Bridesicle

Will McIntosh’s Bridesicle is a science fiction story that is quite an enjoyable read; remarkably, it lacks the intense or depressing atmosphere that often pervades many works of the genre. However, for all its clever wit and humorous scenes, the story still addresses several important issues of today’s world, including the ways in which quality of life is affected by increased longevity of life, and how women are affected by abusive relationships.

When the reader first meets the main character of Bridesicle, Mira, she is just awakening from being cyronically frozen for sixty years. Mira is completely helpless—she cannot move her arms or legs, and can be sent back to sleep for decades with the flip of a switch. She is in a facility full of thousands of other frozen women who are desperately trying to win back their lives by enticing men as potential wives. One wrong word and the women could send the men off to the next candidate; thus, the women are forced to make promises to fulfill the men’s every wish so that the men will finance their restoration.

 For example, the first man to revive Mira is upset when she will not tell him all the intimate, sexual services that she would provide him were she revived, and he tells her: “Well…this costs quite a bit, and they charge by the minute. So I’ll say goodbye, and you can go back to being dead” (McIntosh 3). This man is willing to “kill” Mira even upon her first awakening because she will not comply with his wishes. Mira has no voice in this position; she can do nothing to prevent the man from flipping the switch. This situation is very similar to the relationships between abused women and their husbands or boyfriends. These women are forced to comply with their partner's wishes for fear of physical and mental harm, or even for fear of losing basic necessities such as food and shelter. Mira’s lack of limbs in this case represents some abused women’s helpless feelings and their inability to protest for fear of the consequences. The author thus enlightens the reader with empathy and understanding for those severely maltreated and physically harmed women who do not leave their abusive partners—these women feel so debilitated that it is virtually impossible for them to do so.

On a more literal note, as the average person's lifespan continues to increase drastically with each passing decade, McIntosh examines the quality of life for human beings who have extended their years on earth with the aid of technology. In the world of Bridesicle, people can survive even death through cryonic freezing. Humans can also live past their time through a process called hitching, in which a person about to die essentially hitches to the mind of another person--the two share this single brain until the host dies. The author questions these developments on many occasions. When a person is cryonically frozen, that person can lose his/her basic human rights, and is subject to the whim of those who still have their natural bodies. When an individual has a hitcher, that individual and the hitcher both lose all privacy; not even their thoughts are confidential. Mira herself had a hitcher (her mother), and found the experience so horrid that she actually killed herself to escape the hitcher. Furthermore, in the case of being cryonically frozen, Mira almost immediately questions the worth of the practice, asking “Whatever the reason, did she want to risk being taken out of circulation, or unplugged and buried? Would that be the worst thing?” (McIntosh 3). Mira’s situation is much like that of people who are paraplegics, in a coma, or other persons who face immense disabilities. The author seems to imply that, although the longevity of a person’s life is greatly extended, if the quality of life is greatly decreased, the technology or medicine should not always be used to keep these people alive. He perhaps even suggests that in today's world, far too many people live past their time because of scientific developments. 

To conclude my final blog post, although science fiction may seem all action, humor, drama or gloom, it almost always has a deeper message for the reader to take away from it. Whether it focuses on wars, human rights, sexuality, social hierarchies, or the progression of technology, each work encourages the reader to consider the relevant issues of the time. And, if the reader recognizes the author’s message for what it is, he/she will, with hope, leave the story questioning standards, enlightened on certain issues, or more aware of the fears shared by the individuals whom inhabit this small, lonely planet called Earth.