Games and Game Structures in Robbe-Grillet

Author(s): Bruce Morrissette

Source: Yale French Studies, No. 41, Game, Play, Literature (1968), pp. 159-167
Published by: Yale University Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2929672
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Bruce Morrissette

in Robbe-Grillet
Games and game structures

From the outset,the proliferation of game structuresin the worksof

Alain Robbe-Grilletidentifiesthis writeras a notable example of
artifexludens.Almostall the tendenciesthatwere laterto be termed
"aspectsludiques" in his novels and filmsmay be uncoveredby care-
ful scrutinyof his earliestproductions.It is even possible to reduce
the numerousgame structuresto a few basic models, such as the
circularor windingpath of individualcases or rectangles(like those
usuallyfoundon board games played withdice), the maze or laby-
rinth,and the multiple-solution typeof game,such as Clue, in which
shuffling the cards representing charactersand places allows each
separatepartie,althoughcreatedout of identicalelements,to lead to
a totallydifferent outcome.
The conceptionof a fundamentally game-likestructureof the
novel would make of specificgames mentionedin the works, or
played by the characterstherein,examples of interiorduplication,
functioningwith respectto the over-all structurein somewhatthe
same way as an "innernovel" (cf. Jealousy) or play (cf. Last Year at
Marienbad) thatduplicates,at the level of the characters,and within
the fictionalfield,the generalpatternof the novel or film.This inte-
grativeprincipleconstitutesone type of "justification" of an actual
game (as in Marienbad) as coherently incorporatedinto the esthetic
structure. The literalgame may be minimized,or may not appear at
all; but the "metaphysical"aspect of generalgame structurecannot,
sinceit is partof thenovelistictechnique,be avoided.It is in turnthis
metaphysicalimplicationthatprotectsthe workfromfallinginto the
gratuityof a neo-Kantian"freeplay of the faculties"conceptionof
fictionalart whichmight,if pushed to the limit,reduce the creative
processto a kind of estheticbillardgame or acrobaticdisplay.It is
also evidentthatthe problemof formalismin the use of game struc-

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 Yale French Studies

turesin novels and filmshas its parallelsin painting(from abstract

expressionism to Pop Art) and theotherarts,especiallycontemporary
music. In orderto tie the discussionto the specificsof fiction,how-
ever,these temptinganalogieswill be set aside for explorationelse-
where.
If, as Hjelmslevdeclares,languageitselfis "put togetherlike a
game,"' witha large but finitenumberof underlying structuresthat
permitthe vast repertory of combinationsrepresenting the totalityof
actual practiceor usage in all given cases, then by the principleof
analogousextensionall fictionmay be said to be put togetherlike a
game,witheach specificstoryor novel constituting merelyone of the
possible partiesor individualplayingsof the game of fictionalcom-
position. However, such a broad view, though perhaps sound in
theory,would fail to distinguishbetween a novel whose structure
bears no identifiable resemblanceto any knowngame (in the usual
sense), such as Madame Bovary,and one whichcloselyparallelsor
imitatesa known game structure,such as Robbe-Grillet'sIn the
Labyrinth.We shall in thisbriefsurveybe concernedwiththe later
typeof novel, as well as withthe playingof games or executionof
game-likepatternsby charactersin the novel, and with specificor
hiddenallusionsto games in novelisticcontextsof whichthe charac-
ters (and sometimesthe readersthemselves)remainunaware.
Puzzles, mathematicalgames, riddles, paradoxes, topological
curiosities(like the Moebius strip), optical illusions (like the pin-
hole flyimage in Labyrinth),and all such para-rationalphenomena
have fascinatedRobbe-Grilletsince his childhood.I recall his once
calculatingrapidlyand preciselythe numberof timesa singlesheet
of paper would have to be folded to make its increased thickness
reach fromthe earthto the moon (it is a mathematicalpossibility).
I have describedelsewherehis firstprojectfor a novel, whose per-
tinencehere justifiesrepeatingthe followingessentials: this novel,
whichneverreceiveda title,was to have its plot organizedaccording
to the hermeticseries of 108 scales on drawingsmade by medieval

'Quoted in Jacques Ehrmann,"On Articulation,"YFS, No. 39, p. 11.

