Espionage in Fiction | Episode 47

Today’s podcast is part of a series to accompany my current serialized novel, An Interpreter in Vienna, as we investigate the truth in fiction. You can also listen to the podcast via Apple or Spotify or in the Substack app.

I appreciate your support as a Matterhorn subscriber and look forward to our discussions. As always, feel free to share any of your work related to the conversation. Thank you!

Photo by Dmitry Ratushny on Unsplash

A full AI-created transcript can be accessed on the desktop version.

Keywords:

• Espionage - types and the current situation

• Vienna spies

• Female spies

• Spy stories

• The nature of espionage; questions for fiction

Considerations for your work:

• Do the characters in your fiction function within their own versions of realities, or do they disguise and dissemble according to context? For what purpose?

• Who is spying on whom in your fiction? Even if you’re not writing a spy thriller, is somebody trying to gain information in some way? How can you amplify this concept through aspects of spy literature?

• Which national or cultural identities are at play in your fiction? When do they conflict or change allegiance? What is it that brings them together or separates them? Consider the histories and power dynamics as well as personal interests that can interfere.

Feel free to share your related work or recommendations in the comments.

 

Texts:

• Vienna’s spies (BBC)

• Spying is “wild west” in Austria (The FT)

• Swiss Hands Off Approach to Espionage

• Britain spying on Israel (Le Monde)

• China’s history of spying in US (CNN)

• International meeting to combat Chinese spying (NYT)

• On US spies (New Republic)

• https://edition.cnn.com/2016/07/20/us/declassified-spycraft-espionage-gear-techniques/index.html

• The Americans TV show

• North by Northwest (Alfred Hitchcock, film)

• Munich (Steven Spielberg, film)

• The Lives of Others (Florian Henckel von Donnersmarck, film)

• Sneakers (Phil Alden Robinson, film)

• BlacKkKlansman (Spike Lee, film)

• History of spy fiction

• How to write a thriller

• Tips for writing a spy thriller

• Penguin – Tom Tivnan on spy books

• Spying as British obsession (The Guardian)

• Andrey Kurkov – Death and the Penguin

• NPR on Kurkov

• Monsieur Pain, Roberto Bolano

• Thrillers for lovers of literary fiction (from The Matterhorn archives)

• List of spy films from Esquire

• Epitaph for a spy, Eric Ambler

• Language of Espionage

• The International Spy Museum, Washington DC

• The secret lives of M16’s top female spies (The FT)

• Jules
  - Three Queens of Detective Fiction