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> A spy modelled on Bingham, who was “breathtakingly ordinary … short, fat, and of a quiet disposition”, One of the defects of James Bond is he has too much ch
by RcouF1uZ4gsC 6y ago
> A spy modelled on Bingham, who was “breathtakingly ordinary … short, fat, and of a quiet disposition”,
One of the defects of James Bond is he has too much charisma. If you ran into him, you would never forget him. That is actually, a downside for a spy. For the most part, you want someone who will just fade into the memories of those who encounter them, as just another face in the crowd, nothing special. Looks like le Carre painted a more realistic picture.
- mhh__ 6y agoWell, part of Guy Burgess's cover (if you will), was that he was so gay, so posh, and so drunk that it was impossible someone like that would be a spy.
- IfOnlyYouKnew 6y agoThere's also "telling everyone your real name", "believing you can survive that", "not showing up to either the government- or court-ordered sexual harassment seminar", alcoholism, and "unwillingness to fight international conspiracies that will severely impact the United Kingdom but happen to be headquartered in a drab location".
- jmnicolas 6y agoOf course James Bond is way too obvious, but a technique is to send a few decoys to focus enemy attention on them while the real spy is quietly doing the job.
- arethuza 6y agoIan Fleming's older brother Peter sounds closer to a basis for Bond: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Fleming_(writer) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Fleming_(writer) He was also linked to the folks who started SOE who were the people who did actual Bond like things in WW2 and who were hated by MI6 and the traditional armed forces (particularly the RAF): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Operations_Executive https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special_Operations_Executive
- atulatul 6y agoIIRC Ludlum mentions something similar when he talks about Bourne blending into the crowd.