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alchemistsofthelegendarysnakeOuroboros.Note thatwe are dealing

fromthe outsetwiththe combinationof an archetypeor traditional
symbolicrepresentation (the Gnosticsnake bitingits own tail, sym-
bolizingtheUniversein Horapollo's Hierogylphics, Time in Plotinus,
and therepeatedcyclesof metempsychosis amongthe Ophites) and a
mathematical game,dependingon the propertiesof a unique seriesof
the numbersfrom1 to 108 (108 being also, Mircea Eliade informs
me, a sacrednumberamongcertainHindou sects). If one constructs
a mandala-likewheel or circle with 108 spaces around the circum-
ference(a patternsuggestiveof board-and-dicegames), it is possible,
accordingto a certainformula,to arrangethe numbers1 to 108 in
such a way that,at anygivenpoint,thesum of twonumberson oppo-
site sides of the circlewill be 108. No othernumberwill permitsuch
an arrangement. What the "pre-novelist"Robbe-Grilletproposed to
do was to dividehis plot into 108 narrativeelementsor narremesand
put themin the orderof the spaces around the Ouroborosdiagram.
"Dechronology"would thusbe introducedartifically into the novel's
timestructure, in a mannerdirectlycomparableto theuse of external
tormsor models to determinetheorderof musicalelementsin certain
compositionsof John Cage and others. Also, the novel, however
randomin apparentstructure, would in realitybe constructedupon
secret,innerprinciplesof organizationleftunrevealedto thereaderor
critic,a procedurethe authorwas shortlyto followin his firstpub-
lishednovel.The effectof such chronologicaljugglingwould no doubt
have been to someextentcomparableto thatproducedby theordering
of plot elementsin such late works as La Maison de rendezvous,
especiallyif Robbe-Grillet,havingrearrangedhis 108 plot elements
into his hermeticseries, had then establishedliaisons de scene to
articulatethe whole into an apparentcontinuity, in defianceof the
obvious non-linearity of the intrigue.At any rate, two fundamental
compositionalprinciples,those of circularity and series,may be seen
in theirearliest formin the game-likeproject for the Ouroboros
novel.2
2The fascination felt by the public with such para-literarymatters as this non-existent
"novel" by Robbe-Grilletis shown by the fact that my remarks were seized upon by such
reviews as Paris-Match, which delightedin citing such examples of Robbe-Grillet'sbaroque
imagination.

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 Yale French Studies

In The Erasers (1953) Robbe-Grilletemploysmythas hidden

structureand establishesingeniouscorrespondencesbetween myth
and thesemi-occult"game" of Tarot cards.Neitherthe myth(that of
Oedipus) nor the Tarot cards are specificallymentionedin the text,
and the generalrecognitionnow of theirpresencemay be attributed
to the publicationof variouscriticalessays,beginningwithmy own.3
It is now possiblehere to reinforceand extendmy originalfindings,
thanksto the unexpectedand welcome collaborationof the distin-
guished surrealistcriticJacques Brunius. I had limitedmyselfto
studyingmore or less separatelythe systematiccorrespondencesbe-
tweenthe Oedipus mythand the plot of The Erasers (in whichthe
protagonistseeks a murdereronly to become that murdererin the
end), reflectedin referencesto an abandoned child, Thebes, the
riddleof theSphynx,Apollo's oracle,Laius' chariot,and thelike,and
to parallelsbetweentraditionalreadingof certainTarot cards and the
fictionalsituationsin whichtheyoccur (in hiddenform) in thenovel.
The readerwillrecallthattheTarot references firstappear as Garinati
climbs the stairsto Dupont's study,intendingto murderhim. This
stairwayconsistsof 21 wooden steps,plus one non-conforming stone
stepat thebottomthat"bears a coppercolumn. . . endingin a fool's
head capped witha three-belledbonnet." This detail,togetherwith
thepictureon thewall at thesixteenthstep,describedexactlyin terms
of the 16thTarot card,theMaison Dieu, establishestheparallelwith-
out revealingit explicitly:the Mat or Fool, whichmay be card 1 or
22, has no numberin the Tarot pack, while the remainingarcanes
majeurscorrespondto the 21 wooden steps. I have shown that the
Fool "upside down" (or in the bottomposition) standsin the Tarot
manuals for the sudden stoppingof progress,thus forminga subtle
supportforthefirst"frozen"scene in The Erasers,Garinati'smotion-
less pause on thesesteps.The resonancesof theMaison Dieu card are
more complicated,since what is merelyannouncedin the firststair-
way passage recurrslaterwithmore explicitallusionsto the death of
a king (Laius), withthe card (or ratherits pictureimage) contri-
3See "Oedipus and Existentialism: Les Gommes of Robbe-Grillet," Wisconsin Studies in
Comparative Literature,Fall 1960, and Les Romans de Robbe-Grillet,Paris, Minuit, 1963
and 1965.

