Ian Fleming Essay Research Paper The name

Ian Fleming Essay, Research Paper

The name s Bond. James Bond.

Ian Fleming s personal experiences helped him achieve accuracy in technical information and ideas that he would later demonstrate in his writing. Ian Fleming led a fast paced, risky life. He was born in 1908 to wealthy parents, Valentine Fleming and Evelyn St. Croix Rose Fleming. Valentine Fleming was a landowner and a member of Parliament. Valentine died in the Great War when Ian was only nine. Ian enrolled in Eton University in England but was dismissed following an incident with a girl, a situation that would arise repeatedly throughout his life and show up later in his writing through the Bond girls . Fleming then moved on to the Sandhurst Military Academy. He looked down on traditional military careers and never became an officer. He believed they were all too confining. Fleming officially left after he was caught violating curfew. Fleming s independence and desire to build his own identity clashed sharply with military conduct. After leaving the military academy, Fleming continued his schooling at Kitzbuhel in Austria. It was here that Ian gained his reputation for being handsome, cultured, and confident with the ladies.

Fleming experimented with writing poetry and short stories, but had no intention of becoming a serious writer. Over the next few years he tried journalism and banking, both without success. Ian began to invite coworkers to lavish dinner parties at his rented apartment. High-stake bridge games, elaborate feasts, and empty romances eventually became his pasttimes. This was the time in his life when gambling, drinking, and women would eventually influence his novels.

In May 1939 on the eve of World War II, Ian enlisted in the Royal Navy and became part of Naval Intelligence. He was quickly promoted and in short time found himself working with one of Britain s greatest spys, Admiral John Godfrey. Throughout the war Ian carried out and led dozens of and dangerous missions. Fleming s supervisors recognized his talent for conceiving strategies that would confuse and enrage the Germans. This creativity is very evident a myriad of strategies presented in his novels and was probably developed during his years with the Navy. Fleming s writing skill became apparent to others while he commanded British Intelligence. His journals were not dull like most military journals. Instead, his unorthodox style and almost limitless knowledge of every subject made his journals interesting. Fleming discovered his potential and ability and thus began perhaps the most famous series of novels ever written.

Through the use of stereotyped characters, exotic settings, and non-stop action, Ian Fleming created a new style of popular literature where fiction collided with reality. Until Fleming became commercially successful, Sir Arthur Conan Doyle dominated the techno-thriller market. Ian Fleming captivated the old audience and added new legions of fans in the late 1950s and early 1960s with his action packed 007 novels. By presenting an entirely new literary form, the spy novel, Fleming gave the world s readers a new inspirational hero, James Bond.

By including elements of danger, adventure, espionage, wit, and promiscuity, he attracted millions of readers worldwide. Fleming used his personal formula in all of his extremely successful 007 novels. He entertained a new audience with a character, James Bond, whose primary interest was national security. Fleming allowed Bond to save the world from evil in style, and in this way created the modern spy novel.

Bond, a secret agent employed by the British government with the code name 007, had assignments ranging from saving the world from nuclear annihalation to stopping a greedy criminal who would make America s supply of gold at Ft. Knox radioactive. His missions became more difficult and the stakes always grew higher with each successive novel. Although Bond was employed by the British Secret Service, Fleming wanted the reader to understand that 007 was independent and typically performed his duties alone.

Ian Fleming revealed few details about James Bond, the secret agent, almost making Bond inhuman. The reader is never given details about Bond s family or his other pursuits in life. No one knew where James Bond was the week before, what his favorite food was, or what his favorite pasttimes were. Details like emphasize that Bond was not meant to be understood as a common person. The following passage from the very end of Fleming s The Spy Who Loved Me, spoken by Bond s lover, Vivienne Michel, is indicative of how Fleming wanted his audience to view Bond s character:

A secret agent. I didn t care what he did. A number. I had already forgotten it. I knew exactly who he was and what he was. And everything, every smallest detail, would be written on my heart forever (143) .

The reader is not supposed to understand James s emotions. Fleming s secret agent was created with stoicism in mind; that is, Bond shows little emotion despite his surroundings or circumstances. Fleming intended that his audience view Bond as a mysterious agent, not a mortal. A reader loses faith in a character that is not one hundred percent confidant in himself. If Bond were to break down emotionally in a scene, he would not be viewed as the strong character essential to all Fleming s subsequent plots.

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