Author: Madeleine L'Engle
Image via The Warden's Walk
Just how long does it take for something to become a classic? By the early '90s, classic rock stations were already claiming U2 as one of their own. ESPN has its Instant Classics, an excuse to replay a game from Sunday again on Monday. As such, I think a book written in 1978 can stake claim to classic status. That's 33 years, a generation-plus, after all.
I have long been a skeptic of time travel narratives. For one thing, they are rarely done well. For another, I often get the sense that TV shows turn to time travel when they've run out of other ideas. With Lost, there's no question that was the case. Even with a sci-fi classic like Star Trek, I can't help feeling that their time travel stories are a bit awkward. I'd prefer a showdown with the Borg anytime. In short, a time travel story must have well-established rules and must abide by them. In fact, the same can be said for fantasy and sci-fi literature in general. Even an imaginary world must have limitations in order to be plausible.
Settling in to read A Swiftly Tilting Planet, I quickly realized that a big part of why I'm so particular about time travel stories is this very book. I think I must have read it for the first time in my early teens and it has always been my favorite of L'Engle's Time series. She clearly put a lot of thought into time travel and as such, she did it right. Her explanations of the five dimensions and tesseracts in A Wrinkle in Time have stayed with me my whole life.
I'm not sure what it was about this, the third book in the series, that was so meaningful to me. Perhaps as a boy, I was better able to relate to Charles Wallace than to Meg. Perhaps as a young adolescent, the socio-political issues addressed in the book fueled my own developing social consciousness.
But then, there is so much to like about this book. I love how the chapter titles follow the lines of the rune. I love the fact that science and spirituality are not treated as mutually exclusive concepts. I love Gaudior, the unicorn who serves as Charles Wallace's guide. He is not an Aslan/Gandalf equivalent. He reminds me more of Clarence, George Bailey's guardian angel in It's a Wonderful Life: vulnerable, uncertain, yet unfailingly devoted.
Thanks to Wikipedia, I have learned that there are two further sequels in the Time series that I didn't even know about before: Many Waters and An Acceptable Time. I may need to check those out at some point.
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I hope that you, too, will join the 12 Books in 12 Months challenge. Details are here. My own list and books read by others shall be maintained on the pages list on my sidebar. Other blogs currently participating:
My Wife - Wikes! Hikes on the Long Trail
Mrs. Mock - Exclamation Point (!)
Two friends of My Wife are also participating: TonTon via Facebook and The Hermitess via Goodreads.
If you'd care to join the challenge, please let me know by commenting below or e-mailing me at armchairsquid@gmail.com. Also, please tell me how and where I can follow your posts. Don't be shy about suggesting other categories, either. It is my intention to compile a new list of 12 once this one is completed. My only parameter is that no one should have to buy anything in order to complete the challenge - nothing beyond a library card required.
Many Waters and An Acceptable Time are titles taken from scripture.
ReplyDeleteI loved this reaction/review to the book. There were a number of sentences I felt compelled to outtake and remark on but then sometimes feel like it's easy to get overwhelmy with specifics in a comment.
Choosing just one thing, though:
'Perhaps as a young adolescent, the socio-political issues addressed in the book fueled my own developing social consciousness.'
How old were you when you read the book? (I know you said early teens but do you remember if it was closer to 12-13 or 14-15? Having taught 7th, 8th and 9th grade English, I think there's a significant difference.) You may not remember, exactly, but perhaps if pressed, you might.
Finally, the reason I popped over to this (excellent) post in the first place, is 'Harriet the Spy' considered a classic? :):)
Okay, *one* other thing:
'He reminds me more of Clarence, George Bailey's guardian angel in It's a Wonderful Life: vulnerable, uncertain, yet unfailingly devoted.'
Funny emotional squiggle in response. Lost capacity to articulate so I'll just say: ((~*~)) or well, actually, ))*~*((.
Business first: "Harriet the Spy" definitely qualifies.
DeleteI'm really not sure of my age at first reading. It may even have been before my teens. I think I may have read it when I was sick, in fact - definitely a strange story if you're already feeling feverish.
'Settling in to read A Swiftly Tilting Planet, I quickly realized that a big part of why I'm so particular about time travel stories is this very book.'
ReplyDeleteThis impresses me.
Overall, the reviews/reactions you've written for the challenge that I've read have been very well done.
I picked up HtS with a couple of other MG books this past week and may post a write-up to SC. If I do, I'll link your challenge again.
MG books?
DeleteThanks for the support. I'm glad you're enjoying the challenge!
Middle Grade.
DeleteAnd I think the challenge is a truly worthwhile idea. I need to check out some of the other partcipants' reviews when I get back home and have a bit more time.
I thought it might be Middle Grade but didn't want to assume.
DeleteI like the idea of the challenge, too, though very few have finished it - so far, just me. I think it could work better if the social aspect were better coordinated on my part.
