A sampling of Charlie Higson books on his X profile
Charlie Higson, author of Young Bond novels and last year's On His Majesty's Secret Service, provided thoughts about the longevity of the James Bond character in a weekend essay in The Guardian.
"I believe that as long as Bond can remain an outrageous fantasy he will endure," Higson wrote.
The 2021 Bond film No Time to Die "experimented with grounding Bond and giving him a reality," the 65-year-old author added. "I prefer the cocktail-fuelled rush of the night before. I don't want 007 waking up to find he's got a wife and a kid and a mortgage and the Aston Martin needs to go in for repairs and he has to negotiate a new phone contract."
The On His Majesty's Secret Service novella was commissioned last year by Ian Fleming Publications to coincide with the coronation of King Charles III. It contained references to real-life political figures and issues. Some Higson critics felt he went too far.
"I wanted my book to be about something, not just pastiche," Higson wrote. "So, just as Goldfinger recruits a bunch of colourful American gangsters, my villain recruits a colourful bunch of contemporary disruptors – far-right, populist libertarians."
The author commented on the criticism. He said "a few months ago people started posting screen grabs of pages online, trying to imply that I had 'broken' Bond and turned him into a libtard snowflake cuck. A true, red-blooded James Bond should be going up against commies, liberals, all-purpose Arab terrorists, Just Stop Oil protesters and the whole woke brigade."
Bond "is such a familiar figure and has, over the course of 70 years, been the model for so many other heroes that we have perhaps lost sight of how strange he is," Higson added. "The fact is, there have always been certain stereotypical gay characteristics about Bond. His camp obsessiveness about food and drink, his encyclopedic knowledge of women's perfume, his obsessions with what he, and others, wear."
Ian Fleming's original "was a man who had been shaped by the second world war," Higson wrote. "My 2023 incarnation would have been shaped by a very different world in which many of the old certainties of identity, empire, masculinity and nationalism had shifted. For instance, who are the enemies now?"
To read the entire essay, CLICK HERE.
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