Masaryk university

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to reorientation of secret service agents and to the change of their tasks, and to a new target-determination of new potential enemies. In context of the events of 11 September 2001, the outline turns out what new course the genre of spy fiction will take.

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6. The Typical Features of a Spy Hero

180 History is moving pretty quickly these days and the heroes and villains keep on changing places. James Bond in Casino Roayle

181 For some people spying could be considered immoral, dishonorable and inconsistent with a free and democratic society. They could consider spies to be liars, traitors, thieves or even worse. Few people have any real understanding of what the world of spying is like. Moreover nowadays spyi ng has become ra ther poli tici zed. People s´ vie ws ar e namely shaped by the media and films stereotypes about spying and they give sometimes an inaccurate picture of how espionage is done. The public is usually expected from knowing about specific operations or sensitive sources and methods. Spies are collecting the intelligence critical data to protecting the country. The job they are doing is difficult and dangerous, but somehow important. They are always to prepare themselves against enemies. A prepared country is then seldom attacked. Spies are then one of the greatest forces for world peace. Apart their military colleagues, spies do not have a written official set of rules which would be binding for their behavior. If spies should not set the rules themselves, who should? Without clear rules set by an executive body spies could get not only themselves in a bigger risk. Though spying has changed little over the centuries except in new technologies, the character of spy has almost not changed. In my opinion, the requirements had not changed since biblical times. “ Just like Moses, modern spymaster sent out those trained men in obser vation and me mory, and gifted with desc riptive skills “t he l east developed of all human tr ait s”. “ What kind of human being is then a spy? How can one join the real world of the men whose fiction counterparts live in a fantasy world of beautiful blondes and sports cars like Jaguar, Aston Martin? Can a common person engage in espionage on behalf of some

180 181 Black, Jeremy. The Politics of James Bond. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 2005. p. 4 Britton, Wesley A. Beyond Bond: Spies in fiction and film. Westport: Praeger Publishers. 2005. p.7

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country, and not destroy his or her moral values? What comes before one enters such a job? And what about an appearance of a common spy? Is there any need for an expert knowledge to become a spy? What do usually intelligence services and agencies employing spies need? What kind information do spy have to collect? Do spies have to follow some entry courses to familiarize with some information? Are there any tips how to become a spy or how to make contact with? There are lots of questions which must be answered before we can draw a general summary of a spy. A British agent is a very common, hardworking, ordinary person. He is obliged to follow the rules and regulations, asked with boring questions, reports and assigned with assessments of his own reports. Officially he must mostly lead a normal and discreet kind of life. Education, common sense, the hopefully knowledge of foreign languages are key requirements, especially when spy is to work abroad. Before such a one can enter such a job, he/she will be fairly thoroughly investigated. Many things can cause problems, origin, connections, attitudes, physical or mental barrier, diseases, appearance etc. Sometimes spy must be a real expert, it depends on his function and commission and sometimes there is no need for expert knowledge. Namely the organizations that spy should be active for, need various information on subjects like political, military, industrial, economic, social date. Sometimes such organizations force spies to watch carefully scandals in high places. All newcomers who are interested in becoming a spy are examined and tested in pretty hard courses to familiarize themselves with communications, codes, ciphers, tactics, strategies, plans, methods, procedures. Spies are given instructions concerning their targets and they are mostly contacted in target places, sometimes they have no idea who it could be. Generally said there are no tip how to become a spy. 6.1 The James Bond Phenomenon The modern world apparently knows James Bond through the films, not the novels. There are naturally many contrasts between the stories of individual books and films. The popularity of Bond is making Bond a crucial figure in spy fiction. Bond is in Flemings´ book featured as cold-hearted but warm hero, gambler and society man. He was and still is an image of toughness, sharpness, cleverness, sportsmanship and male

