There’s a Facebook group called “A Wrinkle in Time Sucks.” Its ungrammatical description states that, “This book is boring. If your a teacher plz don’t make your student read this.”
Another reviewer recommends that all those about to read the book should “watch a documentary on the history of the ice cube tray” instead. She deserves brownie points for creative imagery.
These people of the Internet agree that “A Wrinkle in Time” by Madeleine L’Engle is boring, confusing, and strange.
But they’re wrong. “A Wrinkle in Time,” which celebrates its 50th anniversary this year, is an excellent book. It’s so good that Hillsdale College should start sending it to incoming freshman, making it the new book to read before coming to campus. It would give them a good sense of what life at Hillsdale is all about.
It would also show them what professors do every day. We study Newtonian physics, ancient history, ecology, Baroque music, and Renaissance literature — all because our professors think the subjects are important.
Many of us complain about our studies at some point or another — almost as much as these people who grumble about “A Wrinkle in Time.” We wonder why we must learn things that have no clear application to our future career plans. We will plead with professors to lighten our reading loads.
In response, our professors laugh and say that we signed up for this. They point out that they’re not just teaching us about English, chemistry, or philosophy — they’re teaching you us how to think, and they might actually be right.
Like “A Wrinkle in Time,” a liberal arts education is more valuable than some would have you believe.
The people from the Internet who don’t like “A Wrinkle in Time” don’t understand its purpose. Yes, the text has problems. The book brings up concepts, like Meg’s struggle with faith and reason, which young children cannot understand. When Charles cites Goethe, he proves he’s far too smart for his