A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

[[deleted user]]

This is our discussion of the classic fantasy novel...

A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle
(1963)

Bring your inner child.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

I started this one and I'm about a quarter of the way through so far. I'm reading a collection that includes the first three books in the series. There's large type and relatively large margins and of course the book was written to be read by probably a middle school (or potentially even younger) audience, so it's not taking long to get through.

This was the first "Science Fiction" book I'd ever read when I checked it out of the library in grade school, probably 4th or 5th grade. I'd read The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and was looking for something else to read so the librarian gave me this book. I still remember parts of it, especially when they describe the idea of a "wrinkle," but as I'm re-reading the story I'm surprised at how much I'd forgotten.

Although the story was written in order to be accessible to younger readers, there seem to be some references that would be more appreciated by older readers.

[Andrea]

Apparently the only thing I clearly remember from my original reading as a kid was the concept of the tesseract and that diagram of the ant on one of the Mrs W skirt :)

And just like the Narnia books, as a kid the Christian references would have passed me by, only as an adult did I notice it

[[deleted user]]

This was published too late to be part of my childhood, and somehow escaped my notice until a couple of years ago when the number of people in this group who mentioned it made me curious enough to read it. I still don't get the attraction, but then I'm not six years old, so without the nostalgia, why should I?

[Bobby]

G33z3r wrote: "This was published too late to be part of my childhood, and somehow escaped my notice until a couple of years ago when the number of people in this group who mentioned it made me curious enough to ..."

This actually surprises me. I think it's an extraordinary book. I've read it twice as an adult and I think it holds up.

[Bobby]

Andrea wrote: "Apparently the only thing I clearly remember from my original reading as a kid was the concept of the tesseract and that diagram of the ant on one of the Mrs W skirt :)

And just like the Narnia bo..."

Man! When I read it as an adult, all the Christianity like, jaw-on-the-floor shocked me! I was like, "What the f%$*! But I grew up Catholic so all of that would have been simply par for the course. I'm curious: was I the only one who thought L'Engle made up the word tesseract?

[Emily]

I started re-reading this a few days ago, and I haven’t read it since my childhood. I’m only 2 chapters in, but I love how the story feels. Also I didn’t appreciate the Charles Wallace character then the way I do now. I find him hilarious. I’m so surprised by how much I don’t remember.

[Cat]

I read this book for the first time as an adult (because it's such a classic), and didn't find it particularly amazing, not bad by any means, but not good enough that I want to re-read it for this discussion or read the sequels. I don't remember much about it. I think the Christianity aspect slipped by me or wasn't particularly domineering, because I dislike books which get taken over by the message rather than the story, and I don't remember that aspect. I did like some of the relationships, particularly the sibling relationship, but felt that the story was laboured in some parts.

I have just checked, I have actually rated it 4 stars... Um, so clearly my memory is a little bit faulty because I don't remember it being that good. I still haven't read any of the sequels though!

[Jim]

It was one of my early SF reads as a kid & I really liked it. I thought it was a little gooey & heavy on the morality, but not too bad. I read it not too long ago & liked it enough to give it 4 stars.

I'm not sure that this was my first introduction to multiple dimensions. (The Forgotten Door is another old favorite.) I liked the idea of tessering, but a tesseract is a 4 dimensional object, not 5. That bugged me later on when I read some other SF that discussed tesseracts. Might have been "He Built A Crooked House" by RAH.

Comparing our lives to sonnets really made an impression on me when I first read this. It was a whole new concept for me. I remember trying to read some sonnets after that, but never understood or liked the few by Shakespeare that I found. Not surprising. IIRC, I was in 4th or 5th grade, so 8 or 9 when I read this for the first time.

I read the trilogy, all that was available then, & liked them all, but this one made a huge impression. I never wanted to read the books she wrote later. Like Le Guin's Earth Sea trilogy, there was enough closure & far too much time between to interest me. Usually series that authors take up again after many years are a terrible disappointment. They've changed & so has their writing, so they lose the tone that drew me to the books in the first place.

[Phil]

Bobby wrote: "Man! When I read it as an adult, all the Christianity like, jaw-on-the-floor shocked me! I was like, "What the f%$*! But I grew up Catholic so all of that would have been simply par for the course. I'm curious: was I the only one who thought L'Engle made up the word tesseract?"

Even some adult readers miss the Christianity references. I think it depends on your background.

You mean L'Engle didn't make up the word tesseract? News to me.

[Andrea]

Phil wrote: "You mean L'Engle didn't make up the word tesseract? News to me."

Heading over to good old reliable wikipedia:

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the word tesseract was coined and first used in 1888 by Charles Howard Hinton in his book A New Era of Thought, from the Greek τέσσερεις ακτίνες (téssereis aktines, "four rays"), referring to the four lines from each vertex to other vertices. In this publication, as well as some of Hinton's later work, the word was occasionally spelled "tessaract".

Still, must admit I learned the term from Wrinkle, and has been the only place I've ever came across it even with a science background in school.

[Emily]

My only other encounter with tesseract is in the Marvel universe.

[Andrea]

Emily wrote: "My only other encounter with tesseract is in the Marvel universe."

Forgot about that one...what was it's power again? Could it open a portal? Kind of a similar concept to Wrinkle then.

