How do spies like James Bond and Jason Bourne think?

(The bulk of my answer is derived from the books, not the movies).

Bond and Bourne come from a place that most of us never have to deal with – a space where danger and or death is right around the corner (sometimes literally). They have to be alert, and in “the field” have precisely ZERO down time – there is a reason Bond sleeps with a gun under his pillow – and I use “sleep” as a barely descriptive term.

They not only can’t rest, must stay constantly alert, but also can trust… well, no one. If you look up the description of a paranoid schizophrenic, that is not far from how these men think.

Both men are seeking something – For Bourne, the bulk of his arc is seeking either his identity or revenge. For Bond,. he is seeking the best things in life… because in the books, he expects to die a young man, not living past 45. Hence, the hedonistic lifestyle. He hate the “soft life” and boredom is worse than death – so, a mission – and the threat of death – excites him. Like I said, he’s quite a character.

That stated, Bond and Bourne think very differently, as they are men from different times – Bond in the books was the prototype of a secret agent, as Ian Fleming created him to reflect his experience as a spy in WW II. Bourne is the post-modern take on the archetype. Bond and Bourne are men alone, and that emptiness is filled by different ways for each.

I’m happy in my reasonaby “soft” comfortable life (the kind that Bond hates), but more than I’m happy that I don’t have to think like them.

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