A Wrinkle in Time

I've lost faith in a lot of the things I believed in as a child.

I stopped believing in God and Santa Claus decades ago and on bad days I don't even believe in myself.

But I still believe in a Wrinkle in Time.

It is my desert island book. It's the book that reminds me that there is still goodness in the world.

The 2003 movie was pretty bad, but I approached this version with tempered enthusiasm. Jennifer Lee had been the screenwriter for Frozen, so that was encouraging.

But I really don't understand how she managed to miss the meaning of the book so completely. It's one of the few properties about which I'm still sentimental and they messed it up so badly that I was just short of actually angry.

I guess I'll open with what I liked about the movie.

THE GOOD

Meg Murray: Meg is probably white in the book, but that whiteness isn't essential to her character, so I don't have any problems with the change. Storm Reid (who has a great name) does an outstanding job with the performance. I'd go so far as to say that she's the best part of the film. The idealized Meg with straightened hair was a good scene, and I don’t think it would have had the same punch with a white girl in the role.

The scenes with baby Meg and her dad were really cute too.

Red: He was a departure from the character in the book, but I thought Red worked pretty well. The bit with the sandwich being literal sand (instead of just tasting like sand) was a bit on-the-nose for my liking, but affably evil characters can be frightening in a way more obviously evil villains aren’t and he’s a good contrast to the capital E Evil of the IT. The puppet metaphor went on a bit too long, but it wasn’t bad conceptually.

The IT: This is another change that more or less worked. Calling the adversary “IT” works in a novel, where you can see the capitalization, but it would lead to confusion in a movie already populated by Whos, Whiches and Whatsits galore.  Adding the article in front of IT is a small change, but I would argue that it’s almost a necessary one for clarity’s sake. Also, the weirdo psychedelic brainscape was a little ostentatious (like the rest of the movie), but a.) at least there was no glitter and b.) IT as described in the book (a slightly oversized brain on a dais) probably would have looked silly on screen.

Enfolded: I liked the recurring motif of things being present but hidden from sight because they’re enfolded. The visual of the paper fortune teller works and the set-up more or less pays off. I thought they were going to use it to illustrate a tesseract, but they didn’t, and that seems like a missed opportunity.

Some good scenes: The montage of misery on the earth was a truly well-composed sequence.  Ava DuVernay does a great job with the quiet, human moments, and those moments should have served as the core of the movie, but they were lost in favor of spectacle.

The Bad

Mrs. Whatsit: "Now, don't be frightened, loves," Mrs. Whatsit said. Her plump little body began to shimmer, to quiver, to shift. The wild colors of her clothes became muted, whitened. The pudding-bag shape stretched, lengthened, merged. And suddenly before the children was a creature more beautiful than any Meg had even imagined, and the beauty lay in far more than the outward description. Outwardly Mrs. Whatsit was surely no longer a Mrs. Whatsit. She was a marble-white body with powerful flanks, something like a horse but at the same time completely unlike a horse, for from the magnificently modeled back sprang a nobly formed torso, arms, and a head resembling a man's, but a man with a perfection of dignity and virtue, an exaltation of joy such as Meg had never before seen. No, she thought, it's not like a Greek centaur. Not in the least.

From the shoulders slowly a pair of wings unfolded, wings made of rainbows, of light upon water, of poetry.

Hold that image in your mind. The book cover at the top of the post can serve as a useful reference. Go back and read it again if you need to. I didn't see anything describing a flying piece of asparagus with Reese Witherspoon's chin, but that's what we got.

It's nice to see Archibald is still finding work after Veggie Tales.

I want everyone to know that Lily is the one who came up with asparagus joke.

Mrs. Who: Her distinguishing trait in the novel is that she speaks in quotations. They dispense with that about a third of the way through the movie, at about the point where she wore a bustle while running through flowers who were also running.

She loses additional points for quoting Chris Tucker. What’s the matter, couldn’t they get the rights to wubba lubba dub dub? Mrs. Who quotes Chris Tucker and the attribution, “Tucker, American” is longer than the quote. Ugh. Listen. I understand the desire to be topical, and those kids today (shakes rake at them to warn them off my lawn) aren’t going to understand the provenance of a quote by Blaise Pascal. But this is barely even a catchphrase.

Mrs. Which: I was nervous about Oprah Winfrey in the role because I thought her presence would prove distracting because she's one of the most famous human beings in the world.

I was wrong. She was even more distracting than I had feared because she was one hundred feet tall and covered with glitter.

The Titans have breached Wall Maria. 

In the movie, she says, "Trust nothing." Do you have that  Fox Mulder "I want to believe" poster hanging on your wall, Mrs. Which?