One thing I have thought of trying is a bloghop book club. Whatever I do, I'd like for my wife to be involved but she's tricky. We ran a fairly successful book club when we lived in New York years ago but haven't really tried since. Part of the problem is that she doesn't like other people picking books for her. That's where the 12 in 12 idea started - each participant could still choose the books, within certain common parameters.
As such, I wouldn't want a book club where everyone reads the same books. In fact, I think it might be more interesting if people get book ideas from each other. Perhaps a monthly bloghop in which everyone posts about the best book they read that month.
I think you should consider relaunching the 12 books with new categories, like a second annual? I, too, like that you pick your own books and that, in doing so, people get exposed not only to books that may not have otherwise blooped up on their radar but get to know other participants based on their selections. You might also do a mix of old and new categories.
DeleteI think I remember that your wife did books and authors for last year's A-Z, didn't she? A-Z might be the time to give people the heads up on the second iteration of the 12 in 12, if you decided to do something like that. I think sometimes a good idea doesn't do as well because of a couple of variables -- timing is one, getting the message sufficiently propagated another.
I have an idea for another blog collaboration that I hope to initiate to fill the False Start void. I thought it might be a nice idea to do themed haikus. My working title for the effort is 'tiny harmonies.'
I'd be delighted to do a Year 2 for 12 books. I think, however, that I'd be more encouraged if at least one other person managed to finish the first one. As such, I appreciate your efforts very much.
DeleteI like the haiku idea.
Only 100 pages into 'Harriet.' Reading has been slow-going this week as I have spent much more time writing.
DeleteSign-ups for the first haiku collaboration are 'live.'
I'll be right over to check it out!
DeleteI still haven't finished 'Harriet.' Only read another 50 or so pages at the very beginning of the week. Fiction is either devour or eventually peter off into unfinished, for me. This challenge is goading me to try to finish, though. So that's good.
DeleteI have actually read a lot more books since I started blogging. There is, for me, no better fuel for writing than a good book.
DeleteOkay. I have finished my selection for the 'Classic Work of Children's Literature.'
DeleteIt was difficult to read Louise Fitzhugh's 'Harriet the Spy' without my writer glasses on. In part, this is because, having for the last five years learned much about trending in reader tastes, I wonder if this quiet, tender piece of fiction would have stood a chance trying to squeeze onto the scene in the second decade of the 21st century.
I didn't read it all in one go, or even over the course of several consecutive days. Though a slim tome, in length perfectly appropriate for its intended audience, the cadence of the book was markedly locked in its own time. Dad comes home to relax with a martini; a beloved governess marries and, upon her departure, insists that Harriet exhibit the sort of stoicism perhaps more encouraged prior to the touchy-feely hippie generation that got an entire culture more in touch with their feelings; when the bottom drops out of Harriet's world at school, she visits a therapist in a brownstone -- who seems, at intervals, amusingly intimidated by her.
The book's central conflict -- that of Harriet's friends discovering the awful (honest) things she wrote about them in her notebook and then turning on her -- taught me much about the modern mind, my own included. The pacing cropping out of this simplistic and delayed tension was very weak. Were it a magnet, it would not hold four paces from the shut book on the night stand. I honestly only read it all the way through because of my commitment to your Challenge.
Now, on to what I loved about the book: the character of Sport, the character of Ole Golly and the passages excerpted from Harriet's notebook -- written in first person. To write an 11-year old in third person maintained a distinct, adult irony throughout and kept me from losing myself in what could have been the messy, rich, authentic inner world of a child. I found myself sometimes (often) glazing over the 3rd-person narration and perking up when the signature 'all-caps' blocks of text signified a portion of Harriet's notebook.
My greatest sympathies were with Sport, though I also bore a marked interest in the wholly eccentric Harrison Withers. I yearned for the return of Ole Golly, alas, it came only in the form of a somewhat stern letter, which made me imagine how this would influence all of Harriet's intimate relationships throughout her life. The character of Harriet, however, did not seem too bothered by it.
A few favorite passages:
'I HAVE THOUGHT A LOT ABOUT BEING THINGS SINCE TRYING TO BE AN ONION. I HAVE TRIED TO BE A BENCH IN THE PARK, AN OLD SWEATER, A CAT AND MY MUG IN THE BATHROOM. I THINK I DID THE MUG BEST BECAUSE WHEN I WAS LOOKING AT IT I FELT IT LOOKING BACK AT ME AND I FELT LIKE WE WERE TWO MUGS LOOKING AT EACH OTHER. I WONDER IF GRASS TALKS.'
(The answer is, yes, my dear Harriet.)
'IS OLE GOLLY RIGHT? IS IT TERRIBLE TO GET WHAT YOU WANT? I WANT TO BE A WRITER AND I'LL BE FINKED IF I'LL BE UNHAPPY WHEN I AM.'
(Quite.)
And, finally:
(Sport:) "Writers don't care what they eat. They just care what you think of them."
So glad you finished the book! I think your final quote is quite funny indeed.
DeleteI've never read Harriett. It sounds like fun.