10. Buchan's fingerprints are all over spy fiction: his 39 Steps (which featured a Jewish conspiracy) not only filmed by Hitchcock but also basis for classic Hitchcock narrative: the man unknowingly caught in plot he doesn't understand and going on the run to escape
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21. So let's put this together: we have Matthew Vaughn (son of Man From UNCLE & aristo scoundrel) making film that is Buchan Redux: dashing aristos form private spy agency so UK can punch above weight & thwart Scottish/Jewish world conspiracy to destroy civilization/empire
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22. The Scottish theme, which I've touched on tangentially, is also important. In fiction, Buchan distinguished between good minorities (Scots like himself who served King, the odd good Jew or good native) from bad (anti-empire nationalists).
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23. In The King's Man the leader of the world conspiracy is first a Scottish nationalist & then an Austrian Jew: not an accident since both are types that are seen to threaten order of empire. But also echo of Buchan's divided self as good Scot (versus the bad ones)
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24. For much more along this line -- on the origins of English spy fiction & the way King's Man refurbishes aristocratic antisemitism -- I've done a podcast with
@bellye66 &@RobinGanev that lays it all out:https://jeetheer.substack.com/p/the-kings-man-and-antisemitism-in?r=bh54&s=w&utm_campaign=post&utm_medium=email …Show this thread
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I'll step in for a moment to defend le Carré, if I may - the futility of Britain trying to spy/punch above its weight when it has obviously lost its power and relevance is a theme running through all of his Cold War books.
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That's what I meant by more ironic and sophisticated
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I think I've been noticing a qualitative difference in the last month or so between reports credited to UK vs. US intelligence on Russia's intentions: UK reports are more lurid and frightening, and also more likely to turn out probably false.
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I ran into Buchan's name the other day as the key person in the British war propaganda bureau in World War I, alongside Lords Beaverbrook and Northcliffe, proprietors of the Express and the Mail. It seemed significant of something that fits with all your wonderful material here.
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