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Bruce Morrissette

butingits traditionalmeaningof coup de thedtre,choc inattenduto

reinforcethe novel's surprising finaltwist.
What JacquesBruniushas proposedto me, in severalletters,is
thepossibility of discerningin thenovel certaincross-correspondences
betweenthe Oedipus mythand the Tarot pack whichwould "bring
out a troublingparallelismbetweenthe two perspectiveson Destiny
representedby Oedipus and the Tarot." The effectof thesewould be
to furtherintegratethe "game" aspect of the Tarot into the novel's
total structure.For example,Bruniuspointsout thatthe cafe where
theprotagonist Wallas triesto answerthe riddlesposed by the drunk-
ard (various distortedversionsof the Sphynxriddle about man) is
located at 10, rue des Arpenteurs,and thatthe major Tarot card 10,
called the Wheel of Fortune,shows a sphynxseated on the wheel.
Moreover,the chariotstatueon thesquare (which I had seen onlyas
a referenceto the chariotof Laius in the scene of the murderat the
crossroadsin Oedipus theKing) recallscard 7, showinga king(father
image) on such a chariot,cubical in shape like the eraser and the
basalt cube in Dupont's (the father's?)study;and theHanged Man of
card 12 is suspended by one foot like the infantOedipus on the
mountain.These findingsdo indeed create a new parallelismwithin
thenovel,and theydemonstrate conclusivelythatthe notionof game,
in the sense of purelyformaldiversion,carrieswith it implications
reachingall theway intothedomainsof archetypesand myths.True,
the Tarot was rarely,if ever,played as a "pure" game, since it was
used forfortune-telling and prophecy.Yet its structureand interpre-
tativesystemsare game-likein theirorganization,and fromits minor
arcanes the pack of cards used in contemporary "empty"games has
been derived.4

4Jacques Brunius, who has graciously allowed me to use his findings,points out other
interestingdetails. For example, "Note that the 12th letter of the Hebrew alphabet is L
(lamed). Garinati wears a raincoat with an L-shaped tear (L is the initial of Laius), just
as the Mat or Fool has a tear in his pants. This establishes the identificationof a) the
murdererto the Fool, and b) the murdererto Oedipus-Wallas." Furthermore,he informs
me that in 1947 Andre Breton had proposed for the Surrealist Exposition "a stairway of
22 steps of which each step would symbolize one of the major Tarot cards," and that this
project is mentioned in the text of the Exposition, though the stairway was never con-
structed.If Robbe-Grilletknew this text, which is doubtful, we have another example of
surrealist "influence" on his work; if he did not, we still have a fine illustrationof le
hasard objectif. Jacques Brunius wrote to me spontaneouslyupon reading my treatmentof
The Erasers in Les Romans de Robbe-Grillet,and I here express publicly my appreciation
of his contribution.

