Talk:A Wrinkle in Time

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Contents

[edit] No Warning

I don't think that this page needs a spoiler warning. About the same information is available on the back cover of the book. - Sporks of Mass Destruction

[edit] Charles Wallace?

Why is he not listed as a character anywhere? —The preceding unsigned comment was added by 150.176.82.2 (talk) 16:28, 30 April 2007 (UTC).

That was the result of a vandal edit. It has since been fixed. -- Karen | Talk | contribs 05:27, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Banned book info

According to the wikipedia page on banned books, wrinkle is on the American Library Association List of banned books. does anyone know why? if so, it might make for an interesting addition to the article Shaggorama 11:45, 2 November 2005 (UTC)

Mostly due to its controversial religious content, but also its depiction of kids in danger. -05:58, 11 February 2006 (UTC)
I've read (somewhere - haven't found sources to cite) of objections to "witches" and "fortune-telling" by people who don't realize that the Mrs. Ws aren't witches and that the Happy Medium is not a fortune teller per se. I've written about this on my L'Engle FAQ page. A more specific account of challenges to the book can be found at Forbidden Library. Karen 21:22, 8 April 2006 (UTC)


^ These people are exacly right.The book 'supposedly' had witch-craft,which is totally NOT true...---Kelsie.&adores;.You

[edit] Note on a revert

Explaining my revert here: claim that "Mrs. Whatsit is the leader of the Mrs. W's" is unsubstantiated by the text. Although Mrs. Whatsit is the one who deals most closely with the children, there's a clear implication in the book that she has less authority than Mrs. Which, whom the others respect as eldest and pssibly wisest. Mrs. Whatsit is relatively young, and defers to Mrs. Which's authority. Karen 09:38, 15 April 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Book covers, book order

I don't know if anybody has a use for it just yet, but here's a picture of the cover in arabic (click to enlarge) from a page at the US Embassy in Egypt. Also included in the page there is a link to an arabic review of the book. Both of these might be helpful should someone care to make an article for the book on that wiki. -Tim Rhymeless (Er...let's shimmy) 05:58, 11 February 2006 (UTC)

Question on the image: I asked Bantam-Doubleday-Dell years ago for permission to depict Dell book covers on my L'Engle site, and their lawyers said no because of copyright issues. Is depiction of the hardback cover here okay with FS&G? I almost uploaded a photo I took of my copy of the rare L'Engle book Ilsa, but shied away because of the rights of the publisher (The Vanguard Press, which apparently doesn't exist anymore) and artist (identified only as "leslie"). Am I being over-careful? Karen 21:22, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

One more item while I'm thinking about it. Many Waters takes place before A Swiftly Tilting Planet, despite its later publication date. Cf. my page on The Novels of Madeleine L'Engle for a chronological reading list. Karen 22:18, 8 April 2006 (UTC)

weird...my brother got me that book with the same cover for christmas...its arabic?--Stephenharper321 (talk) 01:49, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Request

On the charaters part they really need too add the rest especially The Man With Red Eyes and IT.

They have IT now.

71.72.82.183 (talk) 04:18, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

[edit] 1960s Dust jacket

I've uploaded this cover from the book's eleventh printing (1965), since it almost certainly has the same cover art as the first edition, other than the addition of the Newbery Medal. Should it replace the current cover in the infobox? I was unsure, so I'm putting it here for now.

Oh, and I just added section headings to this page for readability. I hope that's okay! Karen 05:25, 16 July 2006 (UTC)

The cover image has been removed from here, but that's fine; it's now in the article itself. The Arabic one above needs to either be in the article with a fair use rationale, or else removed. -- Karen | Talk | contribs 05:23, 15 May 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Meg and Charles Wallace

In an edit dated 16:26, 10 August 2006, User:68.193.186.111 wrote:

"As the story goes on, Meg notices that Charles Wallace is not like her, or her family, but he is special."

I've reverted this because a) it doesn't really belong in a brief character sketch about Meg herself, b) the point about Charles Wallace is made elsewhere on the page, and c) it's not an accurate statement. It is clear from Meg's musings from the opening pages of the book that she is already aware how special Charles Wallace is, that he's smart, and that he can "read" her, etc. Meg learns more in the course of the story, but it's not something she's just now noticing.

Please don't be discouraged, though, Suzanne! Welcome to Wikipedia! Karen | Talk | contribs 00:10, 11 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] 1983 Movie?

Moving this from a user page as suggested:

Hi. In all my research, I've never seen a reference to a 1983 video or movie of A Wrinkle in Time, and L'Engle has written about why she didn't allow one to be made (until the recent one, of course). What is your source on this? Can you give me more information? Karen | Talk | contribs 05:05, 12 August 2006 (UTC)

My source is that I have the movie. Wouldn't this have been better put on the Wrinkle in Time Talk page, rather than my User page? Banaticus 14:47, 12 August 2006 (UTC)
Fair enough. I'm willing to be convinced that this video exists. However, if it's going to be mentioned here, there should be some source or publication info - company, director, writers, actors, producers, something. For example, off the top of my head: "This direct-to-video release was directed by Jim Director, starred Maisy Jones as Meg, and was distributed to schools by School Library Stuff, Inc." For that matter, I'd love to see someone come up with solid publication date on audio adaptatons for schools in the 1960s and 1970s. I'm pretty sure there was at least one. Karen | Talk | contribs 00:55, 13 August 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Changes to the "character" section

I'm changing the order in which the characters are listed. Before my edit, the three Mrs. Ws were listed first, which is illogical; they are supporting characters, not primary ones, and only appear in this novel. However, since they are more important than Sandy & Dennys, I have broken the character section into 3 parts: "Major human characters," "Major immortal characters," and "Supporting human characters." The first group comprises Meg, Charles, & Calvin; the second, the three Mrs. Ws; and the third, the remaining O'Keefes. I also plan to note that the parents' first names are never given in the novel and to observe that Meg is both the protagonist and the viewpoint character.

