I find him to be so much like what an adult who does not really like children wishes children were like -- preternaturally quiet, never kicks his heels, only smart when he needs to be, etc -- which is not to say no child has ever been, or could ever be, like Charles Wallace, but something about L'Engle's description feels a bit axe-grinding. My friend Frankie wrote a bit about that tendency in L'Engle a few years ago, and I quite liked it: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/03/11/the-creepy-authoritarianism-of-madeleine-lengle/
One of my favorite L’Engle books is her adult novel, A Severed Wasp. I enjoyed it for many reasons, but one of them is the way that so many characters from her earlier books make cameos as adults. Suzy Austin shows up as a heart surgeon (Vicky is never mentioned), and probably half a dozen other characters from her lesser known novels are mentioned in passing. It’s a fun little Easter egg for people who have read a lot of her work.
Thanks for sharing that excellent Frankie Thomas piece! I had no idea Vicky Austin existed but learning that whole situation makes the sci-fi writing make more sense... Also, I'm 100% with you on the axe-grinding-- I grew up in a spaghetti-and-Bach-and-also-loftily-protestant family, and it was hard to get a "real" sense of Charles Wallace & the Murrys as a family?
I have not even read a Wrinkle in Time, I had no idea what this post was about, but I imagined all the Chosen Ones in other stories getting this treatment and I ended up giggling away to myself.
“the more time you spend in mental retreat indulging in what you think of as a “rich inner life” but what is in effect a non-stop fantasia of unmerited vengeance, grudge-nursing, and self-delusion, the worse your personality gets. And we just came here to tell you that we don’t like you.”
Instead of reading the entirety of "Wrinkle," my seventh graders and I are just going to stop after this^^^ chapter, and move on to "A Year Down Yonder" instead.
Oh my god, Danny, this cut right through the virus depression and fascism panic and made me LAUGH OUT LOUD. These books deeply moved me when I was 14 and the parameters of what I could imagine as humanist dissent from the conservative theology I was being fed were... NOT WIDE. "The Book of Genesis (his choice)," Dona Nobis Pacem, and the Breastplate of St. Patrick were basically it. This is hilarious!!!
reread a wrinkle in time this spring and it made me feel acutely embarrassed not comforted and amused as i had hoped. so much specialness!!
also, thank you for pointing out that charles wallace IS kind of a creep.
I find him to be so much like what an adult who does not really like children wishes children were like -- preternaturally quiet, never kicks his heels, only smart when he needs to be, etc -- which is not to say no child has ever been, or could ever be, like Charles Wallace, but something about L'Engle's description feels a bit axe-grinding. My friend Frankie wrote a bit about that tendency in L'Engle a few years ago, and I quite liked it: https://www.theparisreview.org/blog/2019/03/11/the-creepy-authoritarianism-of-madeleine-lengle/
One of my favorite L’Engle books is her adult novel, A Severed Wasp. I enjoyed it for many reasons, but one of them is the way that so many characters from her earlier books make cameos as adults. Suzy Austin shows up as a heart surgeon (Vicky is never mentioned), and probably half a dozen other characters from her lesser known novels are mentioned in passing. It’s a fun little Easter egg for people who have read a lot of her work.
Thanks for sharing that excellent Frankie Thomas piece! I had no idea Vicky Austin existed but learning that whole situation makes the sci-fi writing make more sense... Also, I'm 100% with you on the axe-grinding-- I grew up in a spaghetti-and-Bach-and-also-loftily-protestant family, and it was hard to get a "real" sense of Charles Wallace & the Murrys as a family?
I have not even read a Wrinkle in Time, I had no idea what this post was about, but I imagined all the Chosen Ones in other stories getting this treatment and I ended up giggling away to myself.
“the more time you spend in mental retreat indulging in what you think of as a “rich inner life” but what is in effect a non-stop fantasia of unmerited vengeance, grudge-nursing, and self-delusion, the worse your personality gets. And we just came here to tell you that we don’t like you.”
I KNEW IT.
:( But I liked A Wrinkle in Time.
Mostly because I could identify with Meg feeling like a total loser.
Come to think of it, Charles Wallace was probably on the spectrum.
I also liked a Wrinkle in Time!
Instead of reading the entirety of "Wrinkle," my seventh graders and I are just going to stop after this^^^ chapter, and move on to "A Year Down Yonder" instead.
Oh my god, Danny, this cut right through the virus depression and fascism panic and made me LAUGH OUT LOUD. These books deeply moved me when I was 14 and the parameters of what I could imagine as humanist dissent from the conservative theology I was being fed were... NOT WIDE. "The Book of Genesis (his choice)," Dona Nobis Pacem, and the Breastplate of St. Patrick were basically it. This is hilarious!!!
"not worth teaching Quaker geometry to" -- you cut me to the quick, madam!
PERFECTION.