A . In Time

September 7, 2007 11:03 AM

ObitFilter: Madeleine L'Engle, Newberry-winning and banned author, died Thursday aged 89.
posted by dw (147 comments total)

Oh man.

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posted by These Premises Are Alarmed at 11:04 AM on September 7, 2007

. Huh, I had no idea that she had still been around.
posted by octothorpe at 11:06 AM on September 7, 2007

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posted by dismas at 11:06 AM on September 7, 2007

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posted by suckerpunch at 11:07 AM on September 7, 2007

Oh jeez. Dammit.

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posted by rtha at 11:08 AM on September 7, 2007

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Incidentally, am I the only one who was freaked out by A Wrinkle In Time when they were a kid?
posted by unreason at 11:10 AM on September 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

unreason: no.

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posted by neckro23 at 11:11 AM on September 7, 2007

Here's hoping that Mrs. Who and Mrs. Whatsit are keeping the lights on for her, awaiting her home.
posted by bonehead at 11:12 AM on September 7, 2007 [3 favorites]

A Wrinkle in Time was my absolute favorite growing up. I should go re-read it now.
posted by jrossi4r at 11:13 AM on September 7, 2007

unreason: It freaked me out but I kept rereading it. What great books.

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posted by Pastabagel at 11:13 AM on September 7, 2007

Aww, huge fan of hers when I was a little rascal. A . In Time, very funny. She'd like that. Her Wrinkle in Time is excellent.
posted by nickyskye at 11:14 AM on September 7, 2007

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posted by shmegegge at 11:15 AM on September 7, 2007

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posted by ardgedee at 11:16 AM on September 7, 2007

man, I really liked a wrinkle in time as a kid. One of the first books that really got me thinking about the world...
posted by slapshot57 at 11:16 AM on September 7, 2007

I have been meaning to reread Wrinkle in Time for ages. I barely remember what it was about; I just remember thinking it was the greatest book ever.
posted by brain_drain at 11:17 AM on September 7, 2007

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(tesser)
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posted by jquinby at 11:17 AM on September 7, 2007

There will still always be dragons in the twins' vegetable garden.
posted by Wolfdog at 11:17 AM on September 7, 2007 [2 favorites]

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posted by Astro Zombie at 11:17 AM on September 7, 2007

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posted by 235w103 at 11:18 AM on September 7, 2007

dammit, Astro Zombie beat me to it:
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posted by casarkos at 11:18 AM on September 7, 2007

Oh no! She was one of my favorites when I was a kid. Man, this week has been a sad one. Pavarotti, now L'Engle. :(
posted by katillathehun at 11:19 AM on September 7, 2007

It was a dark and stormy night, indeed.
posted by quin at 11:19 AM on September 7, 2007

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posted by gurple at 11:20 AM on September 7, 2007

You guys ever read Many Waters? I tell you, the last thing I was expecting after A Wrinkle in Time was some hot, hot Biblical sex scenes.

Here's to you, Madeline L'Engle. Both for entertaining me with great writing, and for giving grade-school-me a major grade-school boner.
posted by Greg Nog at 11:20 AM on September 7, 2007

Nice one, AZ. As if on Camazotz, I am now going to do exactly the same thing.

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posted by GrammarMoses at 11:20 AM on September 7, 2007

Unreason: not even. Wrinkle in Time, and the images it wrought in my brain, still give me the willies, at age 32.
posted by notsnot at 11:21 AM on September 7, 2007

Wrinkle in Time was excellent, but I was seriously confused by the other two (?) books in that series.
posted by DU at 11:23 AM on September 7, 2007

I loved Wrinkle In Time. So very much.

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posted by cmyk at 11:24 AM on September 7, 2007

Incidentally, am I the only one who was freaked out by A Wrinkle In Time when they were a kid?

HELL no.
posted by kittens for breakfast at 11:25 AM on September 7, 2007

Ah, fuck.

I'm gonna go re-read A Wrinkle In Time too.
posted by gaspode at 11:30 AM on September 7, 2007

I was more fond of the Austins than the Murrays (sp?), but my favorite of her work is her autobio/ontological stuff, such as A Circle of Quiet, which I re-read yearly.