Give me that old-time religion: I'm not religious myself, but Madeleine L'Engle's particular brand of Christian Universalism serves as the core of the book.("All will be redeemed in God's fullness of time, all, not just the small portion of the population who have been given the grace to know and accept Christ. All the strayed and stolen sheep. All the little lost ones.")

I don't think it can be removed without changing the story fundamentally and you certainly can't just rip it and continue on with nothing in its place, as was done here. The movie is empty inside.

The Writing: It's often just bad. "She's evolved beyond the need for language." "Charles Wallace doesn't live here anymore." Seriously? Even children's cartoons know they can't get away with playing that line straight anymore. Calvin disappears almost completely for the final twenty minutes of the movie. We were joking that he'd be calling for the other characters on Camazotz during a post-credit sequence.

Crappy Mentors: A Wrinkle in Time served as an influence on my Doctor Who story, Forever Fallen. I also loved the Doctor's relationship with Ace because he could solve her problems for her easily enough, but instead, he helps her become the version of herself capable of solving those problems. That same dynamic is at play in the book, but the movie features mentors that neither like nor respect their charges and it just doesn't work. What's the point?

The Happy Medium:  Zach Galifianakis plays the medium as a gymnast/soothsayer. Kudos for playing against type, but not an interpretation that grounds the movie, is it?

Walk like an Egyptian

Charles Wallace goes down like a chump: In the book, Charles Wallace goes into IT’s grasp willingly, because IT has promised him that the location of his father is in there and he believes he’s strong enough to pull himself out once he’s in there. Pride is his fatal flaw and it’s this overconfidence that gets him.  In the movie, The Man with Red Eyes takes control of Charles Wallace by reading from his second-grade math homework.

I’ve touched on this before, but love is the theme of the book. Meg is poisoned by doubt, but she knows as certainly as she knows anything that Charles Wallace loves her. Her mother loves her. Her father loves her. They love each other and despite her doubts about other things, Meg knows this. The Mrs. Whatsit of the books loves her.

"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 and baseness and nothingness, was incapable of loving IT. Perhaps it was not too much to ask of her, but she could not do it.
But she could love Charles Wallace. She could stand there and she could love Charles Wallace. Her own Charles Wallace, the real Charles Wallace, the child for whom she had come back to Camazotz, to IT, the baby who was so much more than she was, and who was yet so utterly vulnerable.
Charles. Charles, I love you. My baby brother who always takes care of me. Come back to me, Charles Wallace, come away from IT, come back, come home. I love you, Charles. Oh, Charles Wallace, I love you.

Movie Mrs. Whatsit’s opinions on Meg range from disgust to disinterest. Why is she even there if she feels this way?

What I’d like to see is a more or less straight adaptation of the book as an animated film by studio Ghibli. Hayou Miyazaki can helm it the next time he comes out of retirement.

Grrr...So bitterly disappointed in what we got.

A is for Arroyo: Zelazny A to Z

Arroyo
ar·roy·o
/əˈroiˌ(y)ō/
noun: arroyo; plural noun: arroyos

A steep-sided gully cut by running water in an arid or semiarid region

Ha! You thought this was going to be Amber, didn’t you?

Every writer has concepts or phrases to which they regularly return.  I make a few light-hearted observations about Zelazny’s signature style in the drinking game and his penchant for using “arroyo” is one of the items on my list.

Now, on the face of it, this is not unreasonable. He lived in Santa Fe and wrote about the American Southwest or otherworldly regions analogous to it. Consequently, he uses a word that describes a feature of the landscape that would reasonably be found in such a setting.  It’s not like he has to engage in excessive perturbations of the narrative to get there.

That said, it shows up an awful lot.

A partial list:

Last of the Wild Ones
Unicorn Variation
Coils
Eye of Cat
A Dark Travelling
Bridge of Ashes

I’d like to see the Nabokov's Favorite Word Is Mauve type analysis to see if it's statistically significant.

Roger Zelazny A to Z

It's April! Traditionally I've done poetry (originally haiku, but later branching off into other types), but sometimes I've mixed it up and done quotes from Zelazny's work. This year I'll be doing one post for every weekday in April, starting with A and working my way through the alphabet. Please swing by tomorrow to see what we have for A.

(Re)Generation Who IV Convention Report

This was our fourth outing to (Re)Generation Who, and by now we had established something of a routine. We departed around eleven and arrived around four pm. We stopped once at a rest stop for lunch and again to pick up groceries so we wouldn’t have to eat out for every meal. The rooms weren’t ready at our scheduled check-in time, but that was hardly the fault of the convention. (And the people at the front desk did their best to get us in, so it wasn’t a major inconvenience in any case.)

