Ian Fleming Explains How to Write a Thriller (2018) | Hacker News Reader

Ian Fleming Explains How to Write a Thriller (2018)

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77 pointsbenbreen18 comments

> I write for about three hours in the morning—from about 9:30 till 12:30—and I do another hour’s work between 6 and 7 in the evening. […] I never correct anything and I never go back to what I have written, except to the foot of the last page to see where I have got to. If you once look back, you are lost.

Another example of creators using a schedule to force creativity (not waiting "for the mood to strike") and creating without worrying about quality.

If you've been procrastinating writing that novel or playing that guitar or whatever, the best way to deal with it is to put half an hour on your calendar to just do it.

I was struck by this sentence: "I have no message for suffering humanity and, though I was bullied at school and lost my virginity like so many of us used to do in the old days, I have never been tempted to foist these and other harrowing personal experiences on the public."

Is Ian Fleming saying that he was sexually abused as a child?

You can google for more information, but British boys' schools (especially in the 20th century) are notorious for bullying and sexual abuse.

Perhaps. He went to Eton. Abuse and less-than-consensual sexual activity among the boys were pretty common in English prep and public schools of the time.

https://www.theguardian.com/education/2005/oct/12/publicscho...

This, having read "into the silence" about the mountaineer George Mallory it explained that in the 19th/20th century english prep schools were rampant with sexual abuse(student on student).

I assumed it meant he lost his virginity to a prostitute.

It might have meant that had it not been included alongside his being bullied and described as a harrowing experience.

It depends how it happened. Having a parent or relative take you to a prostitute, or being peer pressured into it when you are a teenager and not ready is sexual abuse.

Surely you don't think he invented the name 'Pussy Galore'?

That was my first thought too, but I don't see why that would be categorized as a 'harrowing experience.'

Could be as simply as him not being ready and going because of pressure or expectation. Or could be something worse, like a family member taking them to the prostitute.

>Before World War II, if a young man wanted sex, he had two basic options: marriage or a brothel. So in the 1930s, one in five American men lost his virginity to a prostitute.

https://abcnews.go.com/2020/superfreakonomics-prostitutions-...

I found the second half of that far more interesting (and refreshing given todays climate).

How do you interpret his description of his heroes as white and his villians as black? Even for the man and the year, it seems odd if we interpret this as racially "white" and "black"; for one thing, few of his villians were black. Does he mean something else, like "black and white" suggesting good and evil without shades of grey (moral complications)?

Having read most of Ian Fleming's(Bond) books these are definitely not racial terms, they come from old Judeo-Christian terminology that has been used to describe a person's intent/persona/soul and which side a person is on. Think black-hearted as a cruel/wicked person for a familiar reference. Most literary authors mid 20th century and back use these terms usually to describe a persons character. So he is most definitely referring to the latter example. That being said Ian Fleming being from the British upper class and in his time period I don't think he was particularly enlightened in how various races were treated and portraying them only as side characters who usually died off or disappeared into the background.

Yes, that’s what I was thinking. And it makes his description of his heroines as a shade of pink into a play on words, shifing the meaning from good and evil to refer to the colors literally.

Ian Flemming's older brother Peter was an interesting character:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Fleming_(writer)

Peter Flemming worked with Colin Gubbins - who went on to run SOE - which did things far more like the fictional James Bond than MI6 ever did.

Thank you, that was an enjoyable read!

What an interesting read!

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