Thank you, Madeleine.
posted by Riverine at 11:35 AM on September 7, 2007

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She was 88, incidentally, not 89, as her birthday was in November.
posted by cerebus19 at 11:35 AM on September 7, 2007

I loved all her books. Not only were they refuge for me, but Wrinkle impacted my thinking pretty significantly, making me profoundly anti-suburb and anti-conformist at an early age. I also thank her for making science and physics so intriguing.
posted by tidecat at 11:36 AM on September 7, 2007

For those planning to reread A Wrinkle in Time, I feel compelled to warn you that it is, like almost everything else, so much better in your memory than it will be in real life. I don't mean to speak ill of the dead, but I remembered how much I loved that book as a child and how it just freaked me out, and so I reread it a couple of years ago, and it was nowhere near as good as I remembered it being. I think that something about it just really speaks to where you are as a child. That being said, I am sad that she has passed on, but she lived a long time and brought a great deal of joy to many people's lives. There are worse things.
posted by ND¢ at 11:37 AM on September 7, 2007

About A Wrinkle In time on Wikipedia. Had forgotten the details. I realize what a potent and meaningful story it was, in addition to being beautifully written.

As a young girl, daughter of a scientist, who was passionately interested in science, it was wonderful that Madeleine L'Engle made it okay in the sexist, still backward mid-60's to be female and interested in science.

She also combined a feeling of awe, spiritual wonder and joy with her love of science, which reminded me of the writing of CS Lewis, who I also loved as a teen, especially his Space Trilogy. (Just found out they shared the same birthday, November 29, although he was 20 years older than she). Her writing had, and probably still has, that perfect mix for a pre-teen or teen.
posted by nickyskye at 11:37 AM on September 7, 2007

Loved the books. Had no idea that anyone would have wanted to ban them, sheesh.

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posted by Robert Angelo at 11:38 AM on September 7, 2007

Incidentally, am I the only one who was freaked out by A Wrinkle In Time when they were a kid?
posted by unreason at 11:10 AM on September 7

What, have you been living in a cave since?
posted by vacapinta at 11:38 AM on September 7, 2007

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When I was in 4th grade I wrote her a fan letter rambling on about how I wanted to grow up to be a writer just like her. She sent back a long, hand-written note of encouragement to follow my dreams. A class act.
posted by idigress at 11:38 AM on September 7, 2007 [8 favorites]

idigress, how cool!
posted by nickyskye at 11:39 AM on September 7, 2007

"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,

Between myself and the powers of darkness!"

Godspeed, Madeleine L'Engle. If there's a there there, you know what to do. Your work is cut out for you. Be Named and know that I love you.
posted by loquacious at 11:40 AM on September 7, 2007 [21 favorites]

Thank you Ms. Sloman for reading A Wrinkle in Time to us in 3rd garde and introducing me to Madeleine L'Engle. She made a very good companion for a kid who liked to live in his head.

A Swiftly Tilting Planet is still one of my favorite books.
posted by tallthinone at 11:40 AM on September 7, 2007

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posted by hurdy gurdy girl at 11:43 AM on September 7, 2007

People banned one of her books? Which one? I never thought of her as a controversial writer.
posted by Afroblanco at 11:44 AM on September 7, 2007

   +   
   |   
+--o--+
   |   
   +   

Okay, I think that's a . unfolded into a tesseract.

Tesseracts, mitochondria and cherubim are just a few things that Madeleine L'Engle taught me about.
posted by Faint of Butt at 11:45 AM on September 7, 2007 [2 favorites]

I came in here to say how A Wrinkle in Time might have been the first book that ever REALLY freaked me out and that I still read it over and over again. Godspeed Madeleine L'Engle, good luck out there.
posted by Divine_Wino at 11:45 AM on September 7, 2007

Oh man. I completely forgot about her.

I used to love A Wrinkle In Time, Swiftly Tilting Planet, A Wind in the Door.....


Dammit.
posted by lazaruslong at 11:45 AM on September 7, 2007

I remember reading once that Stephen Spielberg would pay $1M to anyone who could make it so he could experience his ten favorite movies again for the first time. I'd give up the experience of reading every subsequent book since then to be eleven years old again reading A Wrinkle in Time.
posted by Terminal Verbosity at 11:46 AM on September 7, 2007 [2 favorites]

As a boy I loved "A Wrinkle in Time."

