BUREAUCRATIC MALAISE IN THE MODERN SPY NOVEL: DEIGHTON, GREENE, AND LECARRE

Modern espionage novels and particularly those of Deighton, Greene, and LeCarre provide exceptional insights into bureaucratic politics. As well as offering a wealth of material about bureaucratic structure and behaviour, their works speak to the negative consequences and effects of bureaucratic pressures and ideologies on the human spirit. Specifically, these novelists posit that in a bureaucratic world heroism is flawed: that principles no longer flow from moral purpose, and that the evil which needs to be conquered can no longer be identified solely with an externalized enemy. The conclusion drawn is that the bureaucratic state, which substitutes technique for purpose and principle, and bureaucratic personality for individual initiative and motivation, is largely responsible for this malaise. The world which remains reflects, paradoxically, both order and disorder — the image is that of a universal clock winding its way down to an uncertain, yet organizationally dominated future.