XPost: rec.arts.books.childrens, rec.arts.books, alt.books   
   XPost: alt.religion.christian.episcopal, alt.religion.christianity   
   From: hayesstw@telkomsa.net   
      
   From the ENS Archives: ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ author Madeleine L’Engle on   
   the power of storytelling   
      
   Madeleine L’Engle, who wrote more than 60 books ranging from   
   children’s stories to theological reflection, died Sept. 6, 2007, in   
   Litchfield, Connecticut, at 88. She is shown here two years earlier.   
   Photo: Square Fish Books   
      
   [Episcopal News Service] The March 9 release of Ava DuVernay’s movie   
   version of the classic — and controversial — children’s book “A   
   Wrinkle in Time” has brought a new awareness of author Madeleine   
   L’Engle who was a world-renowned lay Episcopal playwright, poet and   
   author of fiction and nonfiction books.   
      
   L’Engle, who wrote more than 60 books ranging from children’s stories   
   to theological reflection, died Sept. 6, 2007, in Litchfield,   
   Connecticut. She was 88. In its obituary of L’Engle, the New York   
   Times reported that “A Wrinkle in Time” was then in its 69th printing   
   and had sold 8 million copies. Those figures are sure to increase with   
   the release of the movie.   
      
   “A Wrinkle in Time” won the Newberry Award in 1963. L’Engle traveled   
   widely from her home base in New York, leading retreats, lecturing at   
   writers’ conferences and addressing church and student groups abroad.   
   In 1965 she became a volunteer librarian at the Episcopal Cathedral   
   Church of St. John the Divine in New York. She later served for many   
   years as writer-in-residence at the cathedral.   
      
   “A Wrinkle in Time” director Ava DuVernay, left, speaks with Storm   
   Reid, who plays Meg Murry, between scenes. Photo: Walt Disney Pictures   
      
   L’Engle’s work expressed her Christian theology and has been compared   
   to C. S. Lewis. “A Wrinkle in Time” rankled some conservative   
   Christians and the book ranks 90th on the American Library   
   Association’s list of the 100 most-banned/challenged books of the   
   early 2000s. Critics said the book combined Christian themes and the   
   occult, and they disputed L’Engle’s contention that science and   
   religion can coexist.   
      
   There are echoes of the Gospel of John and 1 Corinthians in the book.   
   After the disappearance of her scientist father, three peculiar beings   
   send Meg Murry, her brother and her friend to space in order to find   
   him. Three mysterious astral travelers known as Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who   
   and Mrs. Which lead the children on a dangerous journey to a planet   
   that possesses all the evil in the universe.   
      
   In 1995, L’Engle spoke with Episcopal News Service about the power of   
   storytelling and her theology.   
      
   ‘Story Is Where We Look for Truth’ An Interview with Madeleine L’Engle   
   Episcopal News Service   
   January 19, 1995   
   By Neil M. Alexander   
      
   Neil M. Alexander was vice-president and editorial director of the   
   United Methodist Publishing House when he interviewed L’Engle. He is   
   now president and publisher emeritus. He is not to be confused with   
   Bishop J. Neil Alexander, the current vice president and dean of the   
   School of Theology at Sewanee The University of the South.   
      
   What are you seeking to discover and share through your writing?   
      
   I wrote my first story when I was five, because I wanted to know why   
   my father was coughing his lungs out from mustard gas he was exposed   
   to in the First World War. Why is it that people hurt each other? Why   
   don’t people love each other? I learned quickly that a story is the   
   best place to explore these unanswerable questions. Facts are limited;   
   they don’t carry us very far. Story is where we look for truth.   
      
   Which questions do you find yourself asking over and over again?   
      
   All the big ones. The questions that adolescents ask — and that we   
   should never stop asking. Unless we continually bring questions to our   
   faith, it will become sterile and cold. And so we ask: Why did God   
   create the universe? Is there a purpose to it? Why did God take the   
   incredible risk of making creatures with free will? And this leads us   
   to ponder why, if God is good, do terrible things happen? Of course,   
   there are no simple answers. If you have people with free will, they   
   are going to make mistakes, and our actions do have consequences.   
      
   Is too much emphasis given to the importance of individual freedom?   
   Would it be better if our communities provided more narrow boundaries?   
      
   I remember many years ago being in Russia with my husband. After a   
   concert we were walking back to our hotel late at night, with no fear   
   whatsoever, through tunnels beneath Red Square. When we came up on the   
   other side of the square, I turned to my husband and said, “The price   
   for this sense of security is too high.” With freedom there also comes   
   risk, but it is worth it.   
      
   Ava DuVernay’s movie version of the classic children’s book “A Wrinkle   
   in Time” was released March 9 and has renewed interest in the book and   
   its author. It has also prompted a host of other books related to the   
   story and the movie.   
      
   Where do you find the resources to sustain your search, to help you   
   struggle with the ambiguity of being human?   
      
   Reading the Bible has always been a part of my daily life. My parents   
   were Bible-reading people, and I grew up reading the Bible as a great   
   storybook, which indeed it is. It is remarkably comforting to me that   
   of all the protagonists in scriptural stories, not one is qualified to   
   do what God is asking. In a sense we are all unqualified. If you were   
   going to start a great nation, would you pick a hundred-year-old man   
   and a woman past menopause? That’s the kind of thing God does.   
      
   I also read in the area of quantum mechanics and particle physics,   
   because these are disciplines where people are dealing with the nature   
   of being. These writers describe a universe in which everything is   
   totally interrelated, where nothing happens in isolation. They have   
   discovered that nothing can be studied objectively — because to look   
   at something is to change it and be changed by it. I find such   
   discussions helpful in framing theological responses to questions   
   about the nature of the universe.   
      
   You have an incredible ability to draw upon your memory, to discern   
   truth from events in your own life. How might others be helped to   
   develop this capacity?   
      
   One thing that is helpful is keeping an honest and unpublishable   
   journal. What you write down you tend not to forget. I’ve been keeping   
   journals since I was eight. It is a way of having a say in the telling   
   of our own stories. The act of writing it down helps set it in our   
   memory. For storytellers, memory is very important because we can’t   
   write a story without drawing on our own experience.   
      
      
   [continued in next message]   
      
   --- SoupGate-Win32 v1.05   
    * Origin: you cannot sedate... all the things you hate (1:229/2)