{"id":5142,"date":"2006-08-01T07:28:49","date_gmt":"2006-08-01T11:28:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=5142"},"modified":"2015-05-10T08:36:10","modified_gmt":"2015-05-10T12:36:10","slug":"the-books-a-swiftly-tilting-planet-madeleine-lengle","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.sheilaomalley.com\/?p=5142","title":{"rendered":"The Books: A Swiftly Tilting Planet<\/i> (Madeleine L\u2019Engle)"},"content":{"rendered":"

Daily Book Excerpt: YA\/Children’s books<\/p>\n

\"ASwiftlyTiltingPlanet2.jpg\"Next book on the shelf is A Swiftly Tilting Planet<\/a>\"\"<\/i> by Madeleine L’Engle.<\/p>\n

Third in the Time Quartet. Actually – years later – Madeleine wrote Many Waters<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – which, chronologically, would come after A Wind in the Door<\/a>\"\"<\/i> – but she wrote Swiftly Tilting Planet<\/i> first. We’re back with the Murry family. Meg is now married to Calvin and pregnant with their first chidl (who will end up being Polly – and the star of yet another one of L’Engle’s series!) – and … it’s been a while since I read this one. Charles Wallace is now 15 – and – he’s gotten even weirder and more brilliant. The book opens on a Christmas holiday – everyone is home at the old farmhouse – Calvin is a doctor, and is out of town, but his mother – a drunk woman named Mrs. O’Keefe – is at the Murrys. And Mr. Murry is called to the phone to consult with the President … because (as I recall) some insane dictator of a tiny country is threatening to send off nuclear missiles to destroy the earth. Something like that – the details are not clear. Mr. Murry is an adviser to the president, obviously. So the family sits around – and there’s a sense of danger in the air – intense danger – imminent destruction – how I imagine the Cuban missile crisis felt to those who lived through it. Life is sharp, poignant, sweet – but there are evil forces at work out there, to threaten the light. Charles Wallace – with his intuition – somehow knows that there is something he must do – and naturally, he hooks up with a unicorn, and goes back in time to adjust some of the might-have-beens that have led the world to this point. Again, it’s nearly impossible to talk about her books without making them sound silly. Charles Wallace has a gift – what is known as “kything” – a very specific kind of telepathic communication – the opening sequence of Wrinkle in Time<\/i> makes reference to it – how connected he is to Meg, how he always seems to “know” about her … As he gets older, this “kything” thing becomes more urgent – a gift he has been given that he can actually use<\/i>. But not without paying a huge price. Charles Wallace, a little boy, essentially, carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. He internalizes suffering – he understands so much – he is incredibly wise. He is old before his time.<\/p>\n

The book becomes a journey of kything – Meg lying in her bed at home, pregnant – Charles Wallace time-traveling – the two of them intimately connected, feeling what the other is feeling – across space and time.<\/p>\n

If anyone remembers anything else more specific about this book, please share it. I am blurry on the details. I do know that the drunken Mrs. O’Keefe who seems like she would be no good in a crisis starts to chant this old ancient rune – which seems meaningless and annoying – but it ends up being the connecting thread – the thematic glue that holds the book together. L’Engle is great that way.<\/p>\n

Here’s a scene from the beginning when Charles Wallace – suddenly knows that somehow – even though this is a political world issue – he knows that there is something HE must do about it. But what? He can’t figure out – so he goes out into the garden – to think. To ponder and reflect.<\/p>\n


\nExcerpt from A Swiftly Tilting Planet<\/a>\"\"<\/i> by Madeleine L’Engle.<\/b><\/p>\n

Charles Wallace continued to walk along the familiar route.<\/p>\n

Hand resting on Ananda, the tingling warmth flowing back and forth between them, Meg followed her brother’s steps. When he reached the open space where the star-watching rock was, Ananda’s breathing quickened; Meg could feel the rise and fall of the big dog’s rib cage under her hand.<\/p>\n

There was no moon, but starlight touched the winter grasses with silver. The woods behind the rock were a dark shadow. Charles Wallace looked across the valley, across the dark ridge of pines, to the shadows of the hills beyond. Then he threw back his head and called,<\/p>\n

“In this fateful hour
\nI call on all Heaven with its power!”<\/i><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The brilliance of the stars increased. Charles Wallace continued to gaze upward. He focused on one star which throbbed with peculiar intensity. A beam of light as strong as a ladder but clear as water flowed between the star and Charles Wallace, and it was impossible to tell whether the light came from the piercing silver-blue of the star or the light blue eyes of the boy. The beam became stronger and firmer and then all the light resolved itself in a flash of radiance beside the boy. Slowly the radiance took on form, until it had enfleshed itself into the body of a great white beast with flowing mane and tail. From its forehead sprang a silver horn which contained the residue of the light. It was a creature of utter and absolute perfection.<\/p>\n

