Just for fun: Ian Fleming and Roald Dahl swap literary careers

I recently found out that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was written by Ian Fleming, so I was thinking if he wrote 1 childrens' story, then he could write more.

Recent revelations about Dahl's post 1941 wartime career means he could have had plenty of material for spy stories.

I wonder how the Bond books & movies would have turned out with a Dahlesque writing style.
 
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I think that "Dahlist" Bond would be a lot more fantastic in nature, similar to Tintin in some ways. Can't say much for Fleming since I've only read one book of his.
 

Thande

Donor
The two collaborated on Chitty Chitty Bang Bang in OTL...

Dahl was briefly involved in espionage when he was in the RAF. If he based it on his own experiences, his 'Bond' would probably be an ace pilot who is drafted to help agents in occupied countries. Also Dahl's Anti-Zionism might come through. I suspect the supernatural elements would eventually appear too (if a WW2 period piece, it could be Nazi occultism).

If Fleming did escapist children's fiction, it would be less dark than Dahl's (but then, what isn't?).
 
The tall man smiles. One eyelid flickers.
He whips a pistol from his knickers.
He aims it at the villain's head,
And bang bang bang, he shoots him dead.
 
Yes, Dahl's more mature works (Switch Bitch for example) indicate a darkness and grittiness would be present in his Bond that makes Fleming's callousness seem postively pleasant. Bond would probably be borderline sociopathic (then again, there's some who say he is already).

Fleming writing children's books, though... hard to picture past Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Perhaps more of the same... I don't think he had it in him to become the legend, the titan, the giant that was the mighty Dahl.
 

Thande

Donor
Fleming writing children's books, though... hard to picture past Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Perhaps more of the same... I don't think he had it in him to become the legend, the titan, the giant that was the mighty Dahl.

I could see Fleming's schtick being that his children's stories are set all over the world, maybe involving a Blytonesque group of kids travelling around, so you get the same sort of colour as you do in a Bond novel. In particular I could see him setting some in the Caribbean and drawing on Caribbean folk mythology as he did with "Live and Let Die".
 
I could see Fleming's schtick being that his children's stories are set all over the world, maybe involving a Blytonesque group of kids travelling around, so you get the same sort of colour as you do in a Bond novel. In particular I could see him setting some in the Caribbean and drawing on Caribbean folk mythology as he did with "Live and Let Die".

Hmm... I think I prefer the ATL Fleming and Dahl, given the theme of this song as a "darker Bond" and lighter children work of Fleming. I can dig it.
 
I'm struggling to imagine an even less politically correct Bond--if I recall, Dahl wasn't shy at being rather 'in your face' at nationalities in his children's work, from Americans to the Chinese.
 
I recently found out that Chitty Chitty Bang Bang was written by Ian Fleming, so I was thinking if he wrote 1 childrens' story, then he could write more.

Recent revelations about Dahl's post 1941 wartime career means he could have had plenty of material for spy stories.

I wonder how the Bond books & movies would have turned out with a Dahlesque writing style/


Well, look at the film adaptation of You Only Live Twice, which Mr Dahl wrote, so a carrear as a author, writing spy fiction, rather than children's literature, in the same style as say, John Le Carre is perfectly possible...
"You can watch it all on Television..." E.S Blofeld - You Only Live Twice (Film Adaptation)
 
I think James Bond is one of the most off-putting heroes in modern fiction, so I'd be keen to see Dahl take a crack at it.

Shame to lose his delightful 'children's' books though
 
I don't really think so. Reading some of his short stories, I think Bond would be a far darker, grittier creation. Oh, the womanising doubtless would remain, would I think the violence and intrigue would be turned up to 11.
Yeah you're probably right. I remember reading Dahl's darker stories as a kid (the book came from the "child's section" of the library) and thinking that they were indeed...dark.
 
Bond would probably end up much more fringe, but infinitely more... interesting. Some of Dahl's works are just plain off the wall, like completely. As for Flemming, I have no idea since I have never read his works.
 
This is an interesting idea. Dahl would likely have contempt for internationalist liberals. (He personally liked Henry Wallace, but viewed him as too naiive.)
Fleming as children's writer could be even stranger than Dahl. Rumor has it he did work with Crowley...
 
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