Monday, 6 January 2014

MARRIAGE

'Marriage, in what is evidently its most popular version, is now on the one hand an intimate "relationship" involving (ideally) two successful careerists in the same bed, and on the other hand a sort of private political system in which rights and interests must be constantly asserted and defended. Marriage, in other words, has now taken the form of divorce: a prolonged and impassioned negotiation as to how things should be divided. During their understandably temporary association, the "married" couple will typically consume a large quantity of merchandise and a large portion of each other.' 
Wendell Berry, 'Feminism, the Body, and the Machine' in What Are People For?, p.180.