Madeleine L'Engle Profile picture
Jul 3, 2018 8 tweets 2 min read Read on X
Thread on totalitarianism, Adapted from an unpublished manuscript excerpt of #awrinkleintime:

Afraid to ask the question that was really on her mind, Meg said, “But Father, how it capture Camazotz?”
He said, “Well, Megatron, if you’re thinking that perhaps the brain simply marched in and took over all the minds on Camazotz, it isn’t nearly as simple as that.
“It was the logical outcome of two things, Of complete totalitarianism in certain countries —“
“What’s totalitarianism?”
“It’s like Russia under Kruschev. Or Germany and Hitler. Countries under dictatorships. Franco. Mussolini. Castro. Mao.”
“Well, then, what about countries like — like ours?” Meg asked. “Ones that aren’t under dictatorships? Democracies?"
Mr. Murry sighed. “It’s an equally logical outcome of too much prosperity. Or you could put it that it’s the result of too strong a desire for security.”
“But Father, what’s wrong with security? Everybody likes to be all cosy and safe.”
“Yes,” Mr. Murry said, grimly. “Security is a most seductive thing. I have come to the conclusion that it’s the greatest evil there is.
"Our country has been the greatest when it has been most insecure. This longing for security is a dangerous thing, Meg, as insidious as strontium 90 from our nuclear explosions. You can’t feel it or touch it. But it’s there.
"So is the panicky searching for conformity, for security. Maybe this lust for security is like a disease germ that has let loose on our land. I don’t know, Meg. All I realize now is that my fight is much bigger than this little one on Camazotz.”
Adapted from an unpublished manuscript excerpt of #awrinkleintime
Full text here: goo.gl/iqK192

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More from @MadeleineLEngle

Aug 10, 2021
There is a story of an old man who lived by a river. In the spring the rains were heavy, and the river rose. The sheriff came by in his jeep, and said to the old man, “The river is going to flood, and I want to evacuate you.” 1/
The old man folded his arms confidently. “I have faith in God. God will take care of me.”
The sheriff shook his head and drove off.
The river continued to rise. It lapped about the old man’s house, rising up to the porch. The sheriff came by in a row boat, and said, 2/
“The river is continuing to rise. I really need to evacuate you.”
The old man looked at the river which covered his steps and lapped across the porch. He folded his arms. “I have faith in God. God will take care of me.”
The sheriff shook his head, and rowed away. 3/
Read 6 tweets
Sep 26, 2020
Thread: Many people think that Camazotz in #wrinkleintime is an allegory for soviet-style communism. This is not the case. Image
While Madeleine L'Engle was convinced that any *ism* leads to dehumanizing generalities, she knew that totalitarianism lurked under the surface of American democracy.
In earlier drafts of Wrinkle, she had a passage about how democracies become dark. She tried to make it work in two different places in the story, but it was too didactic and was cut.
Read 6 tweets
Jun 3, 2020
“Mrs Whatsit hates you,” Charles Wallace said.
And that was where IT made ITs fatal mistake, for as Meg said, automatically, “Mrs Whatsit loves me; that’s what she told me, that she loves me,” suddenly she knew.
She knew!
Love.
That was what she had that IT did not have.
She had Mrs Whatsit’s love, and her father’s, and her
mother’s, and the real Charles Wallace’s love, and the
twins’, and Aunt Beast’s.
And she had her love for them.
But how could she use it? What was she meant to do?
If she could give love to IT perhaps it would shrivel up and die, for she was sure that IT could not withstand love. But she, in all her weakness and foolishness [...], was incapable of loving IT. Perhaps it was not too much to ask of her, but she could not do it.
Read 5 tweets
Jan 13, 2020
I listen to the news and hear of war and rumor of war, of crime and wanton destruction and loss of humanity, and think of Ionesco’s brilliant play, Rhinoceros.
It starts out in a small French village on a Sunday morning; everything is normal and ordinary; the people in the village are very much like the people we know, like us.
Then a rhinoceros strolls through the village square, and this first rhinoceros is like a presage of plague, because the people of the village start, one by one, turning into rhinos;
Read 4 tweets
Nov 20, 2019
A thread with photos of the #lengleconference sessions from this past weekend. Starting with @HolyDreaming's opening keynote. Image
Learning from Madeleine. With @StephanieCowell @JudithLindbergh @olugbemisola and Pamela Leggett Image
@diversebooks presents: The New Generation of Meg Murrys. With @ctrichmond @Sayantani16 @heidiheilig and @KarunaRiazi Image
Read 16 tweets
Jan 26, 2019
LOVERS APART
In what, love, does fidelity consist?
I will be true to you, of course.
My body’s needs I can resist,
Come back to you without remorse;
And you, behind the footlight’s lure,
Kissing an actress on the stage,
Will leave her presence there, I’m sure,
As I my people on the page.
And yet—I love you, darling, yet
I sat with someone at a table
And gloried in our minds that met
As sometimes strangers’ minds are able
Read 11 tweets

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