Madeleine L\u2019Engle found it amusing that her critics kept missing the obvious in her fiction.<\/p>\n\n
Consider the magical women in \u201cA Wrinkle In Time\u201d \u2014 Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which. It\u2019s true that they have strange wardrobes and unique ways of speaking. Mrs. Whatsit is chatty, for example, because she is so young \u2014 a mere 2,379,152,497 years, eight months and three days old.<\/p>\n\n
When the elder Mrs. Which arrives from another dimension, her colleagues begin giggling. Why? Since she is meeting three human children, Mrs. Which elects to appear as a \u201cfigure in a black robe and a black peaked hat, beady eyes, a beaked nose and long gray hair.\u201d She is holding a broomstick.<\/p>\n\n
Get the joke? For decades, L\u2019Engle\u2019s fiercest critics kept missing it. Thus, \u201cA Wrinkle In Time\u201d \u2014 which won the 1963 Newbery Medal \u2014 became one of America\u2019s most frequently banned children\u2019s books.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cIf you read the book, there is no way that they are witches. They are guardian angels \u2014 the book says so. You don\u2019t have to clarify what is already clear,\u201d L\u2019Engle told me, in a lengthy 1989 interview.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cDon\u2019t they know how to spell? W-H-I-C-H is not W-I-T-C-H.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
This interview came during a time when L\u2019Engle (pronounced LENG-el) had increased her already busy lecture schedule after the death of her husband of 40 years, actor Hugh Franklin. But L\u2019Engle kept writing and talking about the themes that dominated her life \u2014 faith, family and creativity \u2014 until her health failed. She wrote more than 60 works of fiction, non-fiction, drama, poetry and prayers during her life, which ended with her Sept. 6th death in Litchfield, Conn., at the age of 88.<\/p>\n\n
Wherever L\u2019Engle went, people kept asking her to explain her beliefs, from heaven to hell, from sex to salvation, from feminism to the arts. The writer did not hide her views, but rarely used the kind of language that so-called \u201cChristian writers\u201d were supposed to use.<\/p>\n\n
Thus, her career was defined by a paradox: Many of her strongest admirers were evangelical Christians, as were most of her fiercest critics. Thus, it\u2019s symbolic that she donated her personal notes and papers to Wheaton College \u2014 the Rev. Billy Graham\u2019s alma mater \u2014 where they are part of a collection best known for its materials about the life of Christian apologist C.S. Lewis.<\/p>\n\n
L\u2019Engle was also candid about the role her faith played in her writing. She was, throughout her life, an Episcopalian\u2019s Episcopalian from New York City who was determined to keep describing the visions and voices that filled her soul. While her writing was often mysterious, she kept hiding the crucial clues right out in the open.<\/p>\n\n
It\u2019s hard, for example, to miss the source of the climactic speech to Meg Murray, the heroine in the science fiction series that began with \u201cA Wrinkle In Time.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
\u201cThe foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men,\u201d says Mrs. Who, who always speaks in quotations, such as this lengthy passage from St. Paul\u2019s first letter to the Corinthians. \u201c\u2026 God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise; and God hath chosen the weak things of the world to confound the things that are mighty.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
It\u2019s even clearer, in the next novel, that the children are backed by the powers of heaven. Meg finds herself face to face with a many-eyed creature with a 10-foot wingspan, a being with too many wings to count, wings that were in \u201cconstant motion, covering and uncovering the eyes.\u201d This is a biblical cherubim, yet another angelic vision. He stresses that he is not a singular cherub, and adds, \u201cI am practically plural.\u201d<\/p>\n\n
The goal, said L\u2019Engle, was to create fiction that was unmistakably Christian, while writing to an audience that included all kinds of believers and unbelievers.<\/p>\n\n
\u201cI have been brought up to believe that the Gospel is to be spread, it is to be shared \u2014 not kept for those who already have it,\u201d she said. \u201cWell, \u2018Christian novels\u2019 reach Christians. They don\u2019t reach out. \u2026 I am not a \u2018Christian writer.\u2019 I am a writer who is a Christian. I think that you have to be the best writer that you can be. Now, if I am truly a Christian, then that will show in my work.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Madeleine L\u2019Engle found it amusing that her critics kept missing the obvious in her fiction. Consider the magical women in \u201cA Wrinkle In Time\u201d \u2014 Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which. It\u2019s true that they have strange wardrobes and unique ways of speaking. Mrs. Whatsit is chatty, for example, because she is so young […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[68,149,202,330,520,523,921],"class_list":["post-1455","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-apologetics","tag-cs-lewis","tag-christian-writing","tag-episcopalians","tag-madeleine-lengle","tag-mainline","tag-wheaton"],"yoast_head":"\n