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 Yale French Studies

Whilethereare no outright or hiddenreferences to gamesin The

Voyeur(1955) and Jealousy(1957) - ifwe acceptsuch off-hand al-
lusionsas thatto pin-ballmachinesin The Voyeurcafe scenes-, both
novelsshowserialpatternings withanalogiesto thegeneralconception
of game structure referredto earlier.One might,a la rigueur,compare
some of these patternsto the "game of resemblances"familiarto
readersof magazinesand Sunday supplements.The entireseries of
8-shapedobjectsand formsin The Voyeuris a case in point,as is the
moresubtleseriesof Y-shaped objectsand designswhichcan be dis-
cerned in a minutereading of the text, and which are organized
around the Y of the publis and thus broughtinto the eroto-sadistic
gestalt of the 8-shaped bonds, rings,and the like associated with
Mathias' rape and murderof Jacqueline.Similarly,the V series of
Jealousy,fromthe parquet floorsto the accidental arrangementof
logs waitingto be used on thefootbridge, as well as the "spot" series
(centipede,oil spot,greasespot at Franck'splace at the table, defec-
tivespotin thewindow,and thelike), may all be seen as an extension
of a high-ordergame of "find the resemblance."Needless to say,
this aspect of the novel is subordinatedto less game-likeand more
"serious" matters;but the games "that people play," like Mathias'
burningof side-by-sideholes withhis cigarette,or like the husband's
testingof themathematical regularityof his trapezoidalbanana fields,
have easilyrecognizablepsychicmeanings,and findtheirplace readily
in novelisticstructuresthatare farfromconstituting "mere"games.
It is In theLabyrinth(1959) whichoffers,forthe firstbut not
the last time in Robbe-Grillet'sproduction,outrightanalogies with
those board games thatdepend fortheireffecton multipleattempts,
withadvances and retreats,withside excursionsintodead ends,with
repeatedeffortsto findthe "right"path to the centerand win the
game (in thecase of thesoldierin thenovel,to deliverthebox). The
titleof theworkinvitesthecomparison,and theparagraphsof thetext
itselfoftengive the effectof a throwof the dice permitting no move-
ment ("Non. Non.") or of franticturningsfromrightto left (the
scenes in the corridor), of arrivals in hopeless impasses. I have
suggestedthatthis whole patternis metaphoricalof the problemof

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Bruce Morrissette

writingthisor any novel; in thisview,the "game" aspect of random-

ness,multiplicity, and alternativesbecomes allegoricalof the creative
process,somewhatin a Mallarmeansense. Everynarrativeeffort is a
throwof thedice, and willneverabolishchance.
We now come to Last Year at Marienbad (1961), whichcould
well serve as a model of game structurein novel and film.Readers
willrecalltheworld-widereactionsto thisgame,rangingfromarticles
settingforthitsbasis in binarymathematics(or contesting thisbasis)
to the distribution in movie houses, in New York and elsewhere,of
bookletsof matcheswiththe rulesof the game printedon the cover.
Alain Resnais, the director,announcedfollowingthe release of the
filmthatthe "Marienbadgame" was a variantof the ancient"Chin-
ese" game of Nim; it was also learnedthatRobbe-Grilletthoughthe
had inventedit, and thatat least one angryFrench citizen,claiming
to have both inventedand patentedthe game, threatenedto sue the
producer,director,and scenarist.Cinema61 and 62 carrieda learned
debate on the mathematicsof Nim; and I myselfappended to my
studyof Robbe-Grillet'snovels an explanationwithexamplesof the
binarycalculationsnecessaryto win in any situation.Followingthe
generalimpression,I also spoke of Nim as "Chinese" in origin;but
recentlya mathematician, D.W. Bushaw,has sentme an article"On
the Name and Historyof Nim," arguingconvincingly thatthe name
derivesfromGerman"nimm,"meaningtake away.5Aside fromthe
incidentalinterestof thegame itself,theimportant pointsuggestedby
the existenceof a mathematicaltheoryis that Nim, both in reality
and in thefilm,is nota "game" in theopen sense,but theexecutionof
a predetermined certaintyby one familiarwithits system.Obviously,
onlyM, thehusband figure,is privyto Nim's secretsin the film,and
thevariousremarksheardamongthe spectators(such as "It mustbe
a logarithmicseries",etc.) reflectthesurrounding ignoranceon which
the power of M's play depends. (In a sense, the "native song" of

5Cf. WashingtonMathematics,XI (October, 1966), pp. 52-55. Bushaw points out that the
game has been known as "Takeaway," and that in the 18th centurythe poet John Byrom
used "The Nimmers" as the title of a poem on thieves. The firstscientifictreatmentof
Nim in printcame as recentlyas 1902, in the Annals of Mathematics ("Nim, a Game with
a Complete MathematicalTheory," by C. L. Boulton).

