fleming's Inspiration for S.P.E.C.T.R.E

AlphaOmegaSin

What was Fleming's primary Inspiration for the Terrorist Group S.P.E.C.T.R.E? I know that he based Blofeld on someone he knew in School, like he did with many Characters throughout his Books -{

Thunderpussy

Fleming didn't want the Russians as the villains ( maybe he could see a thawing
in the cold war ) so came up with a criminal organisation to act as the Badies.
There is a dispute over who came up with the name but Fleming had used it before
In DAF " Spectreville" and in the novel FRWL he had Bond trying to get his hands
On a " spektor ". )

AlphaOmegaSin

Yes, Fleming was creative in that Way

Silhouette Man

Thunderpussy wrote:

Fleming didn't want the Russians as the villains ( maybe he could see a thawing
in the cold war ) so came up with a criminal organisation to act as the Badies.
There is a dispute over who came up with the name but Fleming had used it before
In DAF " Spectreville" and in the novel FRWL he had Bond trying to get his hands
On a " spektor ". )

Yes, that was exactly the reason for the changeover from SMERSH to SPECTRE as the villains - Fleming even said as much in interviews and yes, he did use the word "spectre" a lot in his work.

superado

Thunderpussy wrote:

Fleming didn't want the Russians as the villains ( maybe he could see a thawing
in the cold war ) so came up with a criminal organisation to act as the Badies.
There is a dispute over who came up with the name but Fleming had used it before
In DAF " Spectreville" and in the novel FRWL he had Bond trying to get his hands
On a " spektor ". )

Yes, spot on! I just dug out my book "The Battle for Bond" and Fleming's friend, Ernest Cuneo (who "appears" as "Ernie Cureo" in DAF) suggested at the time of writing in 1959, that peace with the Russians might break out in two-years time and having them as villains would loose its impact. As for the debate on who invented the name, SPECTRE, the smoking gun is in DAF as you said, TP, though in court during the TB lawsuit, both Cuneo and even Fleming's Etonian best friend and TB partner Ivar Bryce believed that it McClory invented it; in the least, McClory might have come up with the concept of an international terrorist organization, if not the specific name itself if we're to take into account the testimonies of Cuneo and Bryce. It's interesting too that to Fleming the SPECTRE organization was an elegant solution to include of the villain candidates that the group threw around earlier as the main villains, namely the Russians (via SMERSH) and the Mafia.

JamesBondBlog

Fleming clearly had an affinity for the word Spectre.

I did a blog post on it and all the times he used it in the books:

Spectre Before S.P.E.C.T.R.E.

http://flemingsbond.com/spectre-before-s-p-e-c-t-r-e/