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John le Carré's 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' is the ultimate spy novel

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Re: John le Carré's 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' is the ultimate spy novel

#21

Post by travisgriggs »

wombatpm wrote: post #20
nocoiner wrote: post #4

Anyone have any recommendations for other classic spy novels like le Carre’s? I’ve read some Greene and Deighton, which were both mentioned in the article, so I suppose I should revisit those, but would be interested in any other works with a similar scene and setting. One of my favorite le Carre tidbits - apparently in the UK and US versions of “Tinker, Tailor,” a character in one version takes a ferry in Hong Kong,…

Robert Ludlum had many that were great. The original Bourne Identity got my family hooked. Beware the post death authorized books David Morrel also had some good ones. Brotherhood of the Rose was great.

Parsifal Mosaic was one of my favorite Ludlum books outside the obvious Bourne books (which actually got a little tired after the 3rd or 4th when he was “returning” as the mentor)

Re: John le Carré's 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' is the ultimate spy novel

#22

Post by selimthegrim »

nocoiner wrote: post #4

Anyone have any recommendations for other classic spy novels like le Carre’s? I’ve read some Greene and Deighton, which were both mentioned in the article, so I suppose I should revisit those, but would be interested in any other works with a similar scene and setting. One of my favorite le Carre tidbits - apparently in the UK and US versions of “Tinker, Tailor,” a character in one version takes a ferry in Hong Kong,…

You must mean the book? I didn’t recall this scene from the miniseries.

Re: John le Carré's 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' is the ultimate spy novel

#23

Post by travisgriggs »

nocoiner wrote: post #4

Anyone have any recommendations for other classic spy novels like le Carre’s? I’ve read some Greene and Deighton, which were both mentioned in the article, so I suppose I should revisit those, but would be interested in any other works with a similar scene and setting. One of my favorite le Carre tidbits - apparently in the UK and US versions of “Tinker, Tailor,” a character in one version takes a ferry in Hong Kong,…

I like all of his George Smiley novels. But perhaps the most haunting for me is The Looking Glass War (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Looking_Glass_War). I had just urned 50 when I read it and was actually surrounded by a lot of people ranging 60-80.

While a spy novel, it’s almost more of dark comic tragedy on the power of nostalgia. I easily find the storyline transferrable to some of the “established” organizations I’ve done work for.

Aging is hard. I wish there were Ben more books and stories like this one.

Re: John le Carré's 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' is the ultimate spy novel

#24

Post by ip26 »

noirbot wrote: post #13
jhbadger wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is because the novel has entered the subconscious of spy fiction and so many things have been inspired by it intentionally or not that it doesn't seem as fresh as it once did. But at the time, the notion that intelligence work is a dirty game and that everybody follows basically the same rulebook was pretty novel and even shocking. These days this is just generally accepted as true -- even the recent James…

I'm really curious if there's a name for this phenomenon - being unimpressed by something that was a transformative work at the time because of how much it transformed the genre or medium in its image. I often think of The Matrix being a good example of this, both in how it defined the sort of "the world is a computer" trope, but also just action movies for a while. It's still good, but some of the impressiveness of…

https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/SeinfeldIsUnfunn...

Re: John le Carré's 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' is the ultimate spy novel

#27

Post by kristianp »

noirbot wrote: post #13
jhbadger wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is because the novel has entered the subconscious of spy fiction and so many things have been inspired by it intentionally or not that it doesn't seem as fresh as it once did. But at the time, the notion that intelligence work is a dirty game and that everybody follows basically the same rulebook was pretty novel and even shocking. These days this is just generally accepted as true -- even the recent James…

I'm really curious if there's a name for this phenomenon - being unimpressed by something that was a transformative work at the time because of how much it transformed the genre or medium in its image. I often think of The Matrix being a good example of this, both in how it defined the sort of "the world is a computer" trope, but also just action movies for a while. It's still good, but some of the impressiveness of…

I read good omens recently, and it seemed full of cliches. I wondered after finishing it, if that's because it came up with a lot of Angel and Demon tropes used in later supernatural stories.

Re: John le Carré's 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' is the ultimate spy novel

#29

Post by hindsightbias »

noirbot wrote: post #13
jhbadger wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think it is because the novel has entered the subconscious of spy fiction and so many things have been inspired by it intentionally or not that it doesn't seem as fresh as it once did. But at the time, the notion that intelligence work is a dirty game and that everybody follows basically the same rulebook was pretty novel and even shocking. These days this is just generally accepted as true -- even the recent James…

I'm really curious if there's a name for this phenomenon - being unimpressed by something that was a transformative work at the time because of how much it transformed the genre or medium in its image. I often think of The Matrix being a good example of this, both in how it defined the sort of "the world is a computer" trope, but also just action movies for a while. It's still good, but some of the impressiveness of…

I always refer to Peckinpah as a breaker for this. Someone younger can watch his movies and invariably they say “oh, so is this is where that trope comes from?”

Re: John le Carré's 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold' is the ultimate spy novel

#30

Post by what-no-tests »

wombatpm wrote: post #20
nocoiner wrote: post #4

Anyone have any recommendations for other classic spy novels like le Carre’s? I’ve read some Greene and Deighton, which were both mentioned in the article, so I suppose I should revisit those, but would be interested in any other works with a similar scene and setting. One of my favorite le Carre tidbits - apparently in the UK and US versions of “Tinker, Tailor,” a character in one version takes a ferry in Hong Kong,…

Robert Ludlum had many that were great. The original Bourne Identity got my family hooked. Beware the post death authorized books David Morrel also had some good ones. Brotherhood of the Rose was great.

Robert Ludlum's "The Prometheus Deception" has so many plot twists...my favorite of his.

Also Le Carre's "The Russia House" is my favorite, and has such great prose. More of a love story maybe, but the subtexts are really a thing of beauty in that work.

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