Ramblin' RET: February 2021

Saturday, February 27, 2021

Tomorrow Never Knows

My newly received copy of "A Wrinkle in Time."

I should be out trying to get a haircut instead of writing this but I have been wanting to do a blog post for such a while and this morning has been such a somewhat bizarre experience that I thought I might capture a bit of it in a blog post.

My sister, Tina, recently sent me a softbound copy of the book "A Wrinkle in Time" by Madeleine L' Engle. To be honest, I was initially annoyed that she had done that since I never expressed an interest in the book and I have plenty to read. However, I was intrigued and attracted by the cover art (which reminded me of one of my favorite childhood books, "The Spaceship Under the Apple Tree" by Lois Slobodkin (see below-what do you think? Are you able to see any similarities?).

I wish I had a copy of this book.

When I saw the audience was ages 10-14, I thought this might be a candidate for reading before bed (i.e., something light and breezy). So I started to read one chapter each evening. However, yesterday was a very challenging and long day (worked from 7 am to 9 pm) that I skipped the reading and postponed it until this morning.

So this morning I read Chapter Four, "The Black Thing." I read it out loud like I have been doing now. That slows me down and helps me focus.To say this is a bizarre chapter (let alone a bizarre book) is an understatement. It reminded me of a drug trip, of an LSD experience (of which I have no first hand knowledge other than John Lennon's Beatles song, "Tomorrow Never Knows").

The speech of one of the supporting characters, Mrs. Who, is almost entirely limited to quotes from classical literature or the like. The quotes are structured in three parts: the original language, the speaker, and the English translation. This chapter includes a quote from Euripides, Nothing is hopeless; we most hope for everything.

Since I wasn't sure what exactly this quote meant, I looked it up online and found a very interesting blog post entitled Untangling L' Engle's Greek. It was very intriguing but didn't help to understand the meaning. It was actually about a typo. I learned from a comment to the post that the quotes were reportedly taken from DICTIONARY OF FOREIGN PHRASES AND CLASSICAL QUOTATIONS, Edited by H.P.Jones (Edinburgh 1910). Interesting trivia, in a sense, but also a lesson in the importance of accuracy.

The imagery in this chapter is ethereal. Here's a sample:

They left the granite plain and flew over a garden even more beautiful than anything in a dream. In it were many of the creatures like the one Mrs Whatsit had become, some lying among the flowers, some swimming in a broad, crystal river that flowed through the garden, some flying in what Meg was sure must be a kind of dance, moving in and out above the trees. They were making music, music that came not only from their throats but from the movement of their great wings as well.

What are they singing?" Meg asked excitedly.

Mrs Whatsit shook her beautiful head. "It won't go into your words; I can't possibly translate it to your words.

Mrs Whatsit eventually provides a paraphrase that turns out to be a quote from the Book of Isaiah [42:10-12a].

"Listen, then," Mrs Whatsit said. The resonant voice rose and words seemed to be all around them so that Meg felt that she could almost reach out and touch them.

Throughout her entire body Meg felt a pulse of joy such as she had never know before. Calvin's hand reached out; he did not claps her hand in his; he moved his fingers so that they were barely touching hers, but joy flowed through them, back and forth between them, around them and about them and inside them.

The setting of this chapter is on a planet named Uriel.Curious if there might be some significance to this name, I found a website that explained the Uriel is known in ancient literature as an angel of wisdom, who shines the light of God's truth into the darkness of confusion. Uriel means "God is my light" or "fire of God." It will be interesting to see how this plays out in the rest of the book.