It can be argued that death shouldn’t be an impediment, yet for so many of us, drawing that last breath heralds the end of our creativity. But should our greatest achievements suffer for our mortality. No, says Ian Fleming Publications, that’s just wrong.
Long live Bond and all that. Oh sure, it’s not like 007 ever went away — he’s had a storied movie career and does quite well in the soundtrack department. But that’s not the same as a novel. Then again, one could suggest that the success of a character is a whole function of the author. Change the author, you change the character.
Not that commerce ever worries its pretty little head about such things. The biggest problem facing Bond is the modern world. Though you don’t hear much about it, much has changed in spy world over the past few decades. It is much harder to get a good martini in the underworld since the fall of Communism. And then there’s our collective notion of villainry. As one analyst noted:
“Al-Qaeda would be too political. A Bond villain has to be a completely abstract creation. Perhaps it is coming to the point where the series is running out of steam.”
