June 30, 2004
A Swiftly Tilting Planet
For the third in my sci-fi for girls series, today I finished Madeleine L'Engle's Swiftly Tilting Planet. (1978) I had bought the Time Quartet Box Set after watching the TV movie of A Wrinkle in Time a few weeks back. I must say that I didn't remember any of this book in the series, though I'm sure I read it a million years ago. I may have to go and reread the other two now as well (A Wind in the Door and Many Waters).
In this book, Meg Murry O'Keefe is grown up, married to Calvin O'Keefe (who we met in the first book), and pregnant with their child. Its Thanksgiving and the president calls to inform Meg's father than there's a threat of nuclear war. Meg's mother in law passes along a powerful rune to Charles Wallace, now 15, who travels through time with the unicorn Gaudior to change some Might-Have-Beens and hopefully stop "the horrible possibility of our lives being snuffed out before another sun rises." (13) Meg helps out by travelling along with Charles Wallace psychically, but I wish she had a more active role for the purposes of my theme. I may use A Wrinkle in Time instead if I have time to reread it this week as well, since Meg more directly saves her brother in that one.
Meg explains it best, that its all about "Interdepenence. Not just one thing leading to another in a straight line, but everything and everyone everywhere interreacting." (17)
In this fateful hour,
I place all Heaven with its power
And the sun with its brightness,
And the snow with its whiteness,
And the fire with all the strength it hath,
And the lightening with its rapid wrath,
And the winds with their swiftness along their path,
And the sea with its deepness,
And the rocks with their steepness,
And the earth with its starkness,
All these I place
By God's almighty help and grace
Between myself and the powers of darkness!