How Much of a Spy Was James Bond?

Reflsin2bourbons

Ludovico wrote: »

Reflsin2bourbons wrote: »

DEKE_RIVERS wrote: »

Bond's fame was already high in FRWL. They already considered him the best in his second movie and they were already trying to kill him.

Not necessarily. They wanted revenge for Dr. No

In the films it's very hard to put Bond's true profession down. In the Brosnan era, it seems he just makes contact with the villain under very light pretenses and is accepted into the villain's organisation in a way where he seems like a spy but not really a good one

Kronsteen explicitly mentions Bond as the best British secret agent.

We need to keep in mind, in the film especially but to a lesser extent in the novel that we only see a small glimpse of what Bond does. On a daily basis he probably trains and does a lot of desk work, reading and writing reports and so on. But even when in the field, who knows how much spying he does when he doesn't fight a Blofeld or a Goldfinger and saves the world.

Yes, of course there's a lot we don't see. From what we do see though in his non-operational life he seems to read dossiers more than anything. Sometimes he's appointed to committees and the such and takes minutes. For what, we don't know. Seems to be related to general intelligence strategies and the like. And we do see that the typical day involves courses like "Gun Training" and "Unarmed Combat." Funnily enough, the only two times we hear about Bond writing reports is when he does one in DAF to M (he encodes it) and his Seychelles report. The only other potential time is his report on card-sharping in the Monte-Carlo job (but it's hard to know if this job came when Bond was 007). There's also OHMSS's secret letters.

If I were to hazard a guess at Bond's normal operations, I would guess something like the jobs peripherally mentioned in the short stories. Stuff like finding and stopping low level and persistent smugglers or helping defectors across borders seems like it would be the normal "boring" stuff that Bond does. That and the viewing of security in the Seychelles.

Kronsteen saying that though I suppose is different than Tiffany saying it. Tiffany should have no reason to have heard of 007. Kronsteen, as head planner of SPECTRE, would have been fully aware of Dr. No and his operations, and 007's part in them.

Revelator wrote: »

Bond was inspired by the 30 Assault Unit commandos Fleming directed during WWII, so it's not surprising that his duties are more along the "search and destroy" line than those of a spy.

Amis writes:

"Its inaccurate, of course, to describe James Bond as a spy, in the strict sense of one who steals or buys or smuggles the secrets of foreign Powers. The term does occur in the SMERSH file on him, but the Russian word shpion is often used very loosely. It can be applied to any undesirable not actually in an enemy uniform, from a political conspirator to an army deserter. Bond’s only proper secret-stealing exploit, the acquiring of a Soviet cipher-machine in From Russia, with Love is forced upon him as part of a Soviet plot. Neither he nor his superiors think of it as a normal assignment. Vivienne Michel, narrator of The Spy Who Loved Me, gave Bond a wrong label out of desire for euphony and simplicity, or perhaps minor paradox. The Medium-Grade Civil Servant Who Loved Me would have been more accurate as well as more acceptable to M. 

"Bond’s claims to be considered a counter-spy, one who operates against the agents of unfriendly Powers, are rather more substantial. Le Chiffre (Casino Royale), Mr Big (Live and let Die), Goldfinger and Scaramanga (The Man with the Golden Gun) all dole out, or try to get hold of, money to be used illegally on behalf of the U.S.S.R. Other villains, however, notably Sir Hugo Drax (Moonraker), merely turn out to be Soviet agents as the plot thickens, and got Bond interested in them in the first place for reasons nothing to do with espionage, either counter- or plain."

Yes. I remember Boyd put Bond in the 30 Assault Unit commandos in Solo. And I've read Amis' Dossier quite a few times. That bit struck a bit wrong with me though. Bond is still involved in espionage in all the other stories that don't involve SMERSH or Russian influence and DAF has more tradecraft than any of the stories mentioned (maybe only excluding CR).

Ludovico

I agree that Kronsteen has every reason to know James Bond and what he does, unlike Tiffany Case.

Sort of off topic, but there's meant to be a spy meeting today where I live, between George Smiley and one Samuel Fennan:

Dear George,

It is essential that I lunch with you tomorrow at The Compleat Angler at Marlow. Please do your best to meet me there at one o'clock. There is something I have to tell you.

Yours,

Samuel Fennan"

Taken from Call for the Dead.

slide_99

He's a spy in the sense that he works for an MI6 front organization, which technically makes him undercover even when he goes around using his real name. Sometimes he does represent the British government (MR, TLD) but that's rare.

007HallY

I suppose it's worth asking what exactly the 00 section is if you want to answer the question. Broadly in both the film and novels it's a secret section of MI6 seemingly made up of a few agents who report directly to M. They seem to be sent on missions ranging from covert missions to assassinations, or even troubleshooting of some sort. There's surprisingly little actual 'spy work' in Bond, but it's there to some extent.

I think it's a bit like trying to claim Bond's an assassin (I'm sure he's called this at some point, as he's called a spy at various points too). He's had to assassinate people at times, but it's not strictly speaking the only aspect of his job (he's simply licensed to kill). Hell, when Bond has to describe his profession I think it's in various ways throughout the books and films (I think it's usually along the lines of, 'I work for the British Government', and I seem to remember him saying 'I'm a sort of policeman' in one of the novels, although I can't remember specifically which. Might actually be TSWLM funnily enough despite the title, haha).

So the answer to the question is 'sort of, but not really' I guess. He's a secret agent. I actually think it's a cool way in which Bond differs from characters in many spy novels.

Ludovico

007HallY wrote: »

I suppose it's worth asking what exactly the 00 section is if you want to answer the question. Broadly in both the film and novels it's a secret section of MI6 seemingly made up of a few agents who report directly to M. They seem to be sent on missions ranging from covert missions to assassinations, or even troubleshooting of some sort. There's surprisingly little actual 'spy work' in Bond, but it's there to some extent.

I think it's a bit like trying to claim Bond's an assassin (I'm sure he's called this at some point, as he's called a spy at various points too). He's had to assassinate people at times, but it's not strictly speaking the only aspect of his job (he's simply licensed to kill). Hell, when Bond has to describe his profession I think it's in various ways throughout the books and films (I think it's usually along the lines of, 'I work for the British Government', and I seem to remember him saying 'I'm a sort of policeman' in one of the novels, although I can't remember specifically which. Might actually be TSWLM funnily enough despite the title, haha).

So the answer to the question is 'sort of, but not really' I guess. He's a secret agent. I actually think it's a cool way in which Bond differs from characters in many spy novels.

From my understanding, the 00 section does some level of spying, as in gathering intelligence, retrieving intelligence and investigating, but not exclusively. Even murder is only one aspect of their duties, in spite or because of their license to kill. It's a mean rather than an end.

Ironic to think that there are far more typical spies in spy fiction, yet Bond is THE character everyone thinks about when they think of spy fiction. Or even spying in real life.

RichardTheBruce

Secret Agent. Spy. Detective. Assassin. Whatever his job description reads, likely it has the government standard language catch-all similar to "and other duties as assigned".

Many uses yes.

Reflsin2bourbons

I think the 00 section is an answer to the question "who spies on the spies." Except spying (investigation) is not always involved: protection and sabotage are required as well.

NickTwentyTwo

Guys, what is everyone talking about? He does import / export with Univex… spies this, assassins that… just crazy.

j_w_pepper

Right. There is nothing to see here, people. Keep moving. ;)

QBranch

Not much of a spy, is he? Took him ten years to learn how to operate an optical device the right way up:




Then unlearn...

JB seeing the sights Down Under