Ian Fleming biographer Andrew Lycett slammed the move to rewrite now-culturally insensitive portions of James Bond novels.
During an interview with The Telegraph, the British biographer said on Bond’s rebranded novels decision, “It’s never a good look to change what an author originally wrote. It smacks of censorship, and there’s seldom much mileage in that.”
“Of course, there are words and phrases in the Bond novels which look out of place today.
References to race, such as in the ethnicity of the barman in Thunderball and striptease details in Live and Let Die, have reportedly been edited from a new edition of the 007 books.
“However, I feel strongly that what an author commits to paper is sacrosanct and shouldn’t be altered. It stands as evidence of that writer’s – and society’s – attitudes at a particular moment in time, whether it’s by Shakespeare, Dickens, or Ian Fleming,” he added.
Further, Lycett argued that Fleming’s Bond could not be molded into the politically correct narrative.
“Fleming created a sexist, often sadistic, killer, with anachronistic attitudes to homosexuals and to a range of people of different nationalities,” he told the daily.