The boy put his hand against the great white flanks, which heaved as though the creature had been racing. He could feel the warm blood coursing through the veins as the light had coursed between star and boy. “Are you real?” he asked in a wondering voice.<\/p>\n

The creature gave a silver neigh which translated itself into the boy’s mind as “I am not real. And yet in a sense I am that which is the only reality.”<\/p>\n

“Why have you come?” The boy’s own breath was rapid, not so much with apprehension as with excitement and anticipation.<\/p>\n

“You called on me.”<\/p>\n

“The rune –” Charles Wallace whispered. He looked with loving appreciation at the glorious creature standing beside him on the star-watching rock. One silver-shod hoof pawed lightly, and the rock rang with clarion sound. “A unicorn. A real unicorn.”<\/p>\n

“That is what you call me. Yes.”<\/p>\n

“What are you, really?”<\/p>\n

“What are you<\/i>, really?” the unicorn countered. “You called me, and because there is a great need, I am here.”<\/p>\n

“You know the need?”<\/p>\n

“I have seen it in your mind.”<\/p>\n

“How is it that you speak my language?”<\/p>\n

The unicorn neighed again, the sound translucent as silver bubbles. “I do not. I speak the ancient harmony.”<\/p>\n

“Then how is it that I understand?”<\/p>\n

“You are very young, but you belong to the Old Music.”<\/p>\n

“Do you know my name?”<\/p>\n

“Here, in this When and Where, you are called Charles Wallace. It is a brave name. It will do.”<\/p>\n

Charles Wallace stretched up on tiptoe to reach his arms about the beautiful beast’s neck. “What am I to call you?”<\/p>\n

“You may call me Gaudior.” The words dropped on the rock like small bells.<\/p>\n

Charles Wallace looked thoughtfully at the radiance of the horn. “Gaudior. That’s Latin for more joyful<\/i>.”<\/p>\n

The unicorn neighed in acquiescence.<\/p>\n

“That joy in existence without which …”<\/p>\n

Gaudior struck his hoof lightly on the rock, with the sound of a silver trumpet. “Do not push your understanding too far.”<\/p>\n

“But I’m not wrong about Gaudior?”<\/p>\n

“In a sense, yes; in a sense, no.”<\/p>\n

“You’re real and you’re not real; I’m wrong and I’m right.”<\/p>\n

“What is real?” Gaudior’s voice was as crystal as the horn.<\/p>\n

“What am I supposed to do, now that I’ve called on all Heaven with its power and you’ve come?”<\/p>\n

Gaudior neighed. “Heaven may have sent me, but my powers are closely defined and narrowly limited. And I’ve never been sent to your planet before. It’s considered a hardship assignment.” He looked down in apology.<\/p>\n

Charles Wallace studied the snow-dusted rock at his feet. “We haven’t done all that well by our planet, have we?”<\/p>\n

“There are many who would like to let you wipe yourselves out, except it would affect us all; who knows what happen? And as long as there are even a few who belong to the Old Music, you are still our brothers and sisters.”<\/p>\n

Charles Wallace stroked Gaudior’s long, aristocratic nose. “What should I do, then?”<\/p>\n

“We’re in it together.” Gaudior knelt delicately and indicated that Charles Wallace was to climb up onto his back. Even with the unicorn kneeling, it was with difficulty that the boy clambered up and sat astride, up toward the great neck, so that he could hold onto the silver mane. He pressed his feet in their rubber boots as tightly as he could against the unicorn’s flanks.<\/p>\n

Gaudior asked, “Have you ridden the wind before?”<\/p>\n

“No.”<\/p>\n

“We have to be careful of Echthroi,” Gaudior warned. “They try to ride the wind and throw us off course.”<\/p>\n

“Echthroi –” Charles Wallace’s eyes clouded. “That means the enemy<\/i>.”<\/p>\n

“Echthroi,” Gaudior repeated. “The ancient enemy. He who distorted the harmony, and who has gathered an army of destroyers. They are everywhere in the universe.”<\/p>\n

Charles Wallace felt a ripple of cold move along his spine.<\/p>\n

“Hold my mane,” the unicorn advised. “There’s always the possibility of encountering an Echthros, and if we do, it’ll try to unseat you.”<\/p>\n

Charles Wallace’s knuckles whitened as he clutched the heavy mane. The unicorn began to run, skimming over the tops of the grasses, up, over the hills, flinging himself onto the wind and riding with it, up, up, over the stars …<\/p>\n