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Would Fleming have kept writing Bond?

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  • commandbond007commandbond007
    edited November 2011 Posts: 660
    Yes for a couple more years maybe we will even found out his Bond DOB since the most info we have is from YOLT
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    edited August 2015 Posts: 17,813
    I started a thread on this very topic back in March 2013 ( if you are interested you can read the replies to that thread at this link - http://www.mi6community.com/index.php?p=/discussion/5960/had-ian-fleming-lived-beyond-1964) but it was closed and I was redirected by a kindly member to this existing thread from 2011 before I became a member here. So, rather slovenly I'm now following up on this very interesting literary Bond topic. I'd really like to get this thread revived again!

    Does anyone else want to add their thoughts on this one?

    I'm currently writing a piece on the future Bond novels Fleming had ideas for so all input is very much appreciated, as always! :)
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 17,813
    thelordflasheart wrote: »
    Kennon, that's one of the best posts I've read in a very long time. Wonderfully astute analysis.

    Very much agreed on that. What happened to our fellow member @Kennon I wonder?
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 17,813
    Does anyone else want to add their thoughts on this interesting topic of what Fleming would have done next had he lived beyond 1964?
  • ThunderfingerThunderfinger Das Boot Hill
    edited August 2015 Posts: 45,489
    I am pretty sure there would have been more Bond, but maybe not every year as was the custom. If only...

    Looking forward to your blogpost on the sunject, @Dragonpol. Start working!
  • DragonpolDragonpol https://thebondologistblog.blogspot.com
    Posts: 17,813
    Thunderfinger wrote: »
    I am pretty sure there would have been more Bond, but maybe not every year as was the custom. If only...

    Looking forward to your blogpost on the sunject, @Dragonpol. Start working!

    I will get to it. Thank you for your contribution, @Thunderfinger. :)
  • DariusDarius UK
    edited October 2015 Posts: 354
    As Fleming left behind a book of copious notes for future Bond adventures, it seems likely that there would have been at least a few more. Assuming Fleming had not started to suffer from health problems, he could probably have kept working for at least another ten years. The problem is that he dug his own grave with his heavy smoking and drinking and one can't help but wonder whether these were essential ingredients to his talent and to his ability to write about Bond as a doppelganger of himself. If Fleming had been a non-smoking teetotaller, I doubt whether his creation would be the Bond we know and love. We would almost certainly have had more books, but would they be as good? They would certainly be about James Bond, but that character would certainly lack the anti-hero qualities that we all love.

    Taking it a stage further, if Fleming had been a moderate smoker, drinker and womaniser, the chances are that he would never have got Bond into print, simply because the character would be considered too ordinary and too bland to arouse the imagination of the reading public. As it stands, Fleming's relatively short life actually contributed to the success of Bond.

    Maybe we should be grateful for the quality books we have. Quality, in my experience, is usually preferable to quantity.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,526
    Think you hit the nail on the head, @Darius.
  • DariusDarius UK
    edited October 2015 Posts: 354
    Thanks, @NickTwentyTwo.

    It's surprising though, how many literary geniuses there have been whose talent was fuelled by substances, illegal or otherwise. Writers such as Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Ernest Hemmingway, Norman Mailer, to name but a few did their best work zonked out of their minds. Their lives or literary careers were often short, but they left behind some wonderful stuff. This is the same in other fields of artistic creativity too. The relatively recent death of Amy Winehouse is such a case.
  • NickTwentyTwoNickTwentyTwo Vancouver, BC, Canada
    Posts: 7,526
    Same in the world of music, as well
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    I stumbled upon an interesting article that compiled a lot of Fleming's thoughts on his novels and their adaptations on the big screen that bring about some of the questions of Bond's future introduced in the opening post:

    http://www.maxim.com/maxim-man/maxim-legends/article/james-bond-ian-fleming-letters-2015-10

    I wasn't sure where to post it on the forums, but here seems a fitting enough place. The writer made quite a few silly errors along the way, forgetting a word here and there, but it's readable enough.
  • DarthDimiDarthDimi Behind you!Moderator
    Posts: 23,560
    Very interesting, @0BradyM0Bondfanatic7! I had a blast reading that. Thank you, my good friend. :-)
  • 0BradyM0Bondfanatic70BradyM0Bondfanatic7 Quantum Floral Arrangements: "We Have Petals Everywhere"
    Posts: 28,694
    DarthDimi wrote: »
    Very interesting, @0BradyM0Bondfanatic7! I had a blast reading that. Thank you, my good friend. :-)

    My pleasure @DarthDimi! :) I always love happening on anything Fleming related, especially when the information is straight from his mouth.

    A new book came out recently that compiled some of Ian's private letters that has to be an absolute trip to read. I think a lot of the quotes in that article came from that.
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