A little over halfway through my trip, I started craving Madeleine L'Engle really badly for some reason, and ended up bingeing Troubling A Star and the entirety of the Arm of A Starfish trilogy. That was a lot of fun, because all of those books involved a significant amount of travel, and that's fun to read about when one is travelling! I kind of want to do some more bingeing, and maybe read some more of her adult (meaning sophisticated, not content-ridden) novels that I haven't read before, but I haven't gotten around to that yet.
All that ML'E reading was making me wonder why it is that I am so obsessive about her work--she's one of my very favorite authors, and it feels like her works fills a niche in my heart that isn't touched by anything else. After some musing, I came to a few conclusion that I'm going to share here, although there are probably more reasons, too--this post isn't meant to be an exhaustive essay, just me sharing some things I love about one of my favorite authors. ;)
1. The Characters, especially the Parents
L'Engle does such a good job writing characters, and I would like to figure out how the heck she makes them feel like such real people. Because it can be uncanny at times. I don't think any of her characters (that I've read) have ever felt like Mary Sues or Gary Stus--even when they're really good people (looking at you, Adam Eddington, aka my fictional crush extraordinaire)--because they wrestle with real issues, and have a lot of things they don't understand, and sometimes make bad choices, and it's so incredibly good. <3 But also, her female MCs (of which there are several that I've read and that star in her series') never feel like they're the same person, which I find incredibly impressive, too? Polly, Meg, and Vicky all feel like their own people and sometimes that's not true for authors who write multiple MCs, period, but especially female MCs.
This section is getting a lil bit long already, but I can't leave it alone without mentioning how much I adore the parent characters. Like. All of the ones I've read. They're so good. None of the MCs I mentioned above have parents who are dead or even absentee. But they're all real people who are wrestling with how hard it is to be human, let alone a parent, and doing better or worse jobs with that. (One of my favorite moments I noticed on my recent binge was Dr. O'Keefe talking to someone and mentioning that he has absolutely no idea how to be a parent to a teenager and that it's scary and hard. How often does that get talked about at all, let alone in fiction?) But also, all of the parent couples of the MCs actually love each other, and you can see what an incredibly positive impact that has on their children, and I just have to say that as a child of parents who love each other very much and have always let that be known, I love seeing that in fiction, too. :)
Oh, and even though this is now way too long, I can't let this section go without saying how much I adore the spiritual fatherhood of Canon Tallis. I am, as the kids say, absolutely feral about that man.
L'Engle does such a good job writing characters, and I would like to figure out how the heck she makes them feel like such real people. Because it can be uncanny at times. I don't think any of her characters (that I've read) have ever felt like Mary Sues or Gary Stus--even when they're really good people (looking at you, Adam Eddington, aka my fictional crush extraordinaire)--because they wrestle with real issues, and have a lot of things they don't understand, and sometimes make bad choices, and it's so incredibly good. <3 But also, her female MCs (of which there are several that I've read and that star in her series') never feel like they're the same person, which I find incredibly impressive, too? Polly, Meg, and Vicky all feel like their own people and sometimes that's not true for authors who write multiple MCs, period, but especially female MCs.
This section is getting a lil bit long already, but I can't leave it alone without mentioning how much I adore the parent characters. Like. All of the ones I've read. They're so good. None of the MCs I mentioned above have parents who are dead or even absentee. But they're all real people who are wrestling with how hard it is to be human, let alone a parent, and doing better or worse jobs with that. (One of my favorite moments I noticed on my recent binge was Dr. O'Keefe talking to someone and mentioning that he has absolutely no idea how to be a parent to a teenager and that it's scary and hard. How often does that get talked about at all, let alone in fiction?) But also, all of the parent couples of the MCs actually love each other, and you can see what an incredibly positive impact that has on their children, and I just have to say that as a child of parents who love each other very much and have always let that be known, I love seeing that in fiction, too. :)
Oh, and even though this is now way too long, I can't let this section go without saying how much I adore the spiritual fatherhood of Canon Tallis. I am, as the kids say, absolutely feral about that man.