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posted by ZenMasterThis at 11:48 AM on September 7, 2007

A Wrinkle in Time was the first novel I ever read.

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posted by bshort at 11:52 AM on September 7, 2007

thank you loquacious. well said

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posted by killy willy at 11:55 AM on September 7, 2007

When she visited my small grade school in the late 80s, she was the first famous person and author that I had ever met, and it was quite a wonderful shock to discover that she was so human. That, more than anything else, made me believe that I actually might be able to be a writer someday. One of the best days of my childhood.

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posted by Gingersnap at 11:56 AM on September 7, 2007

wow, i had no idea that her books had been subject to banning.

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posted by the painkiller at 11:56 AM on September 7, 2007

Oh, dammit. A Wrinkle in Time was one of my favorite books as a kid and affected me so much.
posted by kosher_jenny at 11:57 AM on September 7, 2007

And there dies yet another piece of my childhood.
posted by konolia at 11:57 AM on September 7, 2007

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posted by felix betachat at 11:58 AM on September 7, 2007

I remember in 6th grade reading for class "A Wrinkle in Time" and "Meet the Austins." Until I got in the Honors English class in high school, those two were probably the best books I ever read for a class (though to be fair, I did read some other decent books in junior high).

I totally need to re-read both of those.

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posted by champthom at 12:00 PM on September 7, 2007

First Lloyd Alexander, now Madeleine L'Engle? All my childhood heroes are dying.
posted by anotherpanacea at 12:04 PM on September 7, 2007

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posted by Ironmouth at 12:05 PM on September 7, 2007

What a great writer. I am certain her books will outlast the Harry Potters of the world. Hers was certainly a life well lived.

Also, it's Newbery.
posted by fiercecupcake at 12:07 PM on September 7, 2007

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posted by MythMaker at 12:08 PM on September 7, 2007

Ah, damn. I need to go re-read the whole trilogy now.

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posted by bitmage at 12:10 PM on September 7, 2007

A friend of my mothers whom I'm still close to read me A Wrinkle in Time when I was in grade five. A chapter or two a day and we'd talk about it and really get into what she was writing about and what it might mean. My favourite experience with a book by far.
posted by Space Coyote at 12:11 PM on September 7, 2007

I hotboxed (part of) her apartment on the Upper West Side once. It was gigantic, richly decorated, and a painting by Samuel Morse (of Morse Code fame) hung on the wall. Probably the best place I've ever gotten stoned in.

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posted by nasreddin at 12:11 PM on September 7, 2007

nasreddin, you did NOT get stoned with Madeleine L'Engle.

...Did you?
posted by Faint of Butt at 12:15 PM on September 7, 2007

.~.

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posted by Skygazer at 12:21 PM on September 7, 2007

Sigh. I first read A Wrinkle in Time, A Swiftly Tilting Planet, and The Wind in the Door when I was around 8 or 9, and was incredibly fascinated by them.

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posted by thomas j wise at 12:22 PM on September 7, 2007

I got stoned with Madeleine L'Engle. I mean, she wasn't actually in the room with me, and I was about 12, but a Wrinkle in Time stoned me pretty good.


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posted by thebrokedown at 12:26 PM on September 7, 2007 [2 favorites]

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posted by effwerd at 12:28 PM on September 7, 2007

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posted by doctor_negative at 12:29 PM on September 7, 2007

IT still creeps my shit, twenty years later. Well done, Ms. L'Engle.
posted by EarBucket at 12:29 PM on September 7, 2007

Well, she wasn't there at the time. Long story.
posted by nasreddin at 12:32 PM on September 7, 2007

Classic as the Wrinkle in Time series was, I preferred the chronos; as a kid, I could never decide whether I wanted to be Poly or Vicky. At twenty, I am still not nearly as cool as either.

