Madeleine L'Engle, RIP

Jesse Walker | September 10, 2007

The author of A Wrinkle in Time and couple dozen other interconnected novels has died. I read a bunch of her books as a kid, but don't expect any informed commentary here: All I remember is little scenes and moments from them, mostly stripped of their contexts and scrambled up together. I have hardly any memory of the storylines they appeared in, aside from the fact that some were science fiction and some were straight realism and some unexpectedly shifted from one to the other. But I remember enjoying them at the time.

When a film of A Wrinkle in Time was released last year, Newsweek asked the author if it met her expectations.

"Oh, yes," she replied. "I expected it to be bad, and it is."

Rest in peace.

Comments

thoreau|9.10.07 @ 9:41AM|#

Looks like they finally destroyed one of her mitochondria. Sad.

I don't remember a lot of details either, just that the villains were trying to destroy a mitochondrion in a kid's body as part of a plot to prevent him from doing something important. But I do remember liking her books a lot at one point.

Episiarch|9.10.07 @ 9:57AM|#

No informed commentary here, either. All I remember is that I was a prolific, voracious reader and would read anything that I found at least somewhat interesting. I tried A Wrinkle in Time and stopped reading about 30 pages in. Just didn't click with me.

Another factor may have been that I considered it a girl's book--my class' resident "husky" girl loved L'Engle, really loved her--and that just gave it a negative association for me.

Autokrator|9.10.07 @ 10:11AM|#

A Wrinkle in Time was a pretty awful book. :(

Paranoia|9.10.07 @ 10:19AM|#

Akira won't like the interview you linked to...

Rhywun|9.10.07 @ 10:43AM|#

Wrinkle in Time was probably my favorite book as a kid. I recently got it from a book club and eventually I'll sit down and enjoy it again. I'll probably be hugely disappointed but who knows - maybe not.

As for it being a girl's book, well harrumph. The main character is a girl. Otherwise it didn't strike me a girl's book. And I ought to know as I read one or two as a boy. (Trixie Belden, anyone?)

Episiarch|9.10.07 @ 10:49AM|#

As for it being a girl's book, well harrumph. The main character is a girl. Otherwise it didn't strike me a girl's book.

Whether it was or wasn't isn't the issue--I was just saying I had a perception of it as a girl's book. When you are a 10-11 year old boy, such things carry weight. A couple of years later I might have read it to scam on girls with, but I needed some testosterone first.

|9.10.07 @ 11:02AM|#

I never read any of her books, but I did see her when she came to speak at my high school.

She was an excellent public speaker, and quirky in that kind of way that just makes you smile.

She mentioned that she refused to memorize her social security number, and that she disliked being reduced to a number.

Good stuff.

crap-action-jackson|9.10.07 @ 11:03AM|#

The image I remember most is of the neighborhood/city where all the kids are bouncing balls or skipping rope in unison.

Marcvs|9.10.07 @ 11:04AM|#

I remember it being a very popular book back when I was in about 4th or 5th grade (maybe 3rd?). I also don't remember any details and I don't even recall if I actually read it.

Well, that is a pretty pointless comment.

Charles Wallace|9.10.07 @ 11:14AM|#

IT was right--you all suck.

|9.10.07 @ 11:27AM|#

I also remember the synchronous ball-bouncing scene; and the absolute horror it caused me. The idea of an omnipresent, unseen force compelling conformity and obedience still strikes me as deeply terrifying.
Other than that, the only thing I remember about the book is that it actually started with the line, "It was a dark and stormy night."

|9.10.07 @ 11:35AM|#

I loved "A Wrinkle in Time." If you thought it was too girly, try "A Swiftly Tilting Planet," where the hero is a teenage Charles Wallace.

|9.10.07 @ 12:01PM|#

Oh man, I haven't read that book since 4th grade.

"I don't remember a lot of details either, just that the villains were trying to destroy a mitochondrion in a kid's body as part of a plot to prevent him from doing something important. But I do remember liking her books a lot at one point."

That was a sequel... or at least another book in the series. They traveled inside his body. And that is all I remember.

The Wine Commonsewer|9.10.07 @ 12:31PM|#

Both my kids and Mrs TWC love(d) Madeleine L'Engle. Happy and surprised to see that this made it onto the radar screens at H&R. Thanks Jesse.

|9.10.07 @ 12:47PM|#

I just used the word tessaract the other day in conversation. Somehow. That's the only part of that book I really remember, might be worth revisiting.

|9.10.07 @ 12:47PM|#

Christ, it's like none of you people has ever heard of Wikipedia

Rich Ard|9.10.07 @ 12:59PM|#

URKOBOLD wins this one.

|9.10.07 @ 1:11PM|#

A Wrinkle In Time is the first overtly political, anti-totalitarian, pro-freedom and dare I say libertarian novel that I read. I was 12 and the year was 1966.

