A Swiftly Tilting Planet (1978)

In my reread of Madeleine L’engle’s time series, I think A Wrinkle in Time is cementing its place as my favorite over A Swiftly Tilting Planet.  Don’t get me wrong – I love Charles Wallace as a character, and it’s neat to have him as main lead here, but I think he’s more intriguing in the first two books when he’s still a little boy.  Also, I have serious love for Meg, and even though she’s involved, it’s not quite the same as when she’s in the thick of the adventure.  That said, it’s still a very good read (premise spoilers.)

On Thanksgiving, the Murrys get word that the world is on the brink of disaster – the festive atmosphere is fractured by the knowledge that an unstable dictator in South America is looking to start a nuclear war.  The only hope, unlikely as it seems, may lie with 15-year-old Charles Wallace.  Armed with a mythic rune and aided by Meg, who remains at home but stays linked through kything the whole way, Charles Wallace rides the winds through time on the back of a unicorn (which is less cheesy than it sounds, trust me,) sifting through history in order to save the future via the past.

There’s a ton of interesting stuff here.  The sections set at different points of the past are all mostly excellent.  If I had to pick a favorite, it’s probably the sequence with Beezie and Chuck, but there’s neat plotting and cool characters in pretty much every period Charles Wallace visits.  As an adventure/quest story, it’s maybe a little deceptive, since Charles Wallace’s hand isn’t felt significantly throughout the process.  He tries to reason with Gaudior, the unicorn, about when and where they should try to go, but once they arrive anywhere (or, more accurately, anywhen,) Charles Wallace is sent Within one of the people there and is mostly submerged inside them.  Yes, he influences them in subtle ways, but in a way, he’s not exactly the hero.  Madoc and Brandon and Chuck and Matthew are, and Charles Wallace is just the tie that connects them.  However, this fact doesn’t really bother me.  I’m so interested in the idea of the future hanging in the balance due to a past that’s still happening, which sounds like a weird, recursive thing to say, but that’s what this book is about, and it’s pretty cool how they go about it.

The aspect of it that I don’t like, though, is the notion of ancestry and the same traits echoing through generations.  It’s most pronounced, of course, in looking at the difference between Madoc and Gwydyr’s lines, but it’s more than that.  It’s an idea that echoes throughout the book:  all the O’Keefes are bad, all the Mortmains are horrible.  I understand putting forth the theme of the future hinging on the past, but if that past is still in flux, then why does it seem like the roles are preassigned?  Why do one man’s sins taint his entire line and doom his descendents to greed and malice?  These “bad” lines are all the more disappointing because the “good” line, Madoc’s line, is still complex and imperfect – there, we find characters who wrestle with knowing the right thing to do, or, knowing it, struggle to summon the courage to do it.  They get nuance, but the bad lines don’t.  It’s not something I really noticed reading the book as a kid, but it stands out to me now, and I think having even just one character from a bad line who rejects those traits would have gone a long way toward showing that we’re influenced by those who came before us, not defined by them.

Warnings

Scary moments for kids, violence, and strong thematic elements.

Relationship Spotlight: Meg & Charles Wallace Murray (Time Quintet)

 

I was a little girl when my mother started reading A Wrinkle in Time to my brother and me.  It’s a fantastic beginning to a stellar series, and it contributed a lot to my lifelong love of reading.  Right from the start, I adored the rich characters, the sci-fi/fantasy elements, and the earnest prose.  The first thing that truly grabbed me, however, was this relationship.

 

When I think about it, it would’ve been so easy for Meg to resent Charles Wallace.  As an awkward 14-year-old, she’s a swirling bundle of insecurities.  She chafes at her clumsiness and lack of social graces, she bemoans her ungainly appearance (especially compared to her lovely mother,) and she can’t really see herself as the smart girl she is.  Given all of this, she could’ve regarded her brilliant 5-year-old brother as a reminder of her own less-than-remarkable intelligence.  Furthermore, the mere fact of Charles Wallace is a source of ammunition her classmates use to ridicule her; she’s the girl with the freak for a baby brother. 

 

Many stories about girls Meg’s age would follow a narrative of the girl learning not to be embarrassed about the atypical member of her family, but Meg’s ferocious love for Charles Wallace is one of her most admirable qualities.  It’s a defining facet of her character that she defends his honor at every turn, scrapping with those older and stronger than she is and going to the principal for her troubles.  She’s utterly thrown in her lot with Charles Wallace, and this is what leads to the extraordinary experiences in her life.

 

Charles Wallace is a great character, too – I don’t know why, but when I read his dialogue, he really feels like a child genius rather than an adult writer’s idea of what a child genius sounds like.  He’s knowledgeable, well-spoken, and unnervingly insightful, but he can also be petulant and a bit bossy.  Throughout A Wrinkle in Time and A Wind in the Door, Madeleine L’Engle weaves in reminders of just how young he is, and that goes a long way toward balancing out the more incredible aspects of his character.  Like his sister, he has a strong sense of morality, and he doesn’t back down from a fight, though his are usually mental rather than physical.

 

As terrific as the Murrays are separately, they’re magnificent together.  They generally talk to each other like adults, discussing their problems and planning their next moves as a team.  Although Meg sometimes pulls “big sister” rank, she doesn’t run roughshod over Charles Wallace.  For his part, Charles Wallace’s higher I.Q. doesn’t diminish the importance of Meg’s input; he’s patient with her and explains without condescending.  Much is made of their innate connection, and it becomes vital when they learn to kythe in later books.

 

Most of all, each character’s primary motivation is often protecting the other.  From the very first chapter of A Wrinkle in Time, Charles Wallace gets up in the middle of the night to make cocoa because he knows Meg is afraid of the storm, and it only grows from there.  He’s her protector through their first adventure as much as she is his, and Meg’s involvement in A Wind in the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet are entirely for Charles Wallace’s sake.  The climax of A Wrinkle in Time is perhaps the heart of the whole series.  It’s Meg at her most heroic, walking into an unspeakably dangerous situation that plays on all of her insecurities, and her greatest weapon is her love for Charles Wallace.  It’s them against the world (all the worlds,) and there’s nothing they wouldn’t do for each other – now that’s a love that can topple evil.