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posted by booksandlibretti at 12:32 PM on September 7, 2007

A Wrinkle in Time was extremely influential in shaping a large part of my worldview as a child, and to this day, her explanation of a tesseract is unmatched in both clarity and brevity. It's really unbelievable that the only movie version of Wrinkle ever attempted was a dreadful Disney direct-to-video disaster - I mean, there's all the elements you would want in a compelling sci-fi story - precocious children, winged crystal creatures, shape-shifting woman who were actually embodiments of stars, a planet of syncopated automatons, and a frikkin disembodied brain on a pedestal. What more could you want? Oh yeah, built- in sequels and a redeeming underlying message of love and unity. Spielberg had to choose to do Hook, yet didn't fight tooth and nail for the rights to bring Wrinkle to the big screen? Unreal.

And it sounds like L'Engle was a sweet, genuine person, to boot. Godspeed to her soul. She was a lovely treasure, and her work will endure for many generations.
posted by dbiedny at 12:33 PM on September 7, 2007

Wow - I still remember the covers of these books, especially the multi-eyed Wind in the Door. I remember being fascinated by the word fewmets, and I think there was a snake called Louise in these books as well, wasn't there? I later dubbed the gartner snake that hung out by our house by that name.

Her books and Dogsbody were among my first forays into sci-fi and fantasy. Good memories.

Thank you Ms L'Engle. Period intentionally omitted.
posted by Zinger at 12:33 PM on September 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

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posted by bullitt 5 at 12:38 PM on September 7, 2007

Sigh.
posted by jeffamaphone at 12:43 PM on September 7, 2007

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posted by alms at 12:44 PM on September 7, 2007

"You have to write the book that wants to be written. And if the book will be too difficult for grown-ups, then you write it for children."

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posted by anastasiav at 12:46 PM on September 7, 2007

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posted by forforf at 12:47 PM on September 7, 2007

Wow, I hadn't thought about that book in years, but I can still remember reading it with absolute clarity. I was in fourth grade at the time. I actually remember it most because it was the first book that I read with a female protagonist that I really associated with.

A class act, indeed.

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posted by Kadin2048 at 12:50 PM on September 7, 2007

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posted by Captain_Science at 12:53 PM on September 7, 2007

"A Wrinkle in Time" taught me very young that this world is not what it seems. Rest in peace.
posted by Burhanistan at 12:55 PM on September 7, 2007

If you thought A Wrinkle in Time was freaky, you clearly didn't get to the rest of that series - they just kept getting weirder. I love those, but I think my favorite L'Engle is probably A Ring of Endless Light. This thread makes me want to go home and reread it right now.

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posted by naoko at 12:56 PM on September 7, 2007

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posted by fermezporte at 1:00 PM on September 7, 2007

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A Wrinkle in Time was wonderful, and moving, and had had magic and philosophy. Of course some people wanted it banned (isn't that one of the marks of a great book? That some people think it's dangerous?). This page talks about it, and talks about the banning a little bit. I don't know if it's accurate, but it does sound like the kind of thing a certain subset of Christians would say.
posted by Many bubbles at 1:00 PM on September 7, 2007

Another huge fan of A Wrinkle in Time, and her other young adult books like A Ring of Endless Light and Dragons in the Water. I was lucky enough to hear her speak at a local college when I was 12 or 13. I met her afterwards, and she signed my copy or AWIT. I was a little bit in awe, and remember her as a tall, stately woman with a deep sense of passionate calm about her. She signed my book "To Kimberly, Tesser Well". And now I say the same.

Tesser well, Ms. L'Engle. And thank you so very much.
posted by kimdog at 1:05 PM on September 7, 2007

Oh no.

I loved all of her books, but the wild strange Murrays were my favorite.

What loquacious said: Be Named and know that I love you.


(And between her and Lloyd Alexander...when Susan Cooper passes, I'm hanging up my hat and retiring from the world, because everything good will be gone then.)
posted by kalimac at 1:13 PM on September 7, 2007

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posted by ZachsMind at 1:14 PM on September 7, 2007

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Oh my...."A Wrinkle in Time" was the first "real" book I read, way back in 1965.

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posted by paddbear at 1:16 PM on September 7, 2007

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Wow.
posted by desuetude at 1:20 PM on September 7, 2007

This is the first time I've ever inadvertently spoken "oh no" aloud while browsing the web. Very sad.
posted by vytae at 1:23 PM on September 7, 2007

From the NYTimes obit:

The book used concepts that Ms. L’Engle said she had plucked from Einstein’s theory of relativity and Planck’s quantum theory, almost flaunting her frequent assertion that children’s literature is literature too difficult for adults to understand. She also characterized the book as her refutation of ideas of German theologians.

