The novels are such a sign of their times, a window into a bygone mindset that can be illuminating and interesting if you just let them be. I don’t support those things IRL (OK, maybe the meal planning), but I can’t imagine the Bond books without them. I love everything about them, even all the stuff-machismo, misogyny, meal planning-that others hold up as everything that’s wrong with them. The original James Bond novels are the very height of spy fiction for me, delicious in their construction and filling in the satisfaction they leave you with. On the occasion of his creator Ian Fleming’s birthday - he was born 115 years ago on I’d like to rectify that right here and now.

People who know me have heard me talk excessively about Batman and the Beatles, but I’ve never pontificated much on Bond. Lucky for me, my dad was a big fan of all three, because I picked up those three torches and ran with them. I was born right smack-dab in the middle of the famed “three Bs” of the 1960s: Batman, the Beatles, and, of course, James Bond.

Posted By Dan Greenfield on | 13 commentsĪ birthday tribute to the writer who gave us 007…