Bridesicle by Will McIntosh

“…through life and revival, to have and hold…”

“’What’s that I’m hearing? Is that a marriage ceremony?’ Mira asked."

            In Will McIntosh’s “Bridesicle,” technology has advanced so far that people can now be cryogenically frozen after they die, and older dead people can “hitch” onto the lives of people still alive to live vicariously through the “hitchee’s” body. Specifically in the case of the cryogenically frozen people, it appears that many, if not all, of the females end up one way or another in what is called a “Bridesicle.” There, men come and partially “revive” them for short periods of time to see if any of the women there are willing to marry them, in which case they fully revive the woman by paying a fee. The main character, Mira, is such a woman who is currently still very much “dead” and frozen and inside the Bridesicle, but she happens to be gay

            I feel like the above quote from a marriage vow (as well as from the short story) really sums up a lot of the challenges and themes in the story. For one, it seems as if the humans in the future have really interpreted that phrase quite literally, for the brides are literally given “life and revival.” And, that is what Mira had been missing when she took her own life (and subsequently ended up in a bridesicle). Her lover, Jeanette, had died, and her mother, who was hitching on her, had not been so approving of the union. In a way, perhaps McIntosh is saying that even though we sometimes want people to see what we see, it is a big risk to do so, especially if it’s all the time. And besides, you will never see, or “have and hold” the hitchers ever again. On the other hand, McIntosh also showed us a success story of the hitchers through Lycan and his grandson.

            However, even though the bridesicles absolutely seem to violate the rights of a woman (why are they put into a bridesicle after they die? And why are there no “groomsicles” then?), it did really allow for true life and revival between Mira and Jeanette. Allowing themselves to be frozen allowed them to transcend a time where they could not be together, and therefore their love happened to be revived as well.