Book # 39

Madeline L'Engle

( Herself )

Reflections on a Writing Life

Compiled by Carole F. Chase

When I was an adolescent I read the book "A Wrinkle in Time", written by Madeline L'Engle. I can't for the life of me tell you what it was about, although by its title I can guess. But I do remember that my younger brother read it too and after that, we occasionally kept tabs on what the other was reading and liked. We both love to read and we both want to write (be writers...haha). I can't really tell you why I checked this book out but when I read what she wrote about writers, it really helped.

This is what she said, "BEING A WRITER MEANS WRITING....it does not necessarily mean being published. It's very nice to be published. It's what you want. When you have a vision, you want to share it. Being a writer means writing. It means building up a body of work. It means writing every day. You can hardly say that van Gogh was not a painter because he sold one painting during his lifetime and that to his brother. But do you say that van Gogh wasn't a painter because he wasn't "published"? He was a painter because he painted, because he held true to his vision as he saw it...."

TRUE ART. All art, good, bad, indifferent, reflects its culture. Great art transcends its culture and touches on that which is eternal. Two writers may write the same story about the same man and woman and their relationship with each other. One writer will come up with art and the other with pornography. There is no subject that is not appropriate for the artist, but the way in which it is handled can sometimes be totally inappropriate. True art has mythic quality in that it speaks of that which was true, is true and will be true."

One of Madeline's favorite assignments is to ask her class to write a midrash. A midrash is a commentary on scripture that attempts to fill in details but does not change the story. She tells them to think as long as they want, but they can only write for only half an hour. They have to share them with the class, and then they have to pass their story to another student and that person has to rewrite the story from the point of view of someone else in the story. "We don't often think about how Bildad the Shuhite might have felt, or Leah's or Rachel's maids. What about Cain's wife? What about Lot's wife, or even Jezebel?" This is a subject I have thought about often. Perhaps I will try a midrash or two of my own.

UNDERSTANDING AS A CHILD

“In the act of creation our logical, prove-it-to-me minds relax; we begin to understand anew all that we understood as children....But this understanding is – or should be – greater than the child's because we understand in the light of all that we have learned and experienced in growing up. George Elliot says, 'If we had a keen vision of all ordinary human life, it would be like hearing the grass grow or the squirrel's heart beat, and we should die of the roar which lies on the other side of silence. As it is, the quickest of us walk about well-wadded with stupidity.'” I don't claim to understand that which she and George Elliot wrote, but I love his phrase – The quickest of us walk about well-wadded with stupidity.”   It is at times like this when I long for my husband to be alive, so that I could share this phrase with him and we could enjoy a private joke between us. “Hey, did you see that lady? She's sure well-wadded with stupidity!” Or, “I can't believe my boss. He was well-wadded with stupidity today!” Or, “I got a call from the high school. Our son was acting well-wadded with stupidity in his gym class.” I shared it with an adult son and he just didn't enjoy it like I know my husband would have. Oh well....Just know that if you catch me snickering after some do-do has gone by, that is what I am thinking.

I love the story of how "A Wrinkle In Time" got published. It was rejected by publishers for two and a half years and she was giving up. But her mother knew one of the publishers of Farrar, Straus & Giroux and insisted that she meet with him. John Farrar read the manuscript and loved it but was afraid of it. He felt that adults wouldn't understand it, so they decided to publish it as a childrens book. They took a risk, and she was very pleased that it turned out that this much rejected book was the best seller of Farrar, Straus & Giroux.

She spoke about dreaming and asking her subconscious mind to work on whatever particular problem she wants it to. If she wakes up in the night with a good idea, she says, "Remind me of this in the morning please." She said that her subconscious mind is very cooperative if she is courteous with it. .... I  found that very funny but want to try it.

This was a difficult book for me to read. She seems to me to be a very flowery, religious, enigmatical, intense and somewhat verbose person.  But, I found her at times to be profound. I want to read some of her books again, just to see how I relate to them now as an adult. But reading this book of her quotes made me think of AP English as a Senior in High School and all the "great" literature we read. I hated most of it. Especially Hemingway. I like direct. I don't want to read some weird, usually depressing story and try to figure out the deeper meaning behind it all. Maybe I am too simple for great literature. That said, here are my favorite quotes from the book.

" We do not draw people to Christ by loudly discrediting what they believe, by telling them how wrong they are and how right we are, but by showing them a light that is so lovely that they want with all their hearts to know the source of it."

"For me, to work on a book is the same thing as to pray. Both  involve that unpopular word discipline....To pray is also to listen. To move through my own chattering to God, to get beyond those words to that place where I can be silent and then listen to what God may have to say."

"I cannot live in a world without God. I am frequently asked "Aren't you strong enough to live without God?' And I say, 'No, of course not.'"

One story made me laugh and wonder. She wrote a book called "The Arm of the Starfish". She said that she had the plot of the story all worked out and had 150 pages written. "So, as I had planned the story, Adam Eddington, the protagonist, has gone three nights without sleep, and he is finally allowed to go to sleep in the Ritz Hotel in Lisbon. In the morning when he wakes up after having slept probably fifteen hours, there sitting and looking at him was a young man called Joshua. Now Adam was surprised to see Joshua. I was surprised to see Joshua. There had been no Joshua in my plot....(she rewrote the 150 pages to fit  Joshua in) I cannot imagine the book without Joshua. But where did he come from? And how did he come named Joshua? When he arrived and so named, I had a strong suspicion that he would be dead before the end of the book. And, indeed, he was." I have heard other writers talk about how their stories and characters have a life of their own but I cannot imagine it. Someday I hope to understand. 

Until Next Time :o).