A wrinkle in storytelling

Having almost given up on the idea of organized blogging and clear sequences, I will be throwing in some thoughts on movies and other things in with the reviews of my Black History month reading. Today I want to write about A Wrinkle in Time.

I have read Madeline L'Engle's original trilogy multiple times. Okay, I did not know there were two other books until recently, but still, for those three I am a fan. I will probably check out the other two soon.

Anyway, I have affection for the book and I have a strong appreciation for Ava DuVernay (with multiple posts on Selma and Queen Sugar to back it up). I was looking forward to seeing it, but getting some reservations from negative feedback I was hearing.

I saw it and liked it. I did come away understanding better why some people would not like it or would react strongly against it, and some of that has to do with audiences. After yesterday's post, that seemed like a natural topic for today.

I need to talk about the differences between the movie and the book, so spoilers follow.

The twins are gone. To be honest, they never contributed that much, to the first book especially.

Meg's father is white, and may still be of Irish extraction, but Meg's mother is Black. Charles Wallace is adopted and appears to be of Asian extraction. Principal Jenkins is Black also.

Instead of working for the government and having disappeared that way, the father (whom we shall now refer to as Alex, because both parents are Dr. Murray) was doing independent research, and when he figured out how to tesser, he did it, winding up on the planet Uriel.

Instead of living far out in the country, they are in a more urban situation, with some rundown buildings but also some nicer houses. The leader of the mean girls has a view into the Murray backyard. Meg's initial squabble is not punching a boy making fun of her brother, but bouncing a ball at that girl, hard.

Calvin's problem isn't a large squabbling family, but a verbally abusive father who is always berating him.

That is a lot of redheads re-imagined as Black. That reminds me of something I read about the new Annie, in that the change made sense because the point of Annie being Irish was prejudice. Her red hair and Irish roots made her less appealing for adoption, but that doesn't have the same impact today. Blackness, on the other hand, can. It's something to think about.

Overall, though, something in 2018 should be more racially diverse than something from 1962. That shouldn't even be a question.

There was also a gender switch for the Happy Medium, and a flirtation between him and Mrs. Whatsit. I don't know that I cared strongly about that change one way or another.

The other changes are more essential, and this could be where some people struggle. That doesn't make them bad.

For example, with IT we saw illusions and then internal synapses, rather than even the best CGI depiction of a brain: cerebrum and cerebellum. I think that was necessary. The brain would have looked hokey, no matter how well-executed it was. What was done instead conveyed a brain without being cheesy.

That IT had control of what was essentially a virtual reality situation, rather than having control of an entire planet with people suffering, but having chosen to comply and conform through fear... okay, that may take away some food from thought. However, you don't have to worry about the little boy being re-educated to get the right rhythm for playing ball.

In this case, a planet Camazotz became The Camazotz, an evil force trying to spread its influence. That's an oversimplification of the struggle between good and evil, but for the adolescent target audience I think that can be okay. They are asked to join the fight, they can see that their flaws are not only allowable but powerful, and they can see that even the mean girl is hurting inside. (There is a small glimpse of how evil plays out.) Those are all things that can help.

My biggest objection was that the tessering kept getting messed up by Meg. The original plans could have made sense and been fine, but someone who was not comfortable with the process kept being able to direct others. I still don't hate it, because Meg's stubbornness is supposed to be a key personality trait. It is a powerful thing when she can decide she does not want the perfect version of her, that her brother loves her the way she is, and she can then go into a tesser smiling because that she will still be herself on the other side is fine. It's important for teens to know that.

Part of how they accomplish that is they do some dirt to Alex Murray. He not only chose to tesser away from his family, but he kept going, wanting to "shake hands with the universe" when he should have been holding Meg's.

It may not be a coincidence that the person I know who hated it most had a great father and lost him to death.

Is that necessary for the movie to work? Probably not, but the sense of abandonment crushes Meg in a way that she is not crushed in the book. I think this is where the twins become more than superfluous, because a family of three is concretely smaller than a family of five.

Alex Murray's carelessness and ego may not need to be the cause of his disappearance (also, he has been gone for longer here), but is it something that a lot of people can relate to? Sure. Is it worth reiterating that family is more important than high achievement, or is its own achievement? Sure.

Also, they make Charles Wallace really talkative in his precociousness, instead of so quiet. Frankly, having spent some time with various children, that kind of seems more realistic now.

And that's what I think the majority of the changes did; they made the material something that - even though it is speculative fiction - feels familiar to an audience of today. It is not a period piece.

I can support that.

Also, there was one thing that I loved that isn't so much a change as an embellishment. In this case both Dr. Murray's are not only scientists, but she has a micro focus and he has a macro focus, and that allows them to do better work together.

Cool.