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 Yale French Studies

Jealousy,describedas incoherentonly to one not familiarwith its

"rules," is an analagous structure.)The antagonistsX and M con-
fronteach otherin two ways: in the struggleof passion to possess A,
and in the duel of the mind to win at Nim (or at poker, dominos,
etc.). A certaintonalityof playingdice withthe devil is sounded in
these encountersat the gamingtable. M always wins, but he "can
lose," as he says,and in the end, he does; is it deliberately?
It is perhaps unnecessaryto do more than referbrieflyto the
integration of Nim intothevisual seriesof the film,and thusintothe
implicitpsychologyof the characters,especiallyA: the brokenpieces
of glass, the slippers,the photographs,the tornpieces of the letter,
even the finaloblique referencein the lightsalong the facade of the
chateau as the filmends. All the games of the film,includingthe
shootinggallery,reinforcethe themesof contestdomination,imposi-
tion of will upon another,even violence,thatformthe basis of the
main action of Marienbad. Like the play on the chateau stage, the
games of the filmare formsof interiorduplication,of mise en abime
in the Gidean sense, which serve not only to permitthe characters
themselvesto take cognizanceof theirsituations(as the statuedoes,
for example), but to let the spectatoror reader plunge deeper into
the "vertical"significance of the work.
Whenin thesummerof 1967 I mentionedto Robbe-Grilletthat
I plannedto do a piece on le jeu in relationto his work,he replied,
"Ah, il fautparlerde Trans-Europ-Express. C'est faitcomme le jeu
de l'oie." Indeed,thisfilm(not yetshownin theU.S.) carriesto great
lengthstheprincipleof starts,retreats,new starts.A novelist-scenarist
on a luxurytrainbeginsto "imagine"a scenariosuitableforfilming on
the train;his firstconjectures,objectifiedinto actual sequences, are
broad caricatures of spy movies which are almost immediately
"erased" and replaced by more serious attempts.As this game of
improvisationscontinues,the realityof the game, thoughretaining
its tendencyto proliferateinto alternatives, beginsto overwhelmthe
ostensiblerealityof thewriterand his imaginings.In thissense Trans-
Europ-Expressis closer to In the Labyrinththan to La Maison de
rendez-vous,where the "alternatives"(such as the various forms

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takenby themurderof Manneret) are splicedtogetherin an "impos-

sible" topologyin whicheventscan occur in reverseor double order:
forexample,Johnsonfleeingthepolice who are seekingto arresthim
for Manneret'smurder,evades them and proceeds to committhe
murderforwhichhe is being sought.(Note a certainsimilarity here
to The Erasers.) As forthe other"games" of Robbe-Grillet'slatest
novel - theeroticsketches,the gardenof statues,theyare mostlyex-
amples of interiorduplicationslinkedin typicallycomplicatedways
to otherelementsin this,as well as previousworksof the author.
Is the predilectionfor games and game structuresevidence of
excessiveformalismin Robbe-Grillet?It would be possible to argue
thatsinceRaymondRoussel the creationof novelson game premises
has givenrise to certaintendenciesin fictionleading away fromthe
"serious" thematics(such as Sartrianengagement,the depictionof
contemporary alienation,and the like) associated withthe novel in
themindof thepublic.These tendenciesappear not onlyincreasingly
in Robbe-Grillet,but also in such worksas JeanRicardou's La Prise
de Constantinople, perhapsthe most significant and "serious" novel-
as-gameyetto appear. Meanwhile,game forRobbe-Grillethas come
to mean structural freedom,absence of traditionalrulesof transition,
viewpoint,chronology, and otherparametersof previousfiction,and,
on the constructiveside, an invitationto create new models, to
develop new combinations,to push ahead even furtherthe aptly
termednouveau roman.

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