Spy Fiction: The Evolution and Widening of a Genre
Spy fiction comes from a long history of secret agents, spies, and other informants in a variety of media. While we usually think of spies as the gadget-wielding, smooth-talking guy we see in movies, spies actually existed in ancient China and India, as well as other major civilizations. Many modern spy techniques were even established in Elizabethan England, placing the real history of espionage a good 500 years earlier than we typically imagine it.
But it wasn’t until the nineteenth century that spies became popular in fiction, captivating audiences and ensnaring the public with tales of treachery and deceit. As the world keeps changing, spy fiction does as well—from early criticisms of oligarchy and political rivalry, we get the basis for famous spies like Jason Bourne and Sam Fisher. The evolution of spy fiction is an interesting one, often mimicking the concerns of our culture with a little extra flair.
Today, spy fiction has made its way into the world of gaming. Games like Alekhine’s Gun place you in the shoes of a spy, allowing you to experience new and historical events from a unique perspective through stealth-based gameplay.
Early Spy Fiction Often Questioned Power Structures
The earliest examples of spy fiction are less gadget and charisma-driven than the books, games, and movies we know today. James Fenimore Cooper’s The Spy and The Bravo, both published in the early nineteenth century, are concerned with anti-Republicanism and social class. Other early examples of spy fiction tackled terrorism (Joseph Conrad’s The Secret Agent) or power structures (The Man Who Was Thursday by G. K. Chesterton), and even Sherlock Holmes took on a spy role in a couple of his stories, spreading false secrets to the Germans before the eruption of World War I.
By nature, spy fiction concerns dealing in secrets and causing an upset in society. In the early days of the genre, that meant discussing some of our most important structures of power—the government, the class system, and patriotism. Most of these discussions ended in favor of the structure, but some did not, creating a theme of moral grayness that continues into spy fiction today.
World Wars Drive Spy Fiction into the Open
World War I and World War II both plunged the world into new conflicts, with much of the fighting centered in Europe. The close proximity of the combat and the great potential for sabotage in both wars led to an increase in spy fiction.
In World War I, John Buchan, best known as a propagandist, wrote several novels inspired by the conflict. These novels painted World War I as a conflict between civilized Western values and the barbaric natures of other cultures, featuring spy characters who ignored political borders to best serve their country.
World War II was a little different. Unlike the First World War, this conflict had a central figurehead who became shorthand for evil and an entire political ideology – fascism – to attack. Through espionage, the spy heroes of the era could dismantle power structures from the inside. A good spy had the power to trespass and get away with it, leading people astray and sowing chaos in the highly organized Nazi party. Spies like this figured prominently in the stories of spy fiction writers of the era like Eric Ambler, Helen MacInnes, and Manning Coles.
Cold War Spy Fiction Gets Technological
The Cold War is where many of our most famous figures in spy fiction originates—Ian Fleming’s James Bond has become the figurehead for most fictional spies to follow, thanks to a blend of skill and charisma. These novels often attacked communism due to the climate of the time, but other writers such as John le Carré and Grahame Green began to explore the moral issues inherent in the early, often imperialist spy fiction works.
Spy fiction began to show up in movies and television shows, often as adaptations with a few tweaks. Fictional spies were armed with equipment just past our current technological ability, such as invisibility cloaking, sophisticated weaponry, and advanced computer technology—all the result of the technology race that characterized the Cold War. These gadgets in spy fiction are a trend that continues today, always putting spies a step ahead of us and their enemies.
The Man From U.N.C.L.E., a 1960s television show, was of such importance and influence during the era that set pieces and gadgets are included in Ronald Reagan’s Presidential Library exhibit on espionage, spies, and counterspies. The show, which follows Napoleon Solo and Illya Kuryakin, a two-man team in service of a secret international intelligence agency, was recently reimagined in a film starring Henry Cavill, carrying its historical significance to a full fifty years after its creation.
Modern Spy Fiction Tackles Modern Conflicts, Including National Security
Modern spy fiction has expanded significantly, building upon the moral concerns and gadgetry of the Cold War era. As the world becomes entangled in increasingly difficult conflicts, fictional spies have to deal with stranger and stranger conflicts, particularly in a post-9/11 world. Much of modern-day spy fiction deals with thwarting terrorism and exposing government corruption, and its spread across more media has made it more accessible to everyone.
Spy games are one of the newest additions to the video game lexicon, letting players explore these tense conflicts first-hand. Series like Metal Gear and Splinter Cell vary in time and place, but encompass many themes important in the genre, such as avoiding global conflict, moral struggles, and betrayal from the inside. That they’re modern games doesn’t mean they can’t explore past conflicts, either—the upcoming Alekhine’s Gun takes place in the Cold War era, infusing real history with a conspiracy twist. Looking at past conflicts helps us gain a modern perspective, enriching the genre as a whole.
Spy Fiction’s Continued Evolution Encompasses Future Conflicts
While thinking of spy fiction might first summon James Bond and the anachronistic Sterling Archer to mind, the genre is still evolving and changing today. Spies of today’s fiction dismantle corrupt governments and thwart terrorism with futuristic works tackling corporatocracies, human augmentation, and cyber-crime—anxieties that are just beginning to take shape in our culture.
For the latest in spy fiction, play Alekhine’s Gun , a thrilling Cold War adventure that tasks you with eliminating an anti-government conspiracy before the world plunges into global conflict. With a perfect blend of stealth and action gameplay, Alekhine’s Gun provides the best in espionage-based gameplay for fans of all genres.