I think one major qualification of any great writer of children's books is exactly that belief: That its the adults who need to be talked down to.
posted by vacapinta at 1:30 PM on September 7, 2007 [3 favorites]

I loved "A Wrinkle in Time", just the right amount of freakiness for my young (at the time) mind. But then I got to "A Swiftly Tilting Planet," or whichever one of the series it was that included the description of falling through time and places like the shuffling of pages in a book, and for some reason that concept made me physically nauseated. Maybe I'm mature enough to go back and reread them now...

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posted by rmless at 1:31 PM on September 7, 2007

Wah!

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posted by susanbeeswax at 1:34 PM on September 7, 2007

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posted by cybercoitus interruptus at 1:37 PM on September 7, 2007

Sad. She chanced so many kids lives.

It was a big deal to have female heroes in kids books then too - I think her characters probably impacted how a lot of girls grew up to think of themselves.
posted by serazin at 1:38 PM on September 7, 2007

Don't have time to say much, but I look forward to encouraging my kids to read her fantastic books, and maybe rereading them with them. What a great writer.

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posted by Loudmax at 1:40 PM on September 7, 2007

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I just reread those books a year or two ago. They held up.
posted by mygothlaundry at 1:55 PM on September 7, 2007

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A Wrinkle in Time moved me more than any book had before. I read it some time in elementary school and have re-read it, along with her other books, many times since. RIP Madeline.
posted by SassHat at 1:55 PM on September 7, 2007

One of the best things about being a mom is reading aloud. I have read aloud the complete Wrinkle in Time series twice and was just about to start the third - but the impending release of The Golden Compass movie made me hurry into that series first so my youngest could see it all in her mind's eye before the images became Hollywood's.

But the mark of a great writer is, for me, the joy of the words out loud, and Madeleine L’Engle was the best - fun to read and always exciting .

Looking forward to some time in early November when I get to start all over again.

Some L'Engle quotes:
On God: "I sometimes think God is a shit--and he wouldn't be worth it otherwise. He's much more interesting when he's a shit."

So is faith not a comfort? "Good heavens, no. It's a challenge: I dare you to believe in God. I dare you to think [our existence] wasn't an accident."

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."
posted by readery at 2:03 PM on September 7, 2007 [2 favorites]

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posted by curse at 2:04 PM on September 7, 2007

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posted by honeydew at 2:17 PM on September 7, 2007

She was 88, incidentally, not 89, as her birthday was in November.

Impossible! The paper of record is never wrong! Unless they didn't bother to tell me they corrected it....

Also, it's Newbery.

Mea culpa.

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."

Her non-fiction stuff is heavily theological, much like CS Lewis, although the evangelical and fundamentalist wings of the church don't embrace her like Lewis because she was a liberal Episcopalian. I find that sad, because her writings on grace are some of the best out there. Utterly transcendent stuff.
posted by dw at 2:21 PM on September 7, 2007

Why am I crying?
Madeline L'Engle, you were so important to me. You taught 8-year old me that the world was amazing, that science was interesting, and that I - using my mind - could be the hero of my own story. Thank you for all your gifts.
posted by arcticwoman at 2:23 PM on September 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

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I can't believe I didn't hear this news yesterday when it happened. L'Engle has long been one of my favorite writers. I was a shy, geeky teen, and Meg Murry and Vicky Austin gave me hope during some rough patches. I loved her autobiographical and non-fantasy fiction as well. I always meant to write her and tell her what her work meant to me, and I never did. I have such grief and regret for her loss now.