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182sexuality. Bond´s char acter was displayed in his act ions. He represe nte d gent le ma nliness understood as action and all the time Bond represented with his gentlemanly values a person with self-image of manly courage. Bonds´ at tr ibute s of a gentl eman were import ant to Bond´s suc ces s and Bond had to face a ver y dif ferent challenge. Bond was shaped as a saver, mostly of the whole Empire. In contrast to Bond, women were given only a secondary place and ordinary people in Flemings´ novels were not heroes. Fleming was not interested in them. Ordinary people could not be the villains either. In Britain foreign villains used foreign servants and employees (for example Goldfinger used Koreans, Drax in Moonraker then Germans, Dr. No employed Chinese and Negroes). Bond was not free and independent. He was a British agent. Bond is a figure designed to resist the menace to empire. Increasing problems across the world and even at home are the settings in which Bond and the global villains can exist, move, operate and sometimes survive. Bond can be seen as a central figure in the culture of period of the Cold War. Bond is even given CIA support in many novels. This element provides an opportunity to test and examine the nature and persistence of the Anglo-American relationship and mutual development in this field. Bond was not of course only an agent who responded to accidental challenges. His world was shaped and given moral platform and direction. During the actions Bond does not kill without thinking. One can say that Bond stories should function as moral tales. Though Bond had to be a killer, but he was not a terrorist or primitive criminal. In some novels Bond is even depicted as an agent who had never liked killing people and is even concussed, shaken and shocked by the brutality of death. He is tired of having to be tough, cruel. Throughout the stories, even a moral sense is shown. Bond is gentleman, but this is a matter not only of his conduct, but also of an understanding of self, his own person and others. Both knowledge and his style rang among the elements leading to his strength and his glory. Bond is a man with a great power, thanks to his 007 status (this number has also a strong power). His mind as well his body have been placed great pressure many times. He can not accept a way of life without action. A total peace kills him. His need for action is more than psychological. But action is not easy. The need to be a man of action, his duty, his

182 Lindner, Christoph. The James Bond phenomenon. A critical reader. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 2003. p. 18-19 Black,Jeremy. The Politics of James Bond. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 2005. p. 173-4

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183patriotism and his conscience create psychologic al te nsions thr oughout Bond´s career . Bond is seen as an intelligent male hero. Bond reflects the way in which many male beings liked and like to project themselves. He competes with sinister organizations. He is a gentleman with a taste for the high life and high society. Fantasy plays also a very important role in spy novel stories. At a time when most British people spent their summer holiday in Great Britain or in usual British destinations, Bond went to exotic locations, such as the West Indies, India or expensive ski resorts in Switzerland or America. The world described in the novels was depicted with a wealth fantasy. There was an excitement about luxury cars, house, jewellery, cloths, air travel or exotic drinks. Bond lives in economic fantasy, far enough and free from concern about salaries, mortgages and debts, free from normal worries of ordinary people. His person offers an apparently cost free style. He is much more a cosmopolitan man than a man of class. Bond is connected with sexual attraction but he is not caught and trapped into love net. Later there has also been adaptation in the Bond character. He does not smoke or gamble. Bond takes smoking as a filthy bad habit, Bond drinks and has very little sex, only with the wife of the villain, but this is not usually presented as a one night stand. Bond has become timeless and universal. He has overcame and bridged the gap between generations of readers or filmgoers. Bond was characterized also with his cars, especially with his Aston Martin (the Aston Martin presenting another aspect, symbol of British elements) whose equipment included machine guns, a rear bullet-proof shield, revolving number plates, a tire shredder, a smoke screen, radar, an oil slick, and a passenger ejector seat. But Bond was presented also with Bentley (From Russia with Love, Goldfinger) and with an oldfashioned Rolls Royce, a very traditional image of British quality and elegance. The car became the symbol of Bond style, not least because it was not mass produced. Extra ordina ry weapons and vehicles beca me a cr ucial aspect of the Bond´s appe al as well. Bond image is also based on means like bravery, determination, luck and a real sex appeal. Bond is established as a hero not only by his actions and style, but also by the contrasts between him and the villains. Style is for Bond significant and crucial, because most of the villains have no style and aesthetic taste at all. Style also locates and

183 Lindner, Christoph. The James Bond phenomenon. A critical reader. Manchester: Manchester University Press. 2003. p. 118.