2. The Sense That History Matters
One thing that I really appreciate that ML'E works into her work in multiple ways, including entire plots, is an understanding of how history--both individual and on a large scale--impacts the present. People, events, the world. All of it. I think that in the modern age, we're way too ready and willing to discount our past as an influence at all, and think that we are a blank slate for the future, and can totally invent ourselves! Yay!
Which...isn't really possible. We're not blank slates. Humans don't even come into the world as blank slates, let alone grow to adulthood as blank slates. Family, genetics, events of childhood, &c all have so much influence. And generational 'curses', or, at the very least, generational brokenness is so real. For the record, it is possibly to get out from under that sort of thing, and it's very worth doing if there's a history of sin/brokenness/&c in one's family. Healing one's self from that so as not to pass it on to future generations is an incredibly noble thing to do (and I'm really lucky that there are several people in my family/ancestors who have worked and are working to do just that). But even so, in the very need for a person to do that work, the past has influenced them.
Y'all, the past has so much influence on the present, even if we don't realize it. And I love that Madeleine L'Engle acknowledges that in her work, even to the point of building one of her plots around the unravelling of the influence of the past on the present in A Swiftly Tilting Planet, which (purely coincidentally, obviously) is my favorite of the Time Quintet. But it's present in subtler ways in some of her other books, too, like Troubling A Star.
One thing that I really appreciate that ML'E works into her work in multiple ways, including entire plots, is an understanding of how history--both individual and on a large scale--impacts the present. People, events, the world. All of it. I think that in the modern age, we're way too ready and willing to discount our past as an influence at all, and think that we are a blank slate for the future, and can totally invent ourselves! Yay!
Which...isn't really possible. We're not blank slates. Humans don't even come into the world as blank slates, let alone grow to adulthood as blank slates. Family, genetics, events of childhood, &c all have so much influence. And generational 'curses', or, at the very least, generational brokenness is so real. For the record, it is possibly to get out from under that sort of thing, and it's very worth doing if there's a history of sin/brokenness/&c in one's family. Healing one's self from that so as not to pass it on to future generations is an incredibly noble thing to do (and I'm really lucky that there are several people in my family/ancestors who have worked and are working to do just that). But even so, in the very need for a person to do that work, the past has influenced them.
Y'all, the past has so much influence on the present, even if we don't realize it. And I love that Madeleine L'Engle acknowledges that in her work, even to the point of building one of her plots around the unravelling of the influence of the past on the present in A Swiftly Tilting Planet, which (purely coincidentally, obviously) is my favorite of the Time Quintet. But it's present in subtler ways in some of her other books, too, like Troubling A Star.
3. Angels & Providence & The Fall of the Sparrow
Okay, so for the record, if a book references "the fall of the sparrow" in any way shape or form, it's nearly impossible for me to dislike said book. *sheepish glance in the direction of An Episode of Sparrows* Kind of like how it's impossible for me to dislike a book that references Sicut Cervus. *sheepish glance in the direction of Green Dolphin Country* So the fact that God noting the fall of the sparrow is brought up in several different ML'E books cannot but make me happy.
But I think that from a larger/wider perspective, it's not just the fall of the sparrow that L'E brings into the thematic picture, but more of an overall theme of God's Providence, which is present in almost all the books. Not like "God is going to make everything turn out well! *thumbs up*"--bad things happen in her books, and characters struggle to accept them. But more the concept that God is watching over everyone, and whatever happens, He cares. He loves His creation, and He cares what happens to it.
In several books, the way she conveys this is by references to angels. In Troubling A Star, several character tell Vicky "angels watch over you", and she asks what it means for angels to be watching over her, which sparks a conversation about God/a benevolent power watching over someone, even if bad things still happen. And I love it. I love it! Even if it's not quite exactly Catholic theology (ML'E was Anglican), I still love it. I think it's such an accessible way to work on understanding God's Providence, and His permissive Will. It reminds me about what Tolkien said about understanding his guardian angel partially as the personification of the love and attention with which God is holding him in being at all times.
