61 replies to this topic

[Trident]

In other words, we know that Bond entered the rough and violent life of the military at age 17, but we don't know how he made his first forays into the realm of espionage and how he came to become a spy ripe for recruitment to MI6.

Actually Bond isn't really depicted as a spy. At least not as a professional one. He drifted into that twilight zone between intelligence and sabotage work that was the realm of the commandos and of SOE at the beginning of the war (taking here Fleming's own 'revised' timeline for Bond), probably because he was athletic, daring and was fluent in the language of the enemy, German, and of occupied France.

After the war the likes of Bond were normally quickly demobilised, their outfits either disbanded or integrated into the 'regular' Secret Service (that came under the roof of the Foreign Office, not the Ministry of Defence, as Fleming's version was described as). Bond apparently is a remnant of that time and some of it actually does echo in the books. As spying goes Bond is an amateur.

[The Shark]

In other words, we know that Bond entered the rough and violent life of the military at age 17, but we don't know how he made his first forays into the realm of espionage and how he came to become a spy ripe for recruitment to MI6.

Actually Bond isn't really depicted as a spy. At least not as a professional one. He drifted into that twilight zone between intelligence and sabotage work that was the realm of the commandos and of SOE at the beginning of the war (taking here Fleming's own 'revised' timeline for Bond), probably because he was athletic, daring and was fluent in the language of the enemy, German, and of occupied France.

After the war the likes of Bond were normally quickly demobilised, their outfits either disbanded or integrated into the 'regular' Secret Service (that came under the roof of the Foreign Office, not the Ministry of Defence, as Fleming's version was described as). Bond apparently is a remnant of that time and some of it actually does echo in the books. As spying goes Bond is an amateur.

Precisely. In Casino Royale, Bond makes a clear distinction between and his profession and the paper work of the "white collar boys". Bond is a essentially a glorified counter-intelligence black ops commando, but by no means a spy (a la - George Smiley). That doesn't mean his line of work precludes espionage and paper work, but it's just not his main expertise. Exemplified best when M sanctions Bond to Night Duty in Goldfinger, and Bond spends time between incoming calls from Hong Kong, finishing a manual of close combat for the service.

Spy's are usually of the more the industrious, workaholic type, though not that imaginative. More like bean counters than the romanticised heroes old yore, which Bond is modern microcosm of that.