I’ve never read the stranger and I’m so curious about the Marie thing because I honestly don’t hear much about the two’s relationship outside of Meursault liking boobs.
RIGHT i was kind of curious because what i knew from friends going into the book was really kind of. the boobs? while it feels like limbus fans have always been REALLY excited about her in the way we were about other "love interest" characters (queequeg who was obviously going to be one of the most important characters in c5, being so defining of ishmael and of the homosexual subtext in moby-dick, and catherine whom we knew since release was at the crux of heathcliff's story as she is in wh) to the point i see her added to so many ship charts as an otp for meursault, so i was wondering if she really had such a cool and interesting dynamic that everyone was looking forward to it so much despite there having been no hint at her even existing. granted i'm excited at the thought of penelope since odypen is an incredibly important part to the odyssey (despite being. very aware there's no way we're getting a canon lesbian marriage 😭) even if nothing has hinted at her either...
so now i finished it and YEAH basically. to spoil an 80 year old novel- yeah the extent to their relationship is that they go to the movies, they go swimming together and they have sex. there is some stray moments where meursault shows a slight interest in her as a person (like wanting to know where she's going when she says she's busy, but then not thinking about asking her, i thought that bit was kind of endearing) and by the end when he's in prison he associates the thought of her to that of freedom, but beside that... 🤷♂️? there is no actual "dynamic" the way i expected from seeing people talking about limbus meursault's potential relationship with her.
THE metaphorical level of their relationship is INTERESTING- while i haven't done readings about it yet, i do think basically every character in the book is readable as representing a type of institution and the absurdity and corruption of it, so marie represents a very bleak (but realistic!) look on the institution of marriage and of romantic love at all. meursault has moments where he thinks/learns about a couple other relationships, that of his neighbour salamano with his late wife, and of his mom with her "boyfriend" at the hospice. in both cases the concept that is observed is that humans like to have a companion, especially as they grow older and weaker. salamano didn't care much for his wife, but when she died he felt lonely, so he got a dog instead. similarly, meursault never knew his father, but put his mom in the hospice when he realized they didn't have anything to tell each other- she resented him, but there she made friends and became close with a man. it's a thing all about convenience, in a sense. the relationship with marie too is framed in this context: meursault enjoys spending time with her and enjoys the sex, but anything else isn't relevant to him. his life is defined by the physical experience, the rest is... well, not serious!
as for marie herself, i think she's... and you'll forgive me for being dismissive of a female character-- vapid? i feel like that's the most accurate word sdtgyhufjdkg. it's not her fault, we see her through meursault's eyes, which means her interiority is kind of limited, but i think that is the idea. she is nice, she likes swimming, she smiles a lot, she is vaguely bothered by meursault's behavior and the fact he doesn't really love her or consider her special, but not enough to leave him. i think that too is supposed to be commentary on how love and marriage is something sought after out of a need and convenience more than anything sentimental, because it is considered the way one (especially a woman!) must lead a normal life.
so at the end: i'm genuinely not sure where this idea of marie as one of the "love interest" characters is coming from... but! i'm incredibly curious to see how canto 10 adapts the concepts she's tied to. considering the city doesn't really have like... well i guess the entire patriarchal structure of Marriage And Kids -and in fact we know canonically for some people (like fixers) it's widely considered a bad idea- i am really thinking they might not make her a character at all, unless there's some stuff specific to n corp. that meursault is going to explore. even if they adapted her, her role, like in the book, should be to reflect on meursault's indifference to life, his struggle to connect with the world, because that world IS weird and disconnected, much like he is. a good marie should reflect that as well i think.
on a sillier note. well. very obvious what my ultimate dealbreaker was:
