A Wrinkle in Time

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Is the novel and upcoming movie, “A Wrinkle In Time” good for Catholics?
 
I have not read the novel but I did see the trailer for the movie. I’m not sure Oprah’s new look suits her.
 
At the book store there were actually two different novels. One was “Disney’s A Wrinkle In Time” and an original “A Wrinkle in Time.”

Now, I’m listening to Disney’s on audio books and it’s a mix of science and religion. But I can’t quite figure out how much it’s poonting to God.
 
I read it when I was 11 (in 6th grade), and was kind of freaked out by it (the villain is some sort of epitome of evil called the Black Thing). It’s a juvenile fiction book. I don’t like who they chose to play the three immortals, because in the book one is a very old woman, and another looks like a shimmery light thing. I can’t remember what the third one looks like.
 
The book was one of my favorites as a child. It was in my Catholic school library. It was fine.
The author was an Episcopalian universalist with a dysfunctional background. Some of her later works got a bit weird with the “Christian” mysticism and by the time the 80s rolled around, she had a teen character having lesbian sex. However, “A Wrinkle in Time” and the rest of her 1960s juvenile books were all right - just sci-fi and/or adventure stuff and nobody did anything untoward. So, I’d recommend anything she wrote for young people before the 1970s; after that, maybe not so much.

I have less than zero interest in a modernized, Disneyfied version of the book bursting with Oprah and CGE like “Wizard of Oz” on steroids. When I pictured the “witches” from the book as a child, I pictured elderly crone ladies dressed in gray and black, not Oprah dressed up for a Mad Max sequel. I about barfed when I saw the preview because I spent a large part of my childhood wishing someone would make that book into a movie…set in the early 60s Cold War era the way it was supposed to be, and not with all kinds of “diverse” characters thrown in to make the book “up to date”.
 
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Every time I turn on my Kindle Oprah is there dressed as her character in A Wrinkle in Time. I have never heard of the book and don’t plan on seeing the movie.
 
Tis_Bearself said:
The book was one of my favorites as a child. It was in my Catholic school library.
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I’ll take a slightly different tack and say that part of me is glad they are giving ‘A Wrinkle in Time’ the big budget motion picture treatment, despite Oprah, and even if the ‘look’ is modified for the present time (what’s most important after all in any film adaptation is whether it stays true to the spirit of the book not the particular details). I was afraid the book despite being a classic was fading away from public consciousness, a bit like ‘Watership Down’ has.
 
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tomarin said:
I was afraid the book despite being a classic was fading away from public consciousness, a bit like ‘Watership Down’ has.
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Watership Down hasn’t faded, it’s being phased out due to the night terrors that movie inspired in everyone who saw it 😛
(I enjoyed that book, but man… that movie…)
 
ProdglArchitect said:
Watership Down hasn’t faded, it’s being phased out due to the night terrors that movie inspired in everyone who saw it 😛
(I enjoyed that book, but man… that movie…)
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I never saw the animated movie but there were certainly lots of scary scenes in the book, so I can imagine …
 
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I read the original book and wouldn’t be afraid to recommend it to any parent as something to share with their children. It was good juvenile fiction.
I haven’t seen any new versions and didn’t know there was a movie.
 
I can think of a lot more interesting and inspiring books. From what I remember it was adventure, magic, danger, dark, “big brother” kind of creepy…with a space/time travel sci-fi kinda feel. It draws attention to the individuality of a person but not in real depth or inspiration.

I thought the author should have stuck with the sci-fi feel and went with aliens rather than witches. Lol. Kind of a mixed bag of supernatural and science…and as far as sci-fi goes kind of lame since tesseract would be fourth dimensional not fifth dimensional space/time phenomenon. Gesh…

Way Better kids Fantasy Books out there people:
Early readers:
Gospel Time Treckers, Imagination Station
Average Readers:
Spirit Fighter, shadow Chaser, Truth Runner
Advanced Readers:
Will Wilder Perilous Falls, Will Wilder Lost Staff

 
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“A Wrinkle in Time” won the 1963 Newbery Medal. It’s considered a classic of young people’s literature. I’ve never heard of the “Christian” stuff you seem to be pushing. It may be entertaining, but it doesn’t exactly look like “literature” if it’s getting hawked at some book fair fundraiser.
 
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Maybe you should try it out 😀…come on tesseract fifth dimension, face palm. Tesseract is fourth dimension…but probably 99.99% of youth won’t catch that. All the kids who are destined to get masters or PhDs in mathematics will be disappointed one day…funny word for motion anyhow…
 
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Most of the kids who read the book are not going to grow up to be physicists or mathematicians. Those who have an interest will either learn something by doing research and understanding the error you mention, or else they will already know it’s an error and probably get to feel superior to the author, which always feels good when you’re a kid. It’s still a good story. One thing about it that is not so apparent today is that it had a female heroine and her mother both doing math and science, which in the early 1970s when I was reading it, was way unusual. It’s ordinary today (which is good).

The concept that the author called a “tesseract” is better known as a “wormhole” since so many sci-fi shows called it that. It will be interesting to see how Disney handles this since obviously Disney doesn’t want to have all kinds of experts pointing fingers if it uses the word “tesseract” wrong.
 
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If we are spending time doing the litmus test to everything then life is too short for that.
 
Endorsing women in science is good…I was a girl when I read it and it did not make me want to become a scientist. It made me want to pretend to travel through space and time continuum…not something I ever believed to be real…aside from scientific phenomenon of quantum tunneling…although even that, some would argue that is God’s intervention. Only God can do anything 😉. Although I appreciate the attempt at sci fi…But point being not as inspiring as the other books i mentioned…and that being said with Princess Leia hair buns.

And FYI why would I push anything? I dont get paid or kickbacks to promote books or book fairs.
 
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A large ad for a Christian book fair company came up on your post. It made it look unclear whether you were trying to promote something, or whether the ad just came up automatically.
 
It’s a 501c3 nonprofit who’s ministers to the community book fairs to encourage reading Christian inspired literature. It is run by volunteers, (God’s grace, parents and librarians for the most part) who appreciate the value of good literature for children.
 
Right, “good” as in “moral”. Not necessarily “good” as in well-written and enduring work.
A child can enjoy the book either way, of course; I’m not saying that winning library awards is necessary for kids to like to read it.
 
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