Okay, so for the record, if a book references "the fall of the sparrow" in any way shape or form, it's nearly impossible for me to dislike said book. *sheepish glance in the direction of An Episode of Sparrows* Kind of like how it's impossible for me to dislike a book that references Sicut Cervus. *sheepish glance in the direction of Green Dolphin Country* So the fact that God noting the fall of the sparrow is brought up in several different ML'E books cannot but make me happy.
But I think that from a larger/wider perspective, it's not just the fall of the sparrow that L'E brings into the thematic picture, but more of an overall theme of God's Providence, which is present in almost all the books. Not like "God is going to make everything turn out well! *thumbs up*"--bad things happen in her books, and characters struggle to accept them. But more the concept that God is watching over everyone, and whatever happens, He cares. He loves His creation, and He cares what happens to it.
In several books, the way she conveys this is by references to angels. In Troubling A Star, several character tell Vicky "angels watch over you", and she asks what it means for angels to be watching over her, which sparks a conversation about God/a benevolent power watching over someone, even if bad things still happen. And I love it. I love it! Even if it's not quite exactly Catholic theology (ML'E was Anglican), I still love it. I think it's such an accessible way to work on understanding God's Providence, and His permissive Will. It reminds me about what Tolkien said about understanding his guardian angel partially as the personification of the love and attention with which God is holding him in being at all times.
4. Dreaming True
Okay that was a little heavy...on a lighter note, for some reason I am minorly obsessedwith using the word "minorly" currently, apparently with books where characters are able to "dream true". I'm not sure entirely why--although it's for similar reasons, I think, that I'm obsessed with the "names have power" trope. Which may be because in some sense it's true? Names do have power. And, I think, some people sometimes dream true. Or at the very least, God touches people in specific ways, and sometimes that's with prophetic dreams. Maybe some of the time, it's your subconscious working through intuition (like the time I predicted one of my friends being pregnant way before she told anyone) but I do think that True Dreams can be a thing. And I love it, for some reason. L'Engle has several characters who have true dreams, including Charles O'Keefe, who I love very much.
Okay that was a little heavy...on a lighter note, for some reason I am minorly obsessed
5. Human Weakness
Aaaaaannd back to the heavy! I know I touched on human weakness in point #1, but I wanted to circle back to it, because it's one of the things that makes me absolutely obsessed with, well, many of L'Engle's books, but I'm thinking specifically of House Like A Lotus. The way L'Engle portrays how brokenness and human weakness and sin can break relationships, but how good relationships help people to learn to forgive and rebuild and become a better person (and also how one should not put fallen human beings on pedestals) just makes me Feel Things. In some ways (though definitely not in others), it reminds me so intensely of my high school self, especially the way I put one of my mentors on a pedestal, that it's almost painful. But at the same time, it helps me to understand that phase of my life in a way that avoids self-recrimination. (Does anyone else have the thing where they look back at their past self and are like "I DON'T WANT TO THINK ABOUT YOU OR ANYTHING YOU DID EVER AGAIN BYE"? Or is that just me?) (To be clear, that's not all the time, or about all of my past self's actions. Just some select things, lol.)
Aaaaaannd back to the heavy! I know I touched on human weakness in point #1, but I wanted to circle back to it, because it's one of the things that makes me absolutely obsessed with, well, many of L'Engle's books, but I'm thinking specifically of House Like A Lotus. The way L'Engle portrays how brokenness and human weakness and sin can break relationships, but how good relationships help people to learn to forgive and rebuild and become a better person (and also how one should not put fallen human beings on pedestals) just makes me Feel Things. In some ways (though definitely not in others), it reminds me so intensely of my high school self, especially the way I put one of my mentors on a pedestal, that it's almost painful. But at the same time, it helps me to understand that phase of my life in a way that avoids self-recrimination. (Does anyone else have the thing where they look back at their past self and are like "I DON'T WANT TO THINK ABOUT YOU OR ANYTHING YOU DID EVER AGAIN BYE"? Or is that just me?) (To be clear, that's not all the time, or about all of my past self's actions. Just some select things, lol.)
Anyway. Human weakness. The way ML'E portrays it is so good. It's unflinching, but forgiving at the same time. Absolutely remarkable.
