As popular as Fleming's Bond novels were in their day, they have been supplanted over time by Hollywood's Bond movies. Mention "Agent 007" and the shared imagination of contemporary popular culture conjures up Sean Connery, Roger Moore, Timothy Dalton, or Pierce Brosnan, actors who have portrayed the secret agent over the years. Yet some critics make the case that in a mano a mano the book-Bond wins out. "Film-Bond turned into a secret agent version of Superman, wearing a tux instead of a cape and destroying his enemies with quips and gadgetry," Weller observed in Forbes, adding, "Sean Connery's finesse aside, book-Bond--the archetype--remains a more complex character, and his exploits human and attainable. What amazes the most, going back to the Fleming canon, is the books' hypnotic power--a sheer drive and compelling readability that overcome the dull patches, Bond's total lack of humor and many implausibilities."
A Man for His Time
Fleming created just the kind of hero that readers were looking for in post- World War II Britain. Bond offered them a stylishly modern escape into a dangerous and impossible world that still looked and sounded a lot like their own. And while Bond, with his unexceptional traits and accountability to the establishment, seemed an ordinary enough fellow, he was also unbeatable, free to use any means to achieve his government's desired end.
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