In 1962, when “A Wrinkle in Time,” after 26 rejections, was acquired by John Farrar at Farrar, Straus & Giroux, science fiction by women and aimed at female readers was a rarity. The genre was thought to be down-market and not up to the standards of children’s literature — the stuff of pulp and comic books for errant schoolboys. Even today, girls and grown women are not generally fans. Half of 18- to 24-year-old men say that science fiction is their favorite type of book, compared with only one-fourth of young women.... “A Wrinkle in Time,” the first in a trilogy that was later extended to include two more books, also defied the norm. Though a major crossover success with boys as well (with more than 10 million copies sold to date), the book has especially won over young girls. And it usually reaches them at a particularly pivotal moment of pre-adolescence when they are actively seeking to define themselves, their ambitions and place in the world.
—Just blow past the 2/3rds of this piece that consist of weird gender social-essentialism, because the rest of it is true. (Also, you know, Hunger Games?)
I loved "A Wrinkle In Time." Is that my root?
I hated that fucking book so much.
@jolie :(
This is reminding me that I keep meaning to revisit Ursula Le Guin's sci fi. We should all do that. She's amazing.
Also, Madeleine L'Engle's books are really bizarre Protestant Christian propaganda in some ways. See the Ring of Endless Light series for reference, where she gets really nutty and psuedosexual/repressed weird.
@Colin Fitzpatrick@facebook The Left Hand of Darkness. Do it.
I still hold a grudge against Madeleine L'Engle for telling me that Meg's hair went from drab mousy brown to a beautiful chestnut auburn (the preferred sexy haircolor of bookish women) as she aged so MAYBE MINE WOULD TO. Spoiler alert: it did not.
@antarcticastartshere I'm pretty sure the difference between drab mousy brown and beautiful chestnut auburn is just lighting, confidence, and possibly expensive haircare products and a good blowout.
That's my great-grandfather! I grew up hearing that story, about John Farrar picking up A Wrinkle in Time after it had been turned down absolutely everywhere.
@wb ... hello new best friend, would you like to get a drink sometime?
@happymisanthrope There are plenty of other, better stories to be told!
@wb !!! I have a love of back-in-the-day publishing stories.
The last sentence of your block-quote is true of me, I thought it was fascinating and downright trippy when I was young. Reread it a year ago and I noticed the religious connotations, which does not thrill me.
@whizz_dumb While the book does have religious elements, I recently came across this article which makes a good case that the religious aspects are a lot more ambiguous and open to interpretation than in something like the Chronicles of Narnia, perhaps reflecting L'Engle's own uncertainties or beliefs of hers that didn't quite fit with mainstream Christianity.
@hypnosifl Sorry, the words "this article" were supposed to contain a link, but I guess it disappeared when I edited my comment...the link is here
@whizz_dumb I'd be inclined to agree with that article's view. She's very ambiguous about most of the overtly religious stuff... even in the Many Waters sequel where two kids go back and visit Noah, she throws in all kinds of wacky shit that is NOT biblical whatsoever (like manticores and little wooly-mammoths).
Boys and girls will never read the same thing. It's impossible. Men and women won't either. Who are you going to believe? The publishing experts or your own lying eyes?
@KenWheaton Why?
I highly recommend Strange New Worlds, a compilation of distopian future short stories with an abundance of womyny women writers, and a largely feminist perspective.
There's nothing inherently unfeminine about anything, including being a dude.