Silverfin vs. Harry Potter?

Comments

• Sylvia Trench Posts: 5MI6 Agent

  March 2007

  Ian Fleming tells us (in you only live twice) that Bond's parents died when he was 11 and that he was educated by an aunt. So which came first, Potter or Bond? Plus, it's standard in chldren's fiction to have the hero/heroine be an orphan. Fleming also tells us that Bond went to Eton (weird, crusty boarding school). Fleming's best Bond books had Bond engage in a game/sporting contest between Bond and the villain early on (golf, bridge, etc.). As it's a chidren's books it makes sense to have another boy as one of the villains. And Fleming loved to have train scenes in his books. Maybe all these writers are using traditional themes and ways to tell a story, so there are inevitable overlaps. The main things is that you are 'thoroughly enjoying it'.
• Hardyboy Posts: 5,906Chief of Staff

  March 2007

  I had the same feeling as you when I read the Eton sequence, IS0; but once the book moves the action to Scotland it becomes a different animal. I was surprised by how much I found myself enjoying this part of the novel and how Flemingesque I found it--and I positively loved the material between James and his uncle. Bear in mind, I was one of those who thought the idea of "Young Bond" novels was godawful. As I felt toward the casting of Craig. Why does anyone listen to me?

  Vox clamantis in deserto
• Willie Garvin Posts: 1,412MI6 Agent

  March 2007 edited March 2007

  In all honesty,I can find no real resemblance between the Potter books and the Young Bonds aside from the most obvious fact that the hero is a orphaned boy living in Britain.As already noted this is not an idea exclusive to the Potter books.For example,Charles Dickens,Alexandre Dumas and Robert Louis Stevenson wrote stories about such characters.
  
  However,if you read this novel carefully you may even come across what could be the origin of that mysterious 3" scar that runs down the adult 007's right cheek...