A STUDY OP THE SPY GENRE IN RECENT POPULAR LITERATURE Ronald J. Ambrosetti A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of Bowling Green State University In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OP PHILOSOPHY August 1973 11 ABSTRACT The literature of espionage has roots which can be traced as far back as tales in the Old Test­ ament. However, the secret agent and the spy genre remained waiting in the wings of the popular stage until well into the twentieth century before finally attracting a wide audience. This dissertation analyzed the spy genre as it reflected the era of the Cold War. The Damoclean Sword of the mid-twentieth century was truly the bleak vision of a world devastated by nuclear pro­ liferation. Both Western and Communist "blocs" strove lustily in the pursuit of the ultimate push-button weapons. What passed as a balance of power, which allegedly forged a détente in the hostilities, was in effect a reign of a balance of terror. For every technological advance on one side, the other side countered. And into this complex arena of transis­ tors and rocket fuels strode the secret agent. Just as the detective was able to calculate the design of a clock-work universe, the spy, armed with the modern gadgetry of espionage and clothed in the accoutrements of the organization man as hero, challenged a world of conflicting organizations, ideologies and technologies. On a microcosmic scale of literary criticism, this study traced the spy genre’s accurate reflection of the macrocosmic pattern of Northrop Frye’s continuum of fictional modes: the initial force of verisimili­ tude was generated by Eric Ambler’s early realism; the movement toward myth in the technological romance of Ian Fleming; the tragic high-mimesis of John Le Carre' and the subsequent devolution to low-mimesis in the spoof; and the final return to myth in religious affir­ mation and symbolism. This study concluded that the final accomplishment of the recent recrudescence of the spy genre lay in its narrowing of the traditional hiatus between "elitist" and popular literature. The achievement of the spy novel combined the traditions of popular formula and classical mimesis and myth. Ill TABLE OP CONTENTS - Page THE ORGANIZATION MAN AS HERO........................................................ 1 SPY LITERATURE IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY: 1900 to 1935...........................................................12 The Enthusiasts andt he Disclaimers . .15 Joseph Conrad.................................................... 22 John Buchan....................................................................... «27 W. Somerset Maugham................................. 32 Graham Greene.......................................................................37 THE WORLD OP ERIC AMBLER: PROM DETECTIVE TO SPY.............................................................. .... 1|1 TECHNOLOGY AND THE SPY GENRE................................................ 62 EXISTENTIAL NEGATION............................. .... ................................. 89 BEYOND THE ABSURD, TOWARD RELIGIOUS AFFIRMATION...........................................................125 A SELECTED BIBLIOGRAPHY.................................................................. 139 iv LIST OP ILLUSTRATIONS Figure Page 1--The Rise and Pall of the Spy Genre. ............... 11 ( CHAPTER I THE ORGANIZATION MAN AS HERO The spy genre is spawned by an organization-society. The secret agent is the individual maneuvered by large, corporate entities. The spy novel represents the death of the hero in realistic popular fiction--the superman who rises up in time of dire distress and saves his race and its destiny. The Aeneid and The Iliad and The Odyssey are tales of supermen who by individual heroics perform sweep­ ing acts of salvation and destruction. The secret agent, however, must fight for his integrity as a virile savior and literary superstar. The organization (it makes no dif­ ference whose) is both protagonist and always antagonist-- whether it be SMERSH or THRUSH or some other nameless, face­ less, acronymic entity of malice. The recent formula in « popular spy genre tales pits the individual agent against some overpowering organization, and the end result--even when the mission is successful--is almost always a compro­ mised victory for the spy/individual. The secret agent is now a neurotic, humanized, and multi-dimensional hero with reluctance. Even James Bond, the most famous of spies, ends at this stage. The organization man as hero has been divested of his literary legacy of rebellion and the ability to say "nay in thunder." The spy is the conformist, sometimes and somewhat 1 2 reluctant, but nevertheless a stalwart pillar of the system. Once again James Bond, a seeming Prometheus, is in actuality a Prometheus in a gray flannel suit with sleek briefcase. The secret agent is a proponent of the organized system, and this new type of heroism cramps the classic style of the hero of tradition. Nevertheless, the organization man as hero is a viable hero of contemporary society. The