Also, the way she portrays evil and the humans who do it? DON'T GET ME STARTED. It's so good.
Also, the way she portrays evil and the humans who do it? DON'T GET ME STARTED. It's so good.
6. God & Science
Something that ML'E does that I don't think I have ever seen in any other author I've read is the way that she is completely up to date on the scientific research of her time, but she uses it to bolster her faith in God, and the faith of her characters, as well. Do her characters wrestle with "wow, the universe is so huge, does God really care about me?" Yes. Of course they do! But do her characters also bring things like atomic theory and the structure of the universe into conversations about God and theology and understanding things in a really constructive way? Yes. Yes, they do. I wish I could remember more specific examples, because it's really striking when she does it, but my brain is a bit blank at the moment. (It probably doesn't help that I'm running on five hours of sleep, two espresso shots, and three packets of sugar currently.)
In a nutshell, though, she goes about understanding the false dichotomy of "God, or science?" by answering it "God created science, and through it, we can gain insight into Him through His creation", which is my favorite answer to that false dichotomy, too, and I love seeing it worked out consistently in fiction so, so much.
In a nutshell, though, she goes about understanding the false dichotomy of "God, or science?" by answering it "God created science, and through it, we can gain insight into Him through His creation", which is my favorite answer to that false dichotomy, too, and I love seeing it worked out consistently in fiction so, so much.
7. Wrestling with God in His Mystery
I guess, almost as a summary of several of these points, I would like to just say that I so appreciate how her worldview about God allows doubt. One of the things that I think is a marker of my maturing (not maturity...not quite there yet...) as a Catholic is that I have started to understand how I can allow doubts to come into my faith, wrestle with them with God, and let them make my faith stronger. As my cousin observed recently "you can't have doubts unless your faith is strong. Only a strong faith can coexist with doubt", and as a priest observed to me in Confession, "it's like courage. Courage isn't the absence of fear, it's doing what's right even through the fear, just like faith isn't the absence of doubt, it's believing and doing what's right even through the doubts". And even independent of doubt, there's always the challenge of the mysteries of God, which are never going to be fully comprehensible.
And one of the things I love about L'Engle's writing is that she allows herself and her characters to wrestle with doubts and the mysteries of God without saying that it's a bad thing. And it strengthens faith. And I love that. Her characters struggle with God's providence, God's goodness, God's existence, God's love. And yet...God utterly shines through all of this wrestling. And it's beautiful and thought-provoking.
And one of the things I love about L'Engle's writing is that she allows herself and her characters to wrestle with doubts and the mysteries of God without saying that it's a bad thing. And it strengthens faith. And I love that. Her characters struggle with God's providence, God's goodness, God's existence, God's love. And yet...God utterly shines through all of this wrestling. And it's beautiful and thought-provoking.
I think the thing I'm working on saying through most of these points is that Madeleine L'Engle has a strong and consistent Christian faith, and it shines through her writing in the most beautiful way, in a way that is not preachy in any way, shape, or form. And that's why I love her writing so very much.
Alrighty! Off to go download more ML'E books! (Not joking...that is my immediate next step after finishing this post. :D)
To your parenthetical question in para. 5, yep. It's not just you. College RG accidentally wrote "inert" in an essay where she meant "innate," and she still cringes whenever she thinks about it. Criiiiinges! And still mentally tries to persuade the prof who graded the essay that it was just a dumb mistake! She knows the meaning of both words! eeeeee! XOXO RG
ReplyDeleteWell, I'm glad I'm not the only one! XD
DeleteAlso, I just recently reread the Meet the Austens trilogy. Adam is a worthy literary crush. XOXO RG
ReplyDeleteHaha, glad you approve!
DeleteI have a great respect for Madeline L'Engle's books; however, they scare the crap out of me. I barely made it through the first 2-3 books ("A Wrinkle In Time", etc). However, that said and all, her development of characters and story is incredibly well-done.
ReplyDeleteThey can be pretty scary! I grew up with them, and they still sometimes freak me out a little. :) But she is a truly incredible writer!
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