Though I review all the
nonfiction books I read, I write about only a little about fiction. Sometimes a fiction book hits so many areas
of interest to me that I want to write about it. A
Wrinkle in Time is one. It’s a
classic, award-winning novel. It’s a
children’s or young adult book, and one is never too old for a good kid’s
book. It’s science fiction. It’s informed by author Madeleine L’Engle’s
Christian faith.
Margaret (Meg) Murphy is an
awkward girl who doesn’t fit in. Her
family is unusual, too. Her father is
missing, though Meg stubbornly clings to hope that he will come home. Her mother is a scientists, caring but
somewhat unconventional. Two of her
brothers, twins, are pretty normal, if a little rough, and the third, the
youngest, is a genius and most people find him unpleasantly odd.
Meg, her genius baby brother
Charles Wallace and Calvin O’Keefe (an older, popular boy who keeps his oddness
better wrapped) are pulled into an adventure in space by three creatures,
seeming witches, aliens and more. On
another planet, they rescue Meg’s father and almost succumb to the powerful
mind that rules the planet. It is the
things Meg dislikes most about herself that allows her to prevail.
A Wrinkle in Time is an adventure. It is also a
parable. Part of the message is
Christian. The universe is God’s
creation for His glory, and good creatures acknowledge and worship Him. Yet there is evil, and Earth is infected with
it. Love overcomes evil.
It is tempting to see a
political message. On the world Meg
visits, Camazotz, a single being rules all, taking responsibility for every
decision, instilling uniformity so that everybody has the same things. It is not hard to see this as a parallel to a
communist state, where the government controls and distributes all
resources. It sounds like the nanny
state as well, where people are relieved of the responsibilities of caring for
themselves and making their own decisions.
It is this last point that I
think is important to L’Engle whether or not is has political
implications. We are made to be
individuals, unique and special, and we cannot be separated from responsibility
for ourselves and our decisions and still have real joy, even if we have
everything we seem to need. When the
“aunts” give gifts to the adventurers to prepare them for their trial, they
give Meg her faults. As Christians, we
believe that everyone is uniquely made by God.
Our faults, shortcomings, imperfections make us needy of God’s grace, and
His grace abounds in us to His glory.
In addition, IT, the
mind-lord of Camazotz, is a finite being with finite imagination, thus the
uniformity of the planet IT rules. God
is infinite, and His creation has enormous variety, abundance, scope and beauty
beyond your imagination. We can love,
serve, and worship one God, we can all be imitators of Christ, and still each
be a unique individual.
Before closing, I’d like to
mention another Christian sci-fi classic, The Space Trilogy by C. S.
Lewis. There are some parallels between
the works. For instance, both L’Engle and
Lewis, in Out of the Silent Planet,
depict Earth as darkened and separated from communion with the larger universe
because of the influence of human sin and the dominion of Satan. IT, a big brain, reminds me of the Head from
Lewis’ That Hideous Strength.
If you’re interested in this
book, you may also be interested in
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