Editing Ian Fleming (section)

== Writing ==
The author [[Raymond Benson]], who later wrote a series of Bond novels, noted that Fleming's books fall into two stylistic periods. Those books written between 1953 and 1960 tend to concentrate on "mood, character development, and plot advancement", while those released between 1961 and 1966 incorporate more detail and imagery. Benson argues that Fleming had become "a master storyteller" by the time he wrote ''Thunderball'' in 1961.{{sfn|Benson|1988|pp=85, 31}}

[[Jeremy Black (historian)|Jeremy Black]] divides the series based on the villains Fleming created, a division supported by fellow academic Christoph Lindner.{{sfn|Lindner|2009|p=81}} Thus the early books from ''Casino Royale'' to ''For Your Eyes Only'' are classed as "Cold War stories", with [[SMERSH]] as the antagonists.{{sfn|Black|2005|p=49}} These were followed by [[Ernst Stavro Blofeld|Blofeld]] and [[SPECTRE]] as Bond's opponents in the three novels ''Thunderball'', ''On Her Majesty's Secret Service'' and ''You Only Live Twice'', after the thawing of East–West relations.{{sfn|Black|2005|p=v}}{{efn|Despite the thaw, the Cold War became increasingly tense again shortly afterwards, with the [[Bay of Pigs Invasion]], the construction of the [[Berlin Wall]] and the [[Cuban Missile Crisis]] between April 1961 and November 1962.{{sfn|Black|2005|pp=49–50}}}} Black and Lindner classify the remaining books—''The Man with the Golden Gun'', ''Octopussy and The Living Daylights'' and ''The Spy Who Loved Me''—as "the later Fleming stories".{{sfn|Black|2005|p=71}}

=== Style and technique ===
Fleming said of his work, "while thrillers may not be Literature with a capital L, it is possible to write what I can best describe as 'thrillers designed to be read as literature{{' "}}.{{sfn|Faulks|Fleming|2009|p=320}} He named [[Raymond Chandler]], [[Dashiell Hammett]], [[Eric Ambler]] and [[Graham Greene]] as influences.{{sfn|Bennett|Woollacott|2003|p=13}} William Cook in the ''[[New Statesman]]'' considered James Bond to be "the culmination of an important but much-maligned tradition in English literature. As a boy, Fleming devoured the [[Bulldog Drummond]] tales of Lieutenant Colonel [[H. C. McNeile]] (aka "Sapper") and the [[Richard Hannay]] stories of John Buchan. His genius was to repackage these antiquated adventures to fit the fashion of postwar Britain&nbsp;... In Bond, he created a Bulldog Drummond for the jet age."<ref name="Cook (2004)" /> [[Umberto Eco]] considered [[Mickey Spillane]] to have been another major influence.{{sfn|Eco|2003|p=34}}

In May 1963 Fleming wrote a piece for ''Books and Bookmen'' magazine in which he described his approach to writing Bond books: "I write for about three hours in the morning&nbsp;... and I do another hour's work between six and seven in the evening. I never correct anything and I never go back to see what I have written&nbsp;... By following my formula, you write 2,000 words a day."{{sfn|Faulks|Fleming|2009|p=320}} Benson identified what he described as the "Fleming Sweep", the use of "hooks" at the end of chapters to heighten tension and pull the reader into the next.{{sfn|Benson|1988|p=85}} The hooks combine with what [[Anthony Burgess]] calls "a heightened journalistic style"{{sfn|Burgess|1984|p=74}} to produce "a speed of narrative, which hustles the reader past each danger point of mockery".{{sfn|Faulks|Fleming|2009|p=318}}

Umberto Eco analysed Fleming's works from a [[Structuralism|structuralist]] point of view,{{sfn|Lindner|2009|p=3}} and identified a series of oppositions within the storylines that provide structure and narrative, including:
{{div col}}
* Bond—M
* Bond—Villain
* Villain—Woman
* Woman—Bond
* Free World—Soviet Union
* Great Britain—non-Anglo-Saxon countries
* Duty—Sacrifice
* Cupidity—Ideals
* Love—Death
* Chance—Planning
* Luxury—Discomfort
* Excess—Moderation
* Perversion—Innocence
* Loyalty—Dishonour{{sfn|Eco|2003|p=36}}
{{div col end}}

Eco also noted that the Bond villains tend to come from Central Europe or from Slavic or Mediterranean countries and have a mixed heritage and "complex and obscure origins".{{sfn|Eco|2003|p=40}} Eco found that the villains were generally asexual or homosexual, inventive, organisationally astute, and wealthy.{{sfn|Eco|2003|p=40}} Black observed the same point: "Fleming did not use class enemies for his villains instead relying on physical distortion or ethnic identity&nbsp;... Furthermore, in Britain foreign villains used foreign servants and employees&nbsp;... This racism reflected not only a pronounced theme of interwar adventure writing, such as the novels of Buchan, but also wider literary culture."{{sfn|Black|2005|p=19}} Writer [[Louise Welsh]] found that the novel ''Live and Let Die'' "taps into the paranoia that some sectors of white society were feeling" as the [[civil rights movement]]s challenged prejudice and inequality.{{sfn|Fleming|Welsh|2006|p=v}}

