srah blah blah

I raise my mug of Bunsen-burner hot cocoa to you

"It was a dark and stormy night."

- A Wrinkle in Time, opening line

I was saddened to read this weekend of the passing of Madeleine L'Engle, one of my favorite authors. After reading the articles I realize it has been years since I read A Wrinkle in Time, so that is my current bedside reading for this week. For years I've thought that the other books in the Time Quartet - A Wind in the Door, Many Waters and A Swiftly Tilting Planet - were better than the first book in the series, but upon rereading, this one is very moving - even more so than when I read it as a child. I'm going to have to reread the entire series, I think.

"But what is it?" Calvin demanded. "We know that it's evil, but what is it?"

"Yyouu hhave ssaidd itt!" Mrs. Which's voice rang out. "Itt iss Eevill. Itt iss thee Ppowers of Ddarrkknesss!"

"But what's going to happen?" Meg's voice trembled. "Oh, please, Mrs. Which, tell us what's going to happen!"

"Wee wwill cconnttinnue tto ffightt!"

Something in Mrs. Which's voice made all three of the children stand straighter, throwing back their shoulders with determination, looking at the glimmer that was Mrs. Which with pride and confidence.

"And we're not alone, you know, children," came Mrs. Whatsit, the comforter. "All through the universe it's being fought, all through the cosmos, and my, but it's a grand and exciting battle. I know it's hard for you to understand about size, how there's very little difference in the size of the tiniest microbe and the greatest galaxy. You think about that, and maybe it won't seem strange to you that some of our very best fighters have come right from your own planet, and it's a little planet, dears, out on the edge of a little galaxy. You can be proud that it's done so well."

"Who have our fighters been?" Calvin asked.

"Oh, you must know them, dear," Mrs. Whatsit said.

Mrs. Who's spectacles shown out at them triumphantly. "And the light shineth in darkness; and the darkness comprehended it not."

"Jesus!" Charles Wallace said. "Why of course, Jesus!"

"Of course!" Mrs. Whatsit said. "Go on, Charles, love. There were others. All your great artists. They've been lights for us to see by."

"Leonardo da Vinci?" Calvin suggested tentatively. "And Michelangelo?"

"And Shakespeare," Charles Wallace called out, "and Bach! And Pasteur and Madame Curie and Einstein!"

Now Calvin's voice rang with confidence. "And Schweitzer and Ghandi and Buddha and Beethoven and Rembrandt and St. Francis!"

"Now you, Meg," Mrs. Whatsit ordered.

"Oh, Euclid, I suppose." Meg was in such an agony of impatience that her voice grated irritably. "And Copernicus. But what about Father? Please, what about Father?"

"Wee aarre ggoingg tto your ffatherr," Mrs. Which said.

"But where is he?" Meg went over to Mrs. Which and stamped as though she were as young as Charles Wallace.

Mrs. Whatsit answered in a voice that was low but quite firm. "On a planet that has given in. So you must prepare to be very strong."

- A Wrinkle in Time, chapter 5 "The Tesseract"

These are great books for emotional involvement: in the characters and their quests and the themes of love and goodness triumphing over evil, the goodness in each person, the importance of the smallest person or creature in the bigger picture of the universe and the triumph of peace and creation over war and destruction. I've always thought that they would make a great movie series. Nowadays big-budget movies based on fantasy books seem to be popping up all over the place (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Narnia, A Series of Unfortunate Events, His Dark Materials, even Charlie and the Chocolate Factory) and I would love to see a well-done movie version of A Wrinkle in Time. On the other hand, maybe it is impossible to capture all that is great about this series in movie-format. Madeleine L'Engle is great at heart-wrenching emotional descriptions that might not transfer as well to film. There was a terrible, terrible Disney made-for-TV version a few years back, and I am pleased to see that Madeleine L'Engle's reaction was much the same as mine:

"I have glimpsed it... I expected it to be bad, and it is."

These books are the sort of thing that you can appreciate on one level as a child but even more so as an adult. I never liked A Wind in the Door much as a child, but after I reread it as an adult, I came to love them all - even the grumpy, skeptical principal Mr Jenkins and Sporos, the contumacious farandola.

"I Name you Echthroi. I Name you Meg.
I Name you Calvin.
I Name you Mr. Jenkins.
I Name you Proginoskes.
I fill you with Naming.
Be!
Be, butterfly and behemoth,
be galaxy and grasshopper,
star and sparrow,
you matter,
you are,
be!
Be caterpillar and comet,
Be porcupine and planet,
sea sand and solar system,
sing with us,
dance with us,
rejoice with us,
for the glory of creation,
seagulls and seraphim
angle worms and angel host,
chrysanthemum and cherubim.
(O cherubim.)
Be!
Sing for the glory
of the living and the loving
the flaming of creation
sing with us
dance with us
be with us.
Be!"

- A Wind in the Door, chapter 12 "A Wind in the Door"

Mrs L'Engle, the Mr Jenkins who I Named and I mourn your loss.

"In this fateful hour,
I place all Heaven with its power,
And the sun with its brightness,
And the snow with its whiteness,
And the fire with all the strength it hath,
And the lightning with its rapid wrath,
And the winds with their swiftness along their path,
And the sea with its deepness,
And the rocks with their steepness,
And the earth with its starkness:
All these I place,
By God's almighty help and grace
Between myself and the powers of darkness!"

- A Swiftly Tilting Planet, "Patrick's Rune"

srah - Wednesday, 12 September 2007 - 7:23 PM
Tags: a swiftly tilting planet, a wind in the door, a wrinkle in time, books, madeleine l'engle, rip

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