Marguerite Duras, game designer.

I’m reading Le Vice-Consul at the moment in which Anne-Marie Stretter plays an important role. Anne-Marie Stretter, the wife of the ambassador of France in colonial India. Not unlike Anne Desbaresdes, the wife of the factory owner in Moderato Cantabile. The latter only has one lover. The former has several. She is mentioned as such in the beginning of L’amant de la Chine du Nord as well. Not much more is said of her. And the novel goes on, throwing a poor white school girl in the lusting arms of a wealthy Chinese gentleman.

In Le Ravissement de Lol V. Stein, Anne-Marie Stretter is the older woman who seduces the fiancé of the lead character away from her, casting her into a ten year long depression. The name of that fiancé is Michaël Richardson. In Le Vice-Consul, one of the lovers of Anne-Marie Stretter is called Michael Richard. She seems to prefer him.

I’m now in a part of the novel where Anne-Marie Stretter is on a beach (yes, a beach, as in many other novels of Duras and in Bientôt l’été). She is lying in a chair surrounded by her lovers. The men talk and she sleeps. She remains the sphinx, even when she is the center of attention. And she taints every other story with her presence, even if only featured casually, in the margins.

There’s also several films by Duras in which Mrs Stretter makes an appearance, highlighting other aspects of this elusive character. Makes me want to make a videogame about her. But I don’t know enough about her. That’s sort of the point and the beauty of Anne-Marie Stretter. Can we make a game about something unknown and yet familiar? How do we allude in videogames?