organization has pre­ empted the former human roles of good guys and bad guys— both are now an organization. And the secret agent hero is merely an extension of the "good" organization, or at least what we think is the good system. The classic spy novel al­ ways exudes this aura of doubt and ambiguity. Not only have humans been replaced, but the former values also: the knowl­ edge of good and evil has also been lost. In a good spy tale, It is difficult for both the protagonist and the reader to differentiate between good and evil. The tale of espionage is a suitable semblance of a modern world of complex and kaleidoscopic sets of values, where the distinct lines between good and evil have paled. The spy is also a man with a gun, and the genre further fosters the cult of "holy violence." The best spy novels have been British in origin, but the American reading audience really popularized the genre. The spy genre fulfilled a need for a purifying violence during the Cold War, an era of sup­ pressed hostility. The spy novel, it can be categorically stated, is a child of the Cold War. The spy novel flourished 3 between the years of 195U~1965, between the "hot wars" in Korea and Viet Nam. With the release of actual violence in Viet Nam, the spy novel phased into what has been a steady period of decline. There seems to be a direct correspond­ ence between periods of overt hostility and the partiality of the American reading public. This era has also been the age of "personnel manage­ ment." Authors such as Peter Drucker, Douglas McGregor, Frederick Herzberg, Rensis Likert, and Abraham Maslow have published volumes on "organization behavior."3 The Organiz­ ation Man by W. Whyte is a popular version of these studies. These management analysts dissect the attitudes and motives of the individual man who thrives in a conglomerate environ­ ment. These manuals pose as a gauge of the soul, or lack of soul, in the "mass man." And he, the organization man, is held up and exalted as the highest stage in the advancement of the species. Such attitudes undoubtedly have helped shape the spy genre, for the spy sacrifices himself and his indiv­ iduality, since the organization is the destiny of man, or so our contemporary society would have us believe. •’■Peter Drucker, The Practice of Management (New York: Harper and Row, 195U)> The Age of Discontinuity (New York: Harper and Row, 1969), et alia; Douglas McGregor, The Human Side of Enterprise (New York: McGraw-Hill, I960), et alia; Frederick Herzberg, Work and the Nature of Man (Cleveland: World Publishing, 1966)f Rensis Likert, The Human Organiz­ ation (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967); and Abraham Maslow, Toward a Psychology of Being (Princeton, N.J.: Van Nostrand, 1962)'. ^William H. Whyte, The Organization Man (New York: Simon and Schuster, 1956). u Some critical insights into the organization man as hero are offered by Whyte’s The Organization Man in a chapter titled "The Organization Man in Fiction."3 Whyte’s central observation concerning this new popular literature is the presentation of the lack of a hero of tradition; or, if the hero does exist, the theme of consonance in the universe por­ trayed, a microcosm of smiling faces where everyone loves his boss, the system prevails, and two cars in every suburban garage. "Since 1900, to recapitulate, the vision of life presented in popular fare has been one in which conflict has slowly been giving way to adjustment."U That is, the pro­ tagonist now politely and graciously backs away from any type of rebellion, and more readily accepts the status quo. Whyte discusses The Caine Mutiny to prove his case, and also cites random fiction from contemporary slick magazines. "High Noon" is also, quite interestingly, viewed as a morality play and a dramatization of the failure of the sense of community, The American sheriff sincerely tries to avoid confrontation; but he is sheriff, and accepts the role imposed on him by the system. Quite clearly, however, the need for the individual hero is still necessary for the perpetuation of the system— and the spy novel has assumed this same posture. William Whyte seems to further indicate that the "hero of assent" is a quite recent (since 1900) involution of the hero of tradition. The hero, however, has been wrestling 3Ibid., pp. 2U3-67. Ulbid., p. 255 5 with overpowering "systems" and "organizations" for some time. The system has been, by osmosis or perhaps evolution of the species, gradually and unobtrusively taking over the lives of individuals. This is history, and perhaps re­ flective of the course of Western civilization. But even the earliest of our Western predecessors were aware of this mighty struggle between the hero and the organization. The Greeks had at least two dramatizations of this conflict in the stories of Prometheus and Antigone. In that ancient con­ text, the "organization" was the laws of the gods and the city-state. Both Prometheus and Antigone suffered retri­ bution for challenging the system and for following that peculiar inner voice which makes martyrs and heroes of mortal men.