I had my 11 year old daughter read it early this summer, but first I re-read it. In 1966, I understood the novel showed the superiority of the USA over the USSR. Today, the novel works to show how much like the USSR the USA has become.

As much as I respect Ms. L'Engle, she was wrong about the Harry Potter series. In the final Harry Potter book, J.K. Rowling has revealed a Christian allegory as potent as any written by C.S. Lewis. The threads of this go back to the beginning, but one of Rowlings strengths as a writer was not making the allegory too obvious.

|9.10.07 @ 1:47PM|#

The main point I remember about Wrinkle was the "love conquers all" message (to say more would spoil it). I'm sorry to hear the movie sucked. How did Spielberg lets this one get away - except for the pro-Catholic undercurrent, I figured it would be right up his alley...

|9.10.07 @ 2:07PM|#

All I remember is little scenes and moments from them, mostly stripped of their contexts and scrambled up together.

I don't remember much either. But it was the book that introduced "fewmet" into my vocabulary. What a wonderful curse word for a sixth grader!

|9.10.07 @ 7:06PM|#

I remember the sequels better the original. A SWIFTLY TILTING PLANET was where I first heard of the legend of the settling of America by Madoc and the Welsh. MANY WATERS used the previously ignored characters of Sandy and Dennis and sent them back in time to Noah's ark.

Unfortunately, she seemed kind of senile in that interview Jesse linked to. May she rest in peace.

P.S. to Bergamot: It's more fun this way.

|9.10.07 @ 9:36PM|#

Loved the books. At the time, the meshing of Christian faith, Christian myth and modern-day fantasy fit nearly every facet of my life: The faith I had, the comic-book version of faith, and being a kid beaten up a lot at school, ala Charles.
I really enjoyed A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and its use of the elements / nature as a magical chant was a nice balance between a light paganism and Christianity. "I call on all Heaven with its Power/The Sun with its brightness/The snow with its whiteness..."
Fond memories.

|9.10.07 @ 10:42PM|#

I remember that poem and later learned that it was a medieval Irish hymn translated into English by James Clarence Mangan (1803-1849). (I don't mean that L'Engle stole it; she no doubt meant for literary scholars to recognize it. Maybe she even mentioned the true origin in the book; I can't remember. Unfortunately, most hits on Google think she wrote it, but I did find a few exceptions.) The fuller context is more Christian.

http://books.google.com/books?id=cucFAAAAQAAJ&pg=PA415&lpg=PA415&dq=mangan+%22snow+with+its+whiteness%22&source=web&ots=pbTCqg2Qr8&sig=qTqSU1gItQkNqRvU7fLycIyw430#PPA415,M1

|9.11.07 @ 12:06AM|#

Many people see faith as anti-intellectual.

Then they're not very bright. It takes a lot of intellect to have faith, which is why so many people only have religiosity.

I must confess. This is my kind of my believer.

In my most humble and uncertain moments the thought occurs to me that I am an unbeliever for no other reason than I lack imagination. At those times I envy those with faith.

At these times I separate those with faith from those with certain knowledge.

As our subject points out there is a difference between those with faith and those who "only have religiosity".

|9.11.07 @ 5:30AM|#

I think I first read A Wrinkle in Time when I was in 6th grade or so. I read it several times since, but not lately. I think I still have my original copy -- maybe I should read it again.

(I haven't read any of the sequels. Maybe I should.)

I liked it. And I remember that it did have several themes a libertarian can appreciate. Struggling against power and conformity and totalitarianism. Equality and freedom -- "everybody is equal" and "everybody is the same" are not the same thing. And -- scariest of all to me at the time -- the idea that authority figures, even seemingly kindly and parent-like authority figures, like the one man with the funny eyes -- might actually be evil and trying to trick you.

And yes, I remember the planet Camazotz, where all the kids bounced their balls in unison. Except one kid, who bounced his out of time, until his terrifed mother came out and took him inside the house so the neighbors wouldn't see.

At the time I thought it odd that elements of religion would surface in a science fiction book. Although I was also struck by the ecuemenicalness of it (not that I knew that word at the time). When the characters talk about how some of the best fighters against the Darkness were from Earth, they mention in one breath Jesus and Buddha and Euclid. And Galileo, I think. (Yes, I know.)

As for it being perceived as a "girl's book," I guess maybe. But even though Meg was the actual viewpoint character, the boy Calvin and Meg's brother Charles Wallace were pretty close to being central characters also. So I was satisfied.