Badge pick-up for the convention was smooth, but it always is. They’ve expanded every year, and I had a brief discussion with a friend about my concerns that the con might grow beyond what their infrastructure can support. If there are any such problems they were not visible from my perspective. (And I’m sure there must have been a few behind-the-scenes problems, as you don’t have an endeavor with so many people without some difficulties, but again, they weren’t conspicuous to me as an attendee.) What I’m saying is that the Onezumi staff makes a very difficult job look effortless, and that’s no small achievement. I have absolute confidence that they’ll be able to keep the con running for a very long time.

5 pm Friday Fifth Doctor Season 19: Peter Davison, Janet Fielding, Sarah Sutton, Matthew Waterhouse (Moderator: Keith R. A. DeCandido): We only caught the tail end of this one, but it was really fun. Tegan is one of those companions to whom I’ve warmed considerably since she began appearing in Big Finish.  Janet Fielding is really sharp and funny and she had the best anecdotes from the series. My favorite had to be how Anthony Ainley (the Tremas Master) wore a toupee in real life but took considerable pains to hide this fact. When he had to play Kalid in the Time-Flight serial, he wanted the make-up artists to put second bald wig cap over his existing wig in order to preserve the illusion. They did their best, but couldn’t quite pull it off, so as a compromise they pretended to fit him with a bald cap in his trailer. Doctor Who, everybody!


6 pm Friday: Writer Spotlight: Nev Fountain: Nev is among my very favorite guests at Regen. He’s been a professional writer for ages and has a comprehensive grasp of the fundamentals of the process of writing, as any writer must, but he’s also capable of articulating them in a clear and relatable matter. He gave a bit of advice that will stick with me: Jokes in a humorous story should always serve the story and should be cut if they don’t.

7pm: From Serving Chips to World War I: The Bill Potts Panel (Moderator: Amanda-Rae Prescott. Panelists Joy Piedmont, Tai Gooden, and Alyssa Franke): I know Alyssa’s work from the tremendously great Whovian Feminism site, but I didn’t know any of the other panelists. I came in late and missed the beginning and the panel, but I appreciated what I saw. The panelists have different experiences and perspectives than mine and took different messages from the episodes, but they voiced them in such a way that I understood where they were coming from. They’ve given me a new way to understand something I already love, and I thank them for that.

8 pm: Intro to Big Finish (With Jason Haigh-Ellery and Ian McCann). And a special guest appearance by Lisa Greenwood!  I don’t think I would have fallen in love with Regen as much as I have were it not for their enthusiastic embrace of Big Finish.

I didn’t know how big a player Big Finish had become, but they’ve been at it for 20 years now, and Jason said that they have employed 7,000 actors over those two decades and are now the second-largest producer of original audio programming in the world after the BBC.  That’s just bonkers!

I really enjoyed this panel. I’ll confess that I was not a fan of Flip Jackson, the character Lisa Greenwood plays in the audios, but she was just so lovely and engaging in person that she’s more or less won me over. I may have to reassess my opinion of Flip.

9 pm: We had a late dinner at a kabob restaurant near the hotel. I had the kofta kabob platter and a salted mint yogurt drink. Holy crap that was salty. One of my friends took a sip and asked if it was a milkshake for Poseidon.

10 pm: Writers on Deck Late Night Reading: I was a little bit late for this one, but I rushed in still wearing a winter coat, two scarves and my Strangeness in Space beanie. Kara Dennison was moderating and Keith DeCandido, Rob Shearman and Paul Magrs were on the panel. I’m so glad I hurried. Rob’s story was absolutely haunting and will stay with me for a long time. Paul’s story was deeply moving as well. You can read it at this link, and you should if you haven’t already.

We wrapped up with the 11 pm: Time and Space Jam DANCE PARTY with DJ Kangal and then it was off to bed shortly afterward.

10 am Sat: Big Finish Interview: Jason Haigh-Ellery – Director/Producer (Moderator: Kara Dennison). And another surprise visit from Lisa Greenwood! The most interesting part of the panel, at least for me was when Jason said that he’s often asked how one can write for Big Finish and he started speaking about the Paul Spragg Memorial Short Trips contest, whereupon Kara mentioned that the winner of the first contest was a Regenner and I piped up to say that it was me! (I should have opened with, “And I hear he’s super-talented and incredibly handsome!”, but I get tongue-tied when I’m nervous.) We went back and forth on the topic for a few minutes and the conversation returned to more general Big Finish discussion. The long awaited site redesign should be there soon and he said it takes a lot from Amazon’s layout and will have such features as recommended titles. That will be a welcome addition, I think. The site is functional, but there is certainly room for improvement and it sounds like they’re taking the time to get it right.

