L'Engle just died, evidently a great lady to the last; Rowling is still very much with us. But there are good pieces on both authors if you've time or inclination to read about them: one by Stephen King (no surprise that it's good) on Rowling, and one by the Associated Press (!) on L'Engle. The AP story is uncredited, but whichever stringer assembled it did a nice job.
Both essays offer not just the standard stuff about the work of the two authors, but actual insights into why that work mattered (and matters).
Samples-- here's a bit of King on Rowling:
While some of the blogs and the mainstream media have mentioned that Rowling's ambition kept pace with the skyrocketing popularity of her books, they have largely overlooked the fact that her talent also grew. Talent is never static, it's always growing or dying, and the short form on Rowling is this: She was far better than R.L. Stine (an adequate but flavorless writer) when she started, but by the time she penned the final line of Deathly Hallows (''All was well.''), she had become one of the finer stylists in her native country — not as good as Ian McEwan or Ruth Rendell (at least not yet), but easily the peer of Beryl Bainbridge or Martin Amis.
And, of course, there was the magic. It's what kids want more than anything; it's what they crave. That goes back to the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and good old Alice, chasing after that wascally wabbit. Kids are always looking for the Ministry of Magic, and they usually find it.
Here's a bit of the AP story on L'Engle:
"She spoke exactly the way she wrote, very elegant, no nonsense, crisp, and deeply spiritual."
"Wrinkle" tells the story of adolescent Meg Murry, her genius little brother Charles Wallace, and their battle against evil as they search across the universe for their missing father, a scientist.
The brother and sister, helped by a young neighbor, Calvin, and some supernatural spirits, must pass through a time travel corridor (the "wrinkle in time") and overcome the ruling powers on a planet with a totalitarian government reminiscent of George Orwell's "1984."
"A Wrinkle in Time" exposes readers to the words of great thinkers, as its characters quote Shakespeare, the Bible, Euripides, Dante and others.
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1 comments:
Those are two of my favorite authors. Indeed, because my 5th grader got them as birthday gifts, I just reread the L'Engle Wrinkle in Time books, and enjoyed them as much as always. Neither author makes the mistake of underestimating children nor dismissing adults.
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