the Ceremony

chapter 16, chapter 26

• “healthy white cotton underdrawers” (ch16, pg100)

• “big-bellied sails, they used to say, in poems…propelled forward by a swollen belly” (ch16, pg100)

• “…supposed to signify that we are one flesh, one being. what it really means is that she is in control, of the process and thus of the product” (ch16, pg100)

• "I do not say making love, because this is not what he’s doing. copulating too would be inaccurate, because it would imply two people and only one is involved. nor does rape cover it: nothing is going on here that I haven’t signed up for” (ch16, pg101)

• “arousal and orgasm are no longer thought necessary; they would be a symptom of frivolity merely…superfluous distractions for the light-minded. outdated… they are so obviously recreational” (ch16, pg101)

• this is not recreation, even for the Commander. this is serious business. the Commander, too, is doing his duty” (ch16, pg101)

• “there is loathing in her voice, as if the touch of my flesh sickens and contaminates her” (ch16, pg102)