Out of curiosity, from those of you who read the books as a kid, did you also read the rest of the series? I didn't, but I also don't recall that the first book doesn't have a complete ending. It wraps up one thread, the rescue of the father, but the evil hasn't been defeated.

I'm intending to read the rest of the series now, since as an adult, I want to know how they defeat the dark (or does it becomes a kind of balance moral, can't have good without evil thing). BTW, don't tell me if you know!

[Rebecca]

I am currently reading this with my second grader. I remembered loving reading it as a child and the basic concept but not much more. Since i'm trying to instill a love of reading with her, we read the books before we watch the movies....

I have enjoyed it as an adult but was also caught off guard by the religious comments as well. I can't remember the following books but since she seems to like it we will probably continue on.....

[Emily]

Andrea wrote: "Forgot about that one...what was it's power again? Could it open a portal? Kind of a similar concept to Wrinkle the..."

The tesseract in Marvel is a powerful energy source and can be used as a weapon. I think it also houses one of the Infinity Stones. It can open rifts in space, so I guess it is a similar concept.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Emily wrote: "Andrea wrote: "Forgot about that one...what was it's power again? Could it open a portal? Kind of a similar concept to Wrinkle the..."

The tesseract in Marvel is a powerful energy source and can b..."

It's the glowing cube thingy in the first Capt America and Avengers movies. We see it again in the latest Thor film. It will likely appear in the upcoming Avengers movies also.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Andrea wrote: "Out of curiosity, from those of you who read the books as a kid, did you also read the rest of the series? I didn't, but I also don't recall that the first book doesn't have a complete ending. It wraps up one thread, the rescue of the father, but the evil hasn't been defeated. "

I read the first book in grade school, so the second book was probably released but not sure if the third book was out yet or not. I didn't read either one of them at the time. Now I have an omnibus edition that contains the first three books so I'll probably continue with the others eventually.

[Emily]

I just finished it, and I really enjoyed it. There was so much I didn't remember from my first read as a child. I also didn't feel like I was being slammed with religious messages. I found C.S. Lewis' Narnia series to be much more blatant as far as religious themes.

I had read A Swiftly Tilting Planet when I was a kid, but none of the others in the quintet. I'm going to go ahead and read them all now in order.

[Sarah]

I think this is one of those books that you have to read at the right time in life to really love it.
I read this book for the first time as a kid.
I reread as a teenager.
I read it for a third time in my mid-twenties.

I think I read it at the right time. I identified with Meg to a degree I hadn't felt before with a fictional character, and to be honest I haven't felt that with any character since.
As a smart, introverted kid a story where a girl like me got to be the hero and that told me being smart was totally ok? That was everything junior high me needed to hear.
When I read it again as a fairly nerdy teenager, Calvin became a more important character for me. The idea that Calvin liked Meg for who she was was something teen me needed to hear.
When I read it in my mid-twenties, it was again the reminder that being yourself is important and you can do great things if you are true to you that I needed.

I'm Catholic since birth, but I didn't really see the Christian elements as this as clearly as I did the ones in say The Chronicles of Narnia.


Andrea wrote: "Emily wrote: "My only other encounter with tesseract is in the Marvel universe."

Forgot about that one...what was it's power again? Could it open a portal? Kind of a similar concept to Wrinkle the..."

I did go on to read the rest of the series when I read it the first time. A Wrinkle in Time was far and away my favorite.

[Book Nerd]

Hm, I didn't know there was a fifth book in this series.
I remember I found the fourth pretty boring but I'll check it out some time since I especially liked the first two.

[Andrea]

There's also another series that crosses over with Wrinkle, the O'Keefe Family.

Which then more indirectly of crosses over with the Austin Family series because in the blurb for the first O'Keefe book it mentions the character Adam Eddington, who I know shows up in the Austin series since I've read a couple of those. But those were firmly planted in our world, no SF or F involved.

[RJ - Slayer of Trolls]

Andrea wrote: "There's also another series that crosses over with Wrinkle, the O'Keefe Family.

Which then more indirectly of crosses over with the Austin Family series because in the blurb for the first O'Keefe ..."

The collection of the first three Wrinkle books I have has a handy chart that shows which characters appear in which books. I'm going to have to read more of her books before I care much about that I suppose.

[Rosemary]

This was the first science fiction book i ever read, and I loved it as a kid. The second book in the series was not as impressive, but A Swiftly Tilting Planet, the third book, was a book that I would reread so regularly that my copy started to fall apart. I have read the fourth and fifth books, but they did not resonate with me the same way.

[Andrea]

So I was surprised to be reading what is essentially a collection of ghost stories and found a reference to a Tesseract. Thought this was interesting due to our earlier discussion about when that term was actually invented.

In the final story in the collection Three More John Silence Stories by Algernon Blackwood from around 1908, one character, through a study of higher mathematics, finds himself capable of perceiving and even entering the fourth dimension, though this has some serious repercussions for his sanity. They are actually well written stories if anyone wanted to read them. And if you like cats, the first three John Silence stories are good too.

[Darryl]

I love cats, and all animals for that matter. I also enjoy maths brought into a story, so this looks interesting!

[Lindsay]

Echoing what others have said, the Christian themes kind of shocked me as well. Especially since it just seemed to come out of nowhere towards the end? Maybe I missed it earlier in the book?