A Disagreement

Joan Didion is right when she says Las Vegas "is the most extreme and allegorical of American settlements." Blinding lights penetrate every corner and blanket the night sky, half-naked women parade the streets as onlookers line up to snapshot the spectacle, and towering casino hotels create a concrete labyrinth, removing all sense of time and geological location. There is no remembrance of the past in the future; there is just the raw feeling and emotion of the present. After all, what happens in Vegas stays in Vegas (but that's the whole beauty of it).

People journey to Vegas to escape the dry routine and traditional limits of everyday life, be it touring the Strip, drinking, gambling, buying into the commercialized marriage industry, or experiencing a tasteful combination of all- it's not my position to judge. In a place where the "tone [...] is set by mobsters" and alcohol is breathed in, can we really blame one for buying into impulse?
When we watched the video of the drive-through marriage service, I couldn't help but think how fun it would be order an over-the-counter marriage. It certainly is a break from traditional and "proper ritual," but isn't that what Vegas was found on?