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Will AI give us more Fleming novels?
echo
007 in New York
This is disturbing.
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/world/europe/agatha-christie-ai-class-bbc.html
"ChatGPT, write a Fleming novel of at least 200 pages that is a direct sequel to The Man with the Golden Gun."
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/05/08/world/europe/agatha-christie-ai-class-bbc.html
"ChatGPT, write a Fleming novel of at least 200 pages that is a direct sequel to The Man with the Golden Gun."
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AI will certainly give us more "James Bond" novels, as other human authors have already done, but whether they are any good or not will be for the audience to decide
I'm sure AI will also be appearing soon as a villain in an upcoming Bond movie (written by AI?)
Of the human aspirants these three seem to get the most praise these days
Kingsly Amis "Colonel Sun" 1968 (a one off)
Sebastian Faulkes "Devil May Care" 2008 (another one off)
Anthony Horowitz "Trigger Mortis" 2015, "Forever And A Day" 2018, "With A Mind To Kill" 2022
Technically, Q is a quantum computer (arguably AI) in the Kim Sherwood 00-Trilogy. Perhaps because the human Q (or Boothroyd) is on the run in Quantum of Menace? Even the books try to be as modern as possible.
Plus, Sebastain Faulks has already taken the "Writing as Ian Fleming" credit. AI could take the same credit, honestly.
This. Exacly my tough. Beside, AI is very usefull for translation, so in a sense it can (and will) help to have more Fleming novels translations in foreign markets.
The infinite monkey theorem states that a monkey hitting keys independently and at random on a typewriter keyboard for an infinite amount of time will almost surely type any given text, including the complete works of Ian Fleming.
More precisely, under the assumption of independence and randomness of each keystroke, the monkey would almost surely type every possible finite text an infinite number of times. The theorem can be generalized to state that any infinite sequence of independent events whose probabilities are uniformly bounded below by a positive number will almost surely have infinitely many occurrences.
Something derivative is now entirely concievable or even inevitable
But can AI, or the infinite monkey, produce anything truely original?
James Bond's character traits could evolve along with those of his creator, not sure if an AI character would be capable of that
Not yet anyway
That is good news.
If AI could approximate Flening’s prose style it might be fun to feed a few of the movie scripts into it to get new novelisations. But then we might have fo get censored versions and then there’d be uproar :D
At any rate, a tool is only useful insofar as it assists. I have no doubt an AI could come up with an ok, if somewhat underwhelming rendition of Fleming's prose if asked to, but much of Fleming's writing came down to his experiences, the people he interacted with throughout his life, and even some of his insecurities. It's the same with any author. I think an AI would lack that sense of individuality, even if what came out was, again, 'competent'.
I would hope we don't get to a point where AI is being used to create official Bond novels, but I'm sure we could see some sort of fan creations using it, if we don't already.
Interesting about translations, I've noticed, with regard to fiction literature or music lyrics, that the most successful translations are often done by a fellow artist, someone who has experience of the craft themselves, or by a linguist who understand both languages and their subtle nuances of meaning,
I imagine this sort of artistic "soul" and "intuition" will be very difficult to replicate in an AI, but who knows?
For example
Charles Aznavour. His songs have been adapted into English by various lyricists, most notably Herbert Kretzmer, who worked extensively with Aznavour himself on titles like "She" and "Yesterday When I Was Young". Kretzmer is also known for his English adaptations of Alain Boublil's and Claude-Michel Schoenberg's "Les Misérables"
Herbert Kretzmer was a South African-born journalist and lyricist. Kretzmer won an Ivor Novello Award for the Peter Sellers and Sophia Loren comedy hit "Goodness Gracious Me", co-composed with David Lee.
Jacques Brel's songs have been translated into English by several people, most notably Rod McKuen. McKuen is known for translating and performing Brel's songs, with "Seasons in the Sun" being one of his well-known English versions of Brel's "Le Moribond"
In the late 1960s, Rod McKuen began to publish books of poetry, earning a substantial following among young people. McKuen wrote over 1,500 songs and released up to 200 albums. His work as a composer in the film industry garnered him two Academy Award nominations
Shakespeare's works have been translated into French by many individuals, including François-Victor Hugo, son of the novelist Victor Hugo, who is considered one of the greatest French translators of Shakespeare, his work being a significant contribution to the French-language Shakespearean canon.
Boris Pasternak was a Russian and Soviet poet, novelist, composer, and literary translator. Pasternak was the author of Doctor Zhivago (1957). Pasternak was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature in 1958.
Pasternak's translations of William Shakespeare (Romeo and Juliet, Antony and Cleopatra, Othello, King Henry IV (Part I) and (Part II), Hamlet, Macbeth, King Lear)[108] remain deeply popular with Russian audiences because of their colloquial, modernised dialogues.
Pasternak's critics, however, accused him of "pasternakizing" Shakespeare. In a 1956 essay, Pasternak wrote: Translating Shakespeare is a task which takes time and effort. Once it is undertaken, it is best to divide it into sections long enough for the work to not get stale and to complete one section each day. In thus daily progressing through the text, the translator finds himself reliving the circumstances of the author.
https://www.mi6-hq.com/sections/articles/literature_french_editions#:~:text=It has been almost fifty,for paperbacks published by Plon.
Bond Is Back In French
12th July 2008 / 23rd December 2008 / 11th April 2010
French publisher Bragelonne is bringing James Bond back to the country with all new translations and fresh cover artwork for Ian Fleming's classic novels.
It has been almost fifty years since the first French translation was made of Fleming's novels, and that attempt was far from perfect. Performed by J. Hall in 1959, it was quickly superceded by a second translation by Françoise Thirion in 1964 for paperbacks published by Plon. The latter French texts, which condensed a lot of Fleming's prose, stripped away some passages, and tweaked elements of the adventures, have been used for all French editions - until now.
The new publisher, Bragelonne, has hired Pierre Pevel to provide updated translations for the 21st century. Born in 1968, Pevel is the author of seven of his own novels, and won the 'Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire' in 2002 for "The Shadows of Wielstadt". His translations have remained faithful to the original Fleming text, respecting the historical context whilst updating the writing style to suit a modern audience.
Bragelonne published "Casino Royale" on 16th November 2006 to tie-in with the release of the film, and as such used the international poster artwork for the cover. A strap line was added to explain the cross-over: "Ian Fleming - l'author best-seller de James Bond 007".