Oct. 5 is officially known as Global James Bond Day, which marks the anniversary of the 1962 world premiere of the first 007 feature, “Dr. No.” This year, it lands alongside the 20th-anniversary return to theaters of Daniel Craig’s first outing, “Casino Royale,” and the anticipated announcement of the next actor to don the tuxedo.
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As the franchise prepares for its next chapter, it is worth returning to the literary character that Ian Fleming actually created, and the moral vision that animated him.
Most people know Fleming’s fictional spy through the numerous Bond films over the last six decades. But as American University’s Guy Burnett and I explore in a recent book chapter, far fewer know about Bond’s modest start as a pulp hero standing up for the West against a morally corrupt communist empire on the march.
Bond’s moral worldview
Writing against the backdrop of the Cold War, Fleming portrays Bond in his novels and short stories as a defender of a particular Western moral order against tyranny and totalitarianism.
Literary critic Kingsley Amis recognized “a fairly orthodox moral system” within the novels, one in which “loyalty, fortitude (and) a sense of responsibility” are all regarded as good, as is “a readiness to regard one’s safety, even one’s life, as less important than the major interests of one’s organization and one’s country.”
Likewise, Bond’s moral framework opposes “tyranny, readiness to inflict pain on the weak or helpless,” and “the unscrupulous pursuit of money and power.” It is, Amis said, “as humanist and/or Christian as the average reader would want.”
The Western moral order Fleming’s Bond protects, this author’s observation implies, is rooted in values and assumptions deeply shaped by Christianity. Bond’s own moral struggles seem to reflect those of the post-Christian West: the rejection of moral relativism and nihilism in favor of the inherent goodness of certain values, coupled with an uncomfortable uncertainty regarding the ultimate grounding of those values.
Fleming once described himself as “some kind of subspecies of a Christian.” The same description could fit his most famous creation.
‘Thou shalt not kill’
The Bond of the novels is not pious by any means. He is a blunt instrument of the state and certainly not devoid of female company. Yet, he navigates a Western world still haunted by the ghosts of its Christian past.
This haunting is clearest in Bond’s struggle with killing. Despite his license to kill, he does not relish the act and often recoils from it. In the short story “The Living Daylights,” Bond is ordered to defend an escaping agent from a Soviet sniper and spends the day in quiet distress, calling the job “pretty near to murder.” He numbs himself with whiskey, snaps at his colleague and eventually chooses to shoot the rifle rather than kill the sniper.
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Again and again, Fleming portrays Bond as burdened by violence rather than exhilarated by it. “Thou shalt not kill” appears to weigh heavily on the 00 agent.
The empty bachelor
Another haunting shows up in his treatment of sex and marriage. Bond is certainly no model of chastity, but the novels repeatedly reveal a more vulnerable and deeply caring side of his relationship with women. Bond falls in love and genuinely seeks to protect the women he comes across.
In “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service,” Bond even marries, only to witness his wife gunned down on their wedding day. The protagonist faces the sad fact that his vocation does not provide the safety and stability needed for such a union.
The emptiness of Bond’s unmarried life is put on full display in the short story “Quantum of Solace,” where he hears a story of love and betrayal. No shootouts. No grand schemes of world domination. Just two emotionally wounded individuals. After seeing the impact love and marriage can have on people, Bond finds his dangerous mission to the Bahamas the next day “edged with boredom and futility.”
Sacrifice for queen and country
Above all, Bond is defined by sacrifice. Fleming insisted that his hero must suffer for every success. Bond endures physical and spiritual crucibles for the sake of queen and country and for the civilization he is sworn to protect. He remains loyal to a moral code even when its ultimate source is uncertain to him, consistently putting his own life on the line.
In many ways, the James Bond films have echoed the values of the 1960s and the Sexual Revolution. Fleming’s literary Bond, however, was the product of a different era. During a time when the Anglo-American world was tempted by a moral and political ideology at odds with its own, Bond emerged as a fictional hero who sacrificed much to protect the Western way of life.
Despite his license to kill, he did not take joy in the act in the way his enemies did. Despite his lack of chastity, he still recognized the pain and emptiness that life rendered. Despite being forever alone, the Bond of the novels knew it was “not good that … man should be alone.”
As a new Bond is chosen and returns to the big screen, the character still has something to say. He is not a saint. He is a flawed and often brutal man who nevertheless refuses to become the thing he fights. Fleming’s 007 remains a reminder that some values are worth defending even when the culture’s memory of where those values came from is beginning to fade.
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