Good luck, Mrs. Franklin, where ever you are.
posted by booksherpa at 2:27 PM on September 7, 2007

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I think I have mitochondritis now, or I'm just terribly sad.
posted by ethnomethodologist at 2:35 PM on September 7, 2007

I remember when I was probably nine or ten, my mother took me to a bookstore and said I could have a book as long as it wasn't a damn Dragonlance (or whatever D&D - based stuff I was reading at the time) novel. I tried to find something still in the genre, and somehow got a hardcover copy of Wrinkle. I read it and the others, and didn't read them again until this summer, about a decade later, when I came home from my first year of school and found out that my mom was sick. The theological message of Wrinkle was one of the few things I was able to draw any kind of affirmation or hope from since my mom's death. It's not always comforting, but it helps; it rings a lot truer than some of the other stuff people have tried to throw at me the past couple of months.
posted by dismas at 2:43 PM on September 7, 2007

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posted by CaptApollo at 2:46 PM on September 7, 2007

Sad to see her go. I loved A Wrinkle in Time so much as a kid. Must pick it up again. She was one of my favorite authors back then. But good to know she lived a long life.
posted by krinklyfig at 2:47 PM on September 7, 2007

Remember the Scholastic book fairs at school? I didn't keep any of the puppy, kitty and horse fold-out posters, but I still have the boxed trilogy of Wrinkle in Time, Wind in the Door and Ring of Endless Light.

Thanks, Ms L'Engle, for giving us a world where it was okay to be strong and smart, to love science and reading and imagination.

I think I might just spend some time this weekend curled up with a old book or two.

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posted by MrsBell at 2:50 PM on September 7, 2007

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posted by dmd at 2:50 PM on September 7, 2007

Well, I know what I'm going to be reading over the weekend.

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posted by perilous at 3:02 PM on September 7, 2007

I wanted to just do the "." thing and leave it at that, but that doesn't seem to be enough. This woman of words deserves more than a dot.

A Wrinkle in Time may be the reason why I see science as just another approach to perceiving reality. L'Engle's story about those children and their witch friends and their adventures left an impression on so many of us.

I can remember as a child reading about the ant crawling on the string, and looking at the diagrams that accompanied the text, and just staring at that page for the longest time. Felt like my head just popped, and I had the dumbest grin on my face. Felt like I understood something all the sudden that most adults didn't comprehend. It was like being given a key to perception of reality in an entirely new and novel way.

Things are not always what they seem, and anything is possible. That's what Ms. L'Engle taught me. That's what I carry with me. She's not really gone so long as we treasure her gifts to mankind.
posted by ZachsMind at 3:05 PM on September 7, 2007

Well, dammit. Goodbye, Madeleine.
posted by cortex at 3:42 PM on September 7, 2007

Everything I want to say about her just seems trite. I'll just say that she's the only one who ever wrote about God and Christianity in a way that made any kind of sense to me. Especially in "A Ring of Endless Light", a book that is all about understanding and believing in the face of everything that makes you not want to do either.
posted by OolooKitty at 3:47 PM on September 7, 2007

Omo<
posted by arialblack at 4:24 PM on September 7, 2007

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posted by edgeways at 4:43 PM on September 7, 2007

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posted by Roger Dodger at 4:43 PM on September 7, 2007

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posted by zarq at 4:47 PM on September 7, 2007

Many, many thanks.
posted by everichon at 4:51 PM on September 7, 2007

Tesseract...

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posted by jonp72 at 4:52 PM on September 7, 2007

She was the writer who taught me that you could be a Christian and still have an imagination, that religion and science could interact. This is an incredible loss.
posted by Anduruna at 4:53 PM on September 7, 2007

i figured she passed a while ago. wierd. i just reread a wrinkle in time 3 days ago.
posted by fuzzypantalones at 5:14 PM on September 7, 2007

i had been thinking that book would be not so good, upon revisiting as an adult. but after 20 years, it still holds up.
posted by fuzzypantalones at 5:16 PM on September 7, 2007

I guess my tesseract tilde wasn't enough.

So.

I remember, during one of my many re-reads of A Wrinkle In Time, I sat down and thought about a tesseract. I visualized everything - the square, the cube, the cube squared - and for one brief perfect moment I got it. I could see the whole thing inside my head, backwards and forwards, and I understood how it worked. Then it slipped right back out of my skull, because a tesseract is an awfully big thing to stuff into a child's head.