11 am sat: Zoology of Doctor Who (Host: Kelsey Wailes) This was another really solid panel. Kelsey Wailes examined certain alien species from Doctor Who and compared them to some real-world animals that exhibit some of the same distinctive traits.  This is an aspect of fandom that I really enjoy, how something that looks silly on the surface can be made to seem plausible with the right context and the proper framing. If you squint at them in a certain light they can appear to seem a little less ridiculous.

Not you, Myrka

1pm Sa Peter Capaldi  (Moderator: Kara Dennison)The big deal for me was that the panel was slightly slow to start, so Jason  Haigh-Ellery stepped up to fill in and I got a shout-out in front of the audience. It was surreal. You can hear Jen shouting out my location on the video. We were near the back. That was partially by choice; Jen was in her Weeping Angel costume and didn’t want to block anyone’s view. I had never experienced so many people turning around to get a look at me.

I enjoyed the interview itself. Capaldi is a very disciplined subject and played it pretty safe with this answers, but just the same he’s a big fan of the series and his love and enthusiasm came through with every reply.

2pm Sa Michelle Gomez  (Moderator: Craig Cobalt) I had to leave halfway through this panel, but I enjoyed what I saw of it. Michelle Gomez is just a fascinating person. She can make anything interesting. I’m quite looking forward to her turn in the Sabrina Netflix series.

We then took a longish break from panels. We spent some time outside the convention, Jen participated in the March for Our Lives (see if you can spot her in this picture!)

and we had brick oven pizza for dinner. I had the “Art Lover”. It had artichokes on it and it was super delicious!

Our next panel wasn’t until 9pm LGBTQ Experience In and Around Doctor Who I won't talk about what anyone said in this panel, out of concern that I might accidentally reveal some personally identifying information about one of the participants, but this hour was accepting and courageous and inspiring, the three traits I associate with Doctor Who at its very best.

10 pm Make Your Book: How to Self-Publish and Self-Market Without Dying (Hosts: Kara Dennison and Ginger Hoesly) I’m a big fan of Kara’s writing and analysis, so I definitely wanted to catch this panel. Knowing how to do something and being able to explain how to do it are two different things and I admire people who can do both. I always enjoy hearing specialists talk about the mindset and techniques that go with specialized endeavors.  I don’t know if I’ll employ anything I learned at the panel, but I’m happy for having learned it.

A gentleman had karaoke set up in the Atrium, so we did that for a while. We also caught the end of the costume contest before going to bed.

We slept in pretty late and the only panel we attended was the 12 pm Big Finish Interview: Lisa Greenwood – Flip Jackson. (Interviewed by Don Klees)

I asked Lisa about the fan theory that Flip is pregnant. I suspect that’s the case; the stories certainly seem to be implying it. Lisa said that she hadn’t been told anything along those lines by the writers, but she admitted that they know she’s terrible at keeping secrets, so they tend not to tell her everything. She really liked the idea and conjured up the visual of Flip running from the Daleks.

She also told the story of how she figured out the identity of the Twelfth Doctor before almost anyone else. She was working with Peter Capaldi on The Hour when he was cast and the BBC showed some close-ups of the new Doctor’s hand in the lead-up to the reveal. She looked at the picture and said, “Aha! I know that wedding ring!” and I thought that was pretty cool.

 And that was it. We did a little shopping. I picked up some shot glasses for Lily from Geek Boy Press, a Miyazaki lanyard from another vendor and a glitter candle. I bought a book and a CD (Peri and the Piscon Paradox. I’m not a huge fan of Peri, but Nev sold me on the story at his Friday panel) and some Kelsey Wailes prints from her booth.

I really treasure this convention. I didn’t know it would become a tradition with my wife and some of my best friends when I went to the first one, but here we are. I got to meet people I only knew through online correspondences and see friends I hadn’t seen for a year.

This year (Re)Generation Who was held on the same weekend as the March For Our Lives and for a time my Facebook feed was filled with nothing but posts about those two events. The confluence of the two is coincidental, but I suspect they’ll always be intertwined in my memory.

The entire weekend made me feel a bit less cynical about people for a little while, as if the convention was not a place where we find respite from the real world, but what the real world can be if we listen to our better angels.

I still function

I'm still alive, just not posting as regularly since I'm very busy in both my personal and professional life. I hope to resume more regular posting soon.