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184determines Bond socially. Unlike Harry Palmer, the hero of the stories of Len Deighton, Bond does not cook. With his black glasses and shabby raincoat, Palmer was a working class character. He was a common man, the total opposite of James Bond. The mat te r of set ti ng is import ant in al l Bond´s adv e ntures. The setting of the adventures changed, as the cultural, historical and political environment in which the Bond character operates, altered and developed. The spy novels with James Bond are linked to give some sense of chronological development and placing. Nevertheless, Bond does not age in the novels. He remains all the time the same. He becomes timeless. And moreover he is cosmopolitan. The decline of Britain and changing British role in the world and state of the world, can all be depicted through Bond. “ The Englishness of Bond, or bet ter sai d the Brit ishness of Bond in la ter Bond´s novel s represented an American view of Britain, at once stylish and quaint, not lean and mean, the values of the Thatcherite mid-1980s “ Fleming tended to describe everything with a precision. He was very precise as for details. His information is often so precise that many readers could believe that Fleming was an expert in the many fields of the science. In the novels, his description of underwater flora and fauna, machines, guns and cars were really breathtaking and amazing. Fleming ´s love of travel and changing places and destinations help to shape the Bond novels and make them more interesting. 6.2 The Character of Villains in Spy Novels

I´m not interested in extor tion. I intend to change the face of history. -the villain Stromberg in “The Spy Who Loved Me” (1977)185

A villain is as integral and significant to every story as a hero and is the second important figure in any story and perhaps, the most enjoyable and surprising character to develop. Villain is simply necessary in such a kind of a story. Villain is the exact

184 185 Black,Jeremy.:op.cit.,. p. 146 Black,Jeremy. The Politics of James Bond. Lincoln: University of Nebraska Press. 2005. p. 133

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186opposite of the hero, and sometimes they are even friends in a story, at least seemingly. Vill ain´s character is usually masked, first of all by beauty and nobility (typical for women). Villains are mostly wicked, selfish and are endowed with certain power which they use. Villain is formed to prevent the hero or protagonist from achieving his goal. In either case, it can be said that the villain deserves the same character-development and time as the hero of the story. The villain always has a certain role, function in a story and mostly his life story is presented as a conflict or problem with main characters. One can say, the better villain is, the better the story is. In some stories the villain is not even any human being – the case of a cruel fish (Jaws) or live monster etc. Some villains have been depicted and used so often that they became recognizable as general character types, real archetypes. Villains need strong, well prepared plots designed to allow their full, bad, horrible potential to develop and grow. A good literary villain is the same as pure evil. The depth of the pure evil villainy makes him a powerful and unforgettable figure for the readers and viewers. Sometimes villains pretend to do occasionally good, if necessary, but very suddenly they start to do evil or actions that are harmful to the hero. A good literary villain is motivated and he follows his motivation. A sympathetic villain gives readers a pleasure of reading, which is connected with the fact that also literary villains are human beings. Some readers even like the figures of some villains, they prefer them to the positive characters. “ The aspects that separate the hero from villain are complex and uncertain, and great writers are often able to depict not only the evil done, but the humanity abandoned” . One re ason for the villains´ popula rity may be beca use the readers or audience want to understand his thinking and procedure of his thinking. Villains can even sometimes overshadow, cover the hero of a story and stay beyond. 6.3 Villains in Spy Novels with James Bond The villains in spy novels with James Bond are generally grotesque, while many of the other characters are one-dimensional. This is especially true of the goodies, many of whom are either dull (males) or inacceptable (women). The meeting between Bond and the villains are the most significant aspects of the Fleming novels and the films. They

186 What makes a Good Literary Villain? Wisegeek Web. 12 April 2009.