But for the moment I got it, it was awesome.
posted by cmyk at 5:17 PM on September 7, 2007

Mitochondria, a happy medium, Charles Wallace, children jumping rope and bouncing balls in sync, and Meg.
posted by who squared at 6:17 PM on September 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

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posted by SmileyChewtrain at 6:18 PM on September 7, 2007

A Wrinkle in Time looked me in the eye and said, hey, it's perfectly all right to be weird and geeky and good at math and have to wear glasses and braces--you can still get the guy.

And then I read the bit about tesseracts and thought it was a pretty neat fictional device, and years later I found tesseracts again while looking up some astrophysics stuff, and that's a pretty fantastic moment when you realize the universe is much weirder and awesomer than you know.

Still haven't got a guy though :P
posted by casarkos at 6:57 PM on September 7, 2007

through your new wrinkle
I trust you will see this straight—
really a comma:

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posted by eritain at 7:15 PM on September 7, 2007 [1 favorite]

A show of hands.

How many of you saw TenthDimension.com (MeFntioned previously) be it weeks, months, or whenever ago, and by the time the narrator gets to dimension four, you thought of Madeline L'Engle?

*raises hand*
posted by ZachsMind at 7:57 PM on September 7, 2007

How many of you saw TenthDimension.com (MeFntioned previously) be it weeks, months, or whenever ago, and by the time the narrator gets to dimension four, you thought of Madeline L'Engle?

*raises hand*

Well, actually...I never forgot about the Tesseract. The man who coined the term was named Charles H. Hinton (mefi post on Hinton and L'Engle) in a book called The Fourth Dimension. Not only do I own a copy of that book, its my very own copy which, with the help of another mefite, is here free and online.

I can't say that hokey tenthdimension site did a thing for me though. :)
posted by vacapinta at 8:23 PM on September 7, 2007

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posted by hominid211 at 8:52 PM on September 7, 2007

I loved the Time Quartet as much as anyone, but it was A House Like a Lotus that really struck me, being one of the first examples of young adult literature that presented fleshed-out gay characters: ones who both made mistakes and possessed dignity. Very eye-opening at that young age.
posted by kittyprecious at 9:21 PM on September 7, 2007

It didn't connect for me at first, but did you realize that Poly's parents (Arms of the Starfish, and A House Like a Lotus) are Meg and Calvin, connecting the Austin stories and the Murreys?
posted by tio2d at 11:42 PM on September 7, 2007

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posted by jlbartosa at 11:46 PM on September 7, 2007

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posted by brujita at 11:54 PM on September 7, 2007

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posted by mmoncur at 4:09 AM on September 8, 2007

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posted by Colloquial Collision at 5:42 AM on September 8, 2007

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posted by saladpants at 7:00 AM on September 8, 2007

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posted by Foosnark at 7:10 AM on September 8, 2007

One of my heroes is gone. For a very long time she was the writer I was closest to, as both child and adult (no one's mentioning A Severed Wasp, which is a shame). Of recent years, she's also been one of the few people who has allowed me to retain some positive impressions of Christianity. I'm glad I got to meet her, albeit briefly, before she died, and although I'm in sorrow at never knowing for sure what happened to Charles Wallace, I'm grateful that L'Engle had the long, full and prolific life that she did.
posted by dlugoczaj at 8:31 AM on September 8, 2007

Big fan.
posted by callmejay at 8:53 AM on September 8, 2007

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posted by interiority at 5:41 PM on September 8, 2007

"If I thought I had to say it better than anybody else, I'd never start. Better or worse is immaterial. The thing is that it has to be said, by me. We each have to say it, to say it in our own way. Not of our own will, but as it comes out through us. Good or bad, great or little: that isn't what human creation is about. It is that we have to try."- Madeleine L'Engle

Yes, I am being corny.

No, I don't care.
posted by ZachsMind at 12:49 PM on September 9, 2007

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posted by verb at 1:17 PM on September 9, 2007

Oh man, this makes me sad. She was one of the biggest influences on my childhood self. I probably read the Wrinkle in Time / Wind in the Door / Swiftly Tilting Planet trilogy (at the time) four or five times through, completely oblivious to their Christian subtext. I memorized the poem loquacious quoted and would sometimes recite it to myself if I got afraid of the dark.

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posted by whir at 12:54 AM on September 10, 2007

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posted by cass at 7:55 AM on September 10, 2007