Comments on "A Wrinkle in Time"

Children's literature has always been a point of interest for me. It can offer scope for metaphor and makes for straightforward communication of ideology. 

I got a chance to read A Wrinkle in Time this week, and it didn't disappoint me.

I had read somewhere (and I can't recall exactly where, now) that it may be seen as a sort of counterpoint to C. S. Lewis's Narnia books. Where Narnia had a theology and cosmology very similar to that described in the Bible, the ​Wrinkle universe does not. This is most plainly shown when one of the mentor characters is introducing the main characters, Meg, and her brother and a friend, to the cosmic struggle of the universe: "The light shines in the darkness, and the darkness has not overcome it" (John 1:5), but the darkness is constantly trying. The mentor character identifies a list of figures who are engaged in the fight against the darkness on the planet Earth (as distinct from innumerable other planets). The list includes Jesus Christ, Buddha, Marie Curie, Einstein and others. 

From an orthodox Christian perspective, that list is problematic. It locates Jesus' person and work on a level plane with others. Jesus' fight against darkness is quite different from that of Einstein. Jesus is not merely one person in the fight against the darkness: He is the light. 

This touches on hamartiology and soteriology, then. Hamartiology is the study of sin, and soteriology is the study of salvation.

Sin could be broadly defined as what's wrong with the world. L'Engle's view (as demonstrated in A Wrinkle in Time) appears to be that regulation/lack of freedom is the purpose of the cosmic darkness the protagonist must fight. The darkness wants to make automatons. Salvation comes when Meg uses her faults -- her humanity -- her individuality -- to resist the darkness, and helps others to do so.

I think there's some truth to this perspective. Thinking in terms of orthodox Christian teaching, I can find a few points of analogy with L'Engle. 

• Satan does want every person to be enslaved to the beat of his drum.
• Salvation does involve no longer being enslaved to Satan (Eph. 2:1-10). 
• It does appear that God intends for humans to have the dignity of individuality - that is, He allows us to make choices.

However, there are plenty of points at which the analogy is imperfect. I think the most problematic is that the story resolves when Meg realizes that her flaws (=humanity) give her everything she needs to overcome the darkness. The savior is humanity. 

It's possible I'm reading too sensitively. Some have suggested that L'Engle intended the story to be understood not primarily spiritually, but rather politically. The darkness represents what Fascism stands for: regulation/lack of freedom. I think there's some merit to reading with that perspective in mind. However, involving Jesus almost unavoidably draws spiritual connections, and I think displays a low christology. 

I think one could draw connections between A Wrinkle in Time and That Hideous Strength, in which Lewis addresses progressive dehumanization. His treatment makes it hard to separate political critique from spiritual insight and philosophical evaluation -- they all run together. In Lewis's book, there is a God orchestrating the downfall of the organization working to dehumanize man. That makes a difference, I think -- Professor Ransom and Merlin choose to do what needs doing, but with the realization that God has enabled them to -- I think in particular of God's sending the spirits of the planets to Merlin to endow him for the overthrow of N.I.C.E. In contrast, I come away from L'Engle's book just not sure whether God is involved or not. 

Another important theme is responsibility. Meg doesn't know where her father is for much of the story, and the expectation is subtly built that if he were there, everything would be all right. She discovers, to her disappointment, that his presence does not make everything all right. In the end, she is the only person qualified to do what needs doing. This theme encourages readers to see themselves as responsible to act within their circumstances, to conceive of themselves as having an internal locus of control.

A good read; read critically.