A Wind in the Door

I read "A Wind in the Door" by Madeleine L'Engle last Saturday that was really good :) Mmm, I'm mostly going to post a bunch of excerpts as a summary to myself, so it's going to be pretty incoherent to anyone reading it, but feel free to skim and imagine if you would like :)

Again, came the rumble that bubbled up into a laugh. "My dears, you must not take yourselves so seriously. Why should school be easy for Charles Wallace?" pg. 60

"Well, then, what do we do now?"

"Go home to bed."

"But school --"

"You will all go to school as usual in the morning."

It was total anticlimax. "But your school --" Meg cried in disappointment. She had hoped that Charles Wallace would never have to enter the old red school building again, that Blajeny would take over, make everything all right...

"My children," Blajeny said gravely, "my school building is the entire cosmos." pg. 63

"Progo! You said we were Namers. I still don't know: what is a Namer?"

"I've told you. A Namer has to know who people are, and who they are meant to be." p. 97

"Meg, when people don't know who they are, they are open either to being Xed, or Named." p. 98

At last Mr. Jenkins sat, crouching uncomfortably on the rock. "With what can I understand, then? I don't have very much intuition."

"You must understand with your hearts. With the whole of yourselves, not just a fragment." p. 127

"It is the nature of love to create. It is the nature of hate to destroy." p. 128

"But why would they bother with a child?"

"It is not always on the great or the important that the balance of the universe depends." p. 138

Proginoskes thought noisily at her, "Time isn't any more important than size. All that is required of you is to be in the Now, in this moment which has been given us."

"I don't feel like myself. I'm not myself! I'm part of Charles Wallace."

"Meg. You are Named forever." p. 147

"Do the inhabitants of Yadah seem more limited than human beings because once they have taken root they can't move from their Deepening Place? But human beings need Deepening Places, too. And far too many never have any." p. 152

"The little farandolae -- the ones who saved me -- are they all right?"

There was silence.

"Are they all right, the little farandolae who startled the Echthros and saved me?"

"No." The kything came reluctantly from both Calvin and Proginoskes.

"What happened to them?"

"To surprise an Echthros is not a safe thing to do."

"The Echthros Xed them?"

"No, Meg. They Xed themselves. That's a very different matter."

"What will happen to them now?"

Proginoskes kythed slowly, "I've never seen it happen before. I've heard about it, but I've never seen it. Now I understand more than I used to. The farandolae are known by name just as the stars are. That's all I need to know." p. 158

She felt his mind balking at the idea of communication where distance was no barrier. "Mice talk by squeaking, and shrimp by -- I don't know much marine biology but they must make some sound. But trees!" he expostulated. "Mice who put down roots and turn into trees -- you did say trees?"

...

"Trees cannot talk with each other."

"Farae can. And as for trees -- don't they?"

"Nonsense."

"Mr. Jenkins, when you walk through the woods at home, and the wind moves in the trees, don't you ever have the feeling that if you knew how, you'd be able to understand what they were saying?"

...

Through his discouragement she became aware of Calvin. "Hey, Meg! Communication implies sound. Communion doesn't." He sent her a brief image of walking silently through the woods, the two of them alone together, their feet almost noiseless on the rusty carpet of pine needles. They walked without speaking, without touching, and yet they were as close as it is possible for two human beings to be. pg. 165

"When Sporos Deepens," Proginoskes told Mr. Jenkins, "it means that he comes of age. It means that he grows up. The temptation for farandola or for man or for star is to stay an immature pleasure-seeker. When we seek our own pleasure as the ultimate good we place ourselves as the center of the universe. A fara or a man or a star has his place in the universe, but nothing created is the center." p. 172

But after a moment of breathlessness, Meg was able to open herself to the song of the farae, these strange creatures who were Deepened, rooted, yet never separated from each other, no matter how great the distance.

We are the song of the universe. We sing with the angelic host. We are the musicians. The farae and the stars are the singers. Our song orders the rhythm of creation.

Calvin asked, "How can you sing with the stars?"

There was surprise at the question: it is the song. We sing it together. That is our joy. And our Being.

"But how do you know about stars -- in here -- inside --"

How could farae not know about stars when farae and stars sing together?

"You can't see the stars. How can you possibly know about them?"

Total incomprehension from the farae. If Meg and Calvin kythed in visual images, this was their limitation. The farae had moved beyond physical sight. p. 174

"But you said your last assignment was to memorize the names of all of them."

"I did. All the stars in all the galaxies. And that's a great many."

"But how many?"

"What difference does it make? I know their names. I don't know how many there are. It's their names that matter." p. 175

"Don't you understand that the Echthroi are your saviors? When everything is nothing there will be no more war, no illness, no death. There will be no more poverty, no more pain, no more slums, no more starvation--"

Senex kythed through the Echtros, "No more singing!"

Proginoskes joined Senex. "No more stars, or cherubim, or the light of the moon on the sea."

And Calvin: "There will never be another meal around table. No one will ever break bread or drink wine with companions." p. 181

Sporos's twingling was slightly dissonant. "Farandolae are born to Deepen."

"Fool. Once you Deepen and put down roots you won't be able to romp around as you do now."

"But --"

"You'll be stuck in one place forever with those fuddy-duddy farae, and you won't be able to run or move, ever again."

"But--"

The strength and calm of Senex cut through the ugliness. "It is only when we are fully rooted that we are really able to move."

Indecision quivered throughout Sporos.

Senex continued, "It is true, small offspring. Now that I am rooted I am no longer limited by motion. Now I may move anywhere in the universe. I sing with the stars. I dance with the galaxies. I share in the joy-- and in the grief. We farae must have our part in the rhythm of the mitochondria, or we cannot be. If we cannot be, then we are not." p. 183