Friday, May 11, 2018

The Wind in the Door by Madeleine L'Engle

This is the second book in the Time series and the sequel to A Wrinkle in Time, and I am really enjoying revisiting this series. In this book, Charles Wallace is struck deathly ill and Meg and Calvin are taken on a quest to save him and to fight the Echthroi, or the evil forces in the universe that cause war and death, which are apparently fighting to kill Charles Wallace by attacking his mitochondria in his cells. There's a whole different fantastical set of characters helping them with their quest, including Progonoskes, a cherubim who looks nothing like a cherubim as we know it but instead is mistaken for a drive of dragons with hundreds of eyes and feathers and flames. Meg and Calvin go with Progo and a few others into Charles Wallace's cells and manage to save his life (spoiler!).

A few thoughts about this book:
-A lot of it seemed really similar to Wrinkle. The final test happens almost as a surprise and the climax is so sudden and quick and there's almost no denouement afterwards to help you figure out what happened. Also, it seemed almost like the same lesson Meg had to learn--to show love and to win over the evil forces simply by showing her love (in Wrinkle she has to love the robot-Charles Wallace and in this one she has to Name all the Echthroi and Mr. Jenkins). Isn't that kind of the same thing?
-I thought it was so interesting that the mitochondria that were so central to the science fiction in this book were such a new thing when this book was being written that nobody knew what it was and it made everyone think Charles Wallace was crazy when he would talk about them. But they are such a standard part of seventh-grade science now that all kids know what mitochondria are now. It did get a little confusing with the combination of the farandolae (which L'Engle made up) and I had to check and see, is that something I forgot or is it not real?

Some really fantastic quotes from this book"
When Progo is talking about the Echthroi: "War and hate are their business, and one of their chief weapons is un-Naming--making people not know who they are. If someone knows who he is, really knows, then he doesn't need to hate. . . . When everyone is really and truly Named, then the Echthroi will be vanquished" (111-112). This seems so simple and even spiritual to me. If everyone knows who they are and feels loved, they won't need to hate. This seems like it would be the solution to all the problems in the world--if only it were easy to accomplish.

"The temptation for the farandola or for man or for star is to stay an immature pleasure-seeker. When we seek our own pleasure as the ultimate good we place ourselves at the center of the universe. A fara or a man or a star has his place in the universe, but nothing created is the center" (203). This is so appropriate for today's day and age! So many people never move past the stage of "immature pleasure-seeker" and waste their lives away.

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