were lived there. The lifestyle is so good it turns him to crime. It is his weakness. We have Fleming's number.
I get it. He was a better writer than a spy. If I get Kathryn Harkup's drift, the success of the James Bond phenomenon is due to the rage for celebrity, and its inversion, notoriety. Better it is to be somebody--a VIP--even if a criminal somebody, than a nobody (like the rest of us). For a nobody, like the rest of us, movies like the Bond adventures are a fantasy fulfillment.
Back on the ground, Fleming biography reveals he was as much a muddler, as the rest of us. His feat was to make celebrity worship respectable, a box office smash. He was a larger-than-life fan. He is a Pop star. Soberly, the following insights from Harkup's book provide a realistic assessment of Fleming's contradictions:
"He was recruited to work as personal assistant to the head of the Naval Intelligence Division (NID), Admiral Godfrey. His charm and connections made him ideal for the role although he had little in the way of actual qualifications or experience...
In a footnote:
...Though speaking French, German and a smattering of Russian were a definite asset."
And, along the same vein:
"Though Fleming was at the heart of many intelligence operations during the war, and met many people who would provide inspiration for his daring fictional spy hero, he was never personally involved in a mission. The risk of his being captured and divulging secret information to the enemy was too great."
In other words he talked too much.
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