Category: memoir

Bob thinks this little piece is buried too deep in the page called “Ritual in Memoir and Fiction” so we’re moving it to a post. We’ve been writing about ritual for years–meaning characters (or inhabitants in memoir) go through ritual change. So how does ritual work? First, there’s nothing abstract about ritual. When you link ritual to an object, you automatically layer the ritual by adding a time component. In a bonding ceremony called a “Wedding”, the ritual act of ring exchange (the primary object) takes place in a limited place within a limited and fixed amount of time, the time it takes the ecclesiastical or civil power to consummate the bond—usually a few minutes. The changes, however, are enormous. Let’s look at the secondary object in the wedding ceremony—the Dress. The ritual of marriage itself is simple: State 1-Unmarried Ritual act-Exchange of Vows and Rings. State 2-Married. So simple, yet so complex for the subtext leading up to the ritual of separation. The ring is one object. The dress is another matter. The wedding dress—white, pink or yellow—is the last in a series of dresses that prime the inhabitant for the ceremony of the ring and for the ceremonial act of bonding. The dress is an index to an emotional condition called “love.” What does the inhabitant who wears the dress want? and what does she have to...