Fabulous Creature 03:40, 8 October 2006 (UTC)

I'm changing a bit of the section on Mrs Whatsit to remove the claim that all three of the Mrs Ws were former stars. Only Mrs Whatsit is explicitly named as such in the story. Fabulous Creature 00:08, 10 October 2006 (UTC)

Nice job on this. You're right: Meg, Charles Wallace and Calvin should be listed first. However, I'm wondering whether it might be better to have just two character categories: "major" (Meg, Charles Wallace, Calvin, and then Whatsit & Co) and supporting. The human/nonhuman distinction strikes me as a little odd somehow. By now you probably realize that the first name issue on the parents is already mentioned. And yes, although it's kind of implied that Who and Which are of a kind with Whatsit ("It was not so long ago for you, was it?"), we don't know for certain that they were also stars that sacrificed themselves. Karen | Talk | contribs 10:01, 11 October 2006 (UTC)

[edit] Meg's age

I'm going to want to go through the book yet again to be certain, but I'm 95% sure Meg's age is not given in Wrinkle, although it might be in a publisher's plot description. Calvin's age is given as 14, and he is "a couple of years ahead" of Meg in grade, putting her in 9th grade. Ninth graders are generally fourteen years old in the autumn, so she is probably 14, the same as Calvin. Unless L'Engle or her publisher has specifically stated this somewhere, it is not a certainty. Still, I suppose 14 is a plausible number to use in the article, if any. Karen | Talk | contribs 23:27, 7 December 2006 (UTC)

My view on this is that 11th graders are usually 16 years old, making Meg 14.--Stephenharper321 (talk) 01:53, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

Indeed. Fourteen seems likely, but is not definite. Yet people keep trying to nail down her age here was 14, 13, or even 12! I have a vague idea that her age as an adult is mentioned in one of the books about Polly, but even if I find this and we count back, it's not going to result in a definitive age as of the events of this book.--!!!!

[edit] IT?

In the original article, they should mention IT. IT is the evil character, possibly main. This should be reviewed.IT was very Inportant!

Nycgirl101

[edit] Am I the only one?

I felt like there was something wrong with me that this was an award winning book, and I could not see any redeeming value in it. Now I am much older, and have the benefit of wisdom and a broader perspective and I still think that this is a very dry and boring book. Is there something I am missing here? 72.225.36.158 02:22, 8 September 2007 (UTC)

I dont know, I liked it, although now that i think about it...you may have a point.--Stephenharper321 (talk) 01:54, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Number of rejections

In one place in the article, it states it was at least 26. In another place, it states it was 40 odd (more than 40 but less than 50). Although both appeared sourced (which I did not check), should the apparent disparity be addressed in the article?--Filll (talk) 17:56, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Yes, the two sources contradict each other - and both are direct quotes from L'Engle herself. I'll take a stab at the "forty-odd" sentence, but feel free to rephrase it if it remains unclear. --Karen | Talk | contribs 07:25, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Go nova?

Not sure this is a good English expression. Comments?--Filll (talk) 18:14, 19 December 2007 (UTC)

Yes, that bothered me as well. I'll try to come up with a better phrase based on the text of the scene. --Karen | Talk | contribs 07:26, 21 December 2007 (UTC)

[edit] Dr. Alex Murry, Dr. Kate Murry

I find myself frequently reverting changes in the names of these two characters. If you read through the article, you'll see that the names of Meg's parents are firmly established in An Acceptable Time as Alex (Alexander) and Kate (Katherine), not Jack and Dana. The names Jack and Dana were created by the people who made the TV movie of the same name. They are NOT the sames of the actual characters from the books. Please stop changing this! Thank you. --Karen | Talk | contribs 06:01, 3 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] The Movie

THe movie wasnt as good as i thought it would be. Several things were different. Im making a collection of differences, please add.

1. IT was a giant pulsing yellow thing, not a larger than usual brain. 2. They do not say the name Jesus 3. Meg has no glasses or braces.

PLEASE ADD! --Stephenharper321 (talk) 01:58, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

We've pretty much covered two of the three already, just not in quite the same words. The differences are covered in slightly more detail in A Wrinkle in Time (film). We should probably add your point about IT over in that article. --Karen | Talk | contribs 05:51, 4 January 2008 (UTC)

[edit] Typo

My book had a typo:

Charles Wallace stared after him. "What is it?" he asked Meg and Charles.

I'm wondering if anyone else has had the typo too so it might be able to be in this article.. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 71.72.82.183 (talk) 02:30, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Typos and other small mistakes aren't generally considered notable enough to be mentioned. But for what it's worth, my 1960s editions both have that typo, and the recent Square Fish edition I just looked at correctly replaces the second "Charles" with "Calvin". That edition has other typos, though. You can't win! --Karen | Talk | contribs 03:22, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

How many did you buy?! Anyways, just a little mention somewhere in the article about the typos should be worthwhile. I don't usually see any typos in other books I've read.

Another one:

"Of course our food, being synthetic, is not superior to your messes of beans and bacon and so forth"

Although I'm sure his food tastes bad, not quite finished with this book.71.72.82.183 (talk) 04:18, 24 February 2008 (UTC)

Let's see: I have eight copies in different editions published over a 42-year period, plus audio and video. And yes, I've noticed that other line before too, which may or may not be what she intended to say. But I see typos in books all the time. Many years ago, my elementary school teacher encouraged us to complain to a publisher about a sentence in some book or other, "He's knew here." Nowadays there are typos in almost everything, so I doubt a teacher would do that. --Karen | Talk | contribs 05:47, 24 February 2008 (UTC)