Fleming used well-known brand names and everyday details to support a sense of realism.{{sfn|Faulks|Fleming|2009|p=320}} Kingsley Amis called this "the Fleming effect",{{sfn|Amis|1966|p=112}} describing it as "the imaginative use of information, whereby the pervading fantastic nature of Bond's world&nbsp;... [is] bolted down to some sort of reality, or at least counter-balanced."{{sfn|Amis|1966|pp=111–112}}

=== Major themes ===

==== Britain's position in the world ====
The Bond books were written in post-war Britain, when the country was still an imperial power.{{sfn|Black|2005|p=3}} As the series progressed, the [[British Empire]] was in decline; journalist William Cook observed that "Bond pandered to Britain's inflated and increasingly insecure self-image, flattering us with the fantasy that Britannia could still punch above her weight."<ref name="Cook (2004)" /> This decline of British power was referred to in several of the novels; in ''From Russia, with Love'', it manifested itself in Bond's conversations with Darko Kerim, when Bond admits that in England, "we don't show teeth any more—only gums."{{sfn|Fleming|Higson|2006|p=227}}{{sfn|Macintyre|2008|p=113}} The theme is strongest in one of the later books of the series, the 1964 novel ''You Only Live Twice'', in conversations between Bond and the head of Japan's secret intelligence service, [[Tiger Tanaka]]. Fleming was acutely aware of the loss of British prestige in the 1950s and early 60s, particularly during the [[Indonesia–Malaysia confrontation]], when he had Tanaka accuse Britain of throwing away the empire "with both hands".{{sfn|Macintyre|2008|p=113}}{{sfn|Chancellor|2005|pp=200–201}}{{sfn|Black|2005|p=62}}

Black points to the defections of [[Cambridge Five|four members of MI6]] to the [[Soviet Union]] as having a major impact on how Britain was viewed in US intelligence circles.{{sfn|Black|2005|p=61}} The last of the defections was that of [[Kim Philby]] in January 1963,<ref>{{cite ODNB |last=Clive |first=Nigel |title=Philby, Harold Adrian Russell (Kim) (1912–1988) |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/40699 |access-date=25 October 2011 |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/40699 |year=2004}}</ref> while Fleming was still writing the first draft of ''You Only Live Twice''.{{sfn|Benson|1988|p=24}} The briefing between Bond and M is the first time in the twelve books that Fleming acknowledges the defections.{{sfn|Chancellor|2005|p=200}} Black contends that the conversation between M and Bond allows Fleming to discuss the decline of Britain, with the defections and the [[Profumo affair]] of 1963 as a backdrop.{{sfn|Black|2005|p=62}} Two of the defections had taken place shortly before Fleming wrote ''Casino Royale'',<ref>{{cite ODNB |last=Kerr |first=Sheila |title=Burgess, Guy Francis de Moncy (1911–1963) |doi=10.1093/ref:odnb/37244 |url=http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/37244 |access-date=20 September 2011 |year=2004}}</ref> and the book can be seen as the writer's "attempt to reflect the disturbing moral ambiguity of a post-war world that could produce traitors like [[Guy Burgess|Burgess]] and [[Donald Maclean (spy)|Maclean]]", according to Lycett.{{sfn|Lycett|1996|p=221}}

By the end of the series, in the 1965 novel, ''The Man with the Golden Gun'', Black notes that an independent inquiry was undertaken by the Jamaican judiciary, while the CIA and MI6 were recorded as acting "under the closest liaison and direction of the Jamaican CID": this was the new world of a non-colonial, independent Jamaica, further underlining the decline of the British Empire.{{sfn|Black|2005|p=78}} The decline was also reflected in Bond's use of US equipment and personnel in several novels.{{sfn|Black|2005|pp=53–54}} Uncertain and shifting geopolitics led Fleming to replace the Russian organisation SMERSH with the international terrorist group SPECTRE in ''Thunderball'', permitting "evil unconstrained by ideology".{{sfn|Black|2005|p=50}} Black argues that SPECTRE provides a measure of continuity to the remaining stories in the series.{{sfn|Black|2005|p=49}}

==== Effects of the war ====
A theme throughout the series was the effect of the Second World War.{{sfn|Black|2005|p=7}} ''The Times'' journalist Ben Macintyre considers that Bond was "the ideal antidote to Britain's postwar austerity, rationing and the looming premonition of lost power",{{sfn|Macintyre|2008|pp=85–86}} at a time when coal and many items of food were still rationed.<ref name="Cook (2004)" /> Fleming often used the war as a signal to establish good or evil in characters:{{sfn|Black|2005|p=20}}{{sfn|Black|2005|p=59}} in [[For Your Eyes Only (short story)|''For Your Eyes Only'']], the villain, Hammerstein, is a former [[Gestapo]] officer, while the sympathetic [[Royal Canadian Mounted Police]] officer, Colonel Johns, served with the British under [[Bernard Montgomery|Montgomery]] in the [[Eighth Army (United Kingdom)|Eighth Army]].{{sfn|Black|2005|p=41}} Similarly, in ''Moonraker'', Drax (Graf Hugo von der Drache) is a "megalomaniac German Nazi who masquerades as an English gentleman",{{sfn|Black|2005|p=81}} and his assistant, Krebs, bears the same name as Hitler's last Chief of Staff.{{sfn|Black|2005|p=20}} In this, Fleming "exploits another British cultural antipathy of the 1950s. Germans, in the wake of the Second World War, made another easy and obvious target for bad press."{{sfn|Black|2005|p=81}} As the series progressed, the threat of a re-emergent Germany was overtaken by concerns about the Cold War, and the novels changed their focus accordingly.{{sfn|Black|2005|p=x}}

==== Comradeship ====
Periodically in the series, the topic of comradeship or friendship arises, with a male ally who works with Bond on his mission.{{sfn|Benson|1988|p=86}} Raymond Benson believes that the relationships Bond has with his allies "add another dimension to Bond's character, and ultimately, to the thematic continuity of the novels".{{sfn|Benson|1988|p=87}} In ''Live and Let Die'', agents Quarrel and [[Felix Leiter|Leiter]] represent the importance of male friends and allies, seen especially in Bond's response to the shark attack on Leiter; Benson observes that "the loyalty Bond feels towards his friends is as strong as his commitment to his job".{{sfn|Benson|1988|p=96}} In ''Dr. No'', Quarrel is "an indispensable ally".{{sfn|Lindner|2009|p=67}} Benson sees no evidence of discrimination in their relationship{{sfn|Benson|1988|p=112}} and notes Bond's genuine remorse and sadness at Quarrel's death.{{sfn|Benson|1988|p=110}}

==== The "traitor within" ====
From the opening novel in the series, the theme of treachery was strong. Bond's target in ''Casino Royale'', [[Le Chiffre]], was the paymaster of a French communist trade union, and the overtones of a fifth column struck a chord with the largely British readership, as Communist influence in the trade unions had been an issue in the press and parliament,{{sfn|Black|2005|p=5}} especially after the defections of Burgess and Maclean in 1951.{{sfn|Lycett|1996|p=221}} The "traitor within" theme continued in ''Live and Let Die'' and ''Moonraker''.{{sfn|Black|2005|p=16}}

==== Good versus evil ====
Raymond Benson considered the most obvious theme of the series to be good versus evil.{{sfn|Benson|1988|p=86}} This crystallised in ''Goldfinger'' with the [[Saint George]] motif, which is stated explicitly in the book:{{sfn|Benson|1988|p=231}} "Bond sighed wearily. Once more into the breach, dear friend! This time, it really was St George and the dragon. And St George had better get a move on and do something";{{sfn|Fleming|2006|loc=ch 18}} Black notes that the image of St. George is an English, rather than British personification.{{sfn|Black|2005|p=39}}

==== Anglo-American relations ====
The Bond novels also dealt with the question of Anglo-American relations, reflecting the central role of the US in the defence of the West.{{sfn|Black|2005|p=6}} In the aftermath of the Second World War, tensions surfaced between a British government trying to retain its empire and the American desire for a capitalist new world order, but Fleming did not focus on this directly, instead creating "an impression of the normality of British imperial rule and action".{{sfn|Black|2005|p=7}} Author and journalist [[Christopher Hitchens]] observed that "the central paradox of the classic Bond stories is that, although superficially devoted to the Anglo-American war against communism, they are full of contempt and resentment for America and Americans".<ref name="Hitchens (2006)" /> Fleming was aware of this tension between the two countries, but did not focus on it strongly.{{sfn|Black|2005|p=7}} Kingsley Amis, in his exploration of Bond in ''[[The James Bond Dossier]]'', pointed out that "Leiter, such a nonentity as a piece of characterization&nbsp;... he, the American, takes orders from Bond, the Britisher, and that Bond is constantly doing better than he".{{sfn|Amis|1966|p=90}}

For three of the novels, ''Goldfinger'', ''Live and Let Die'' and ''Dr. No'', it is Bond the British agent who has to sort out what turns out to be an American problem,{{sfn|Black|2005|pp=38–39}} and Black points out that although it is American assets that are under threat in ''Dr. No'', a British agent and a British warship, HMS ''Narvik'', are sent with British soldiers to the island at the end of the novel to settle the matter.{{sfn|Black|2005|p=33}} Fleming became increasingly jaundiced about America, and his comments in the penultimate novel ''You Only Live Twice'' reflect this;{{sfn|Macintyre|2008|p=187}} Bond's responses to Tanaka's comments reflect the declining relationship between Britain and America—in sharp contrast to the warm, co-operative relationship between Bond and Leiter in the earlier books.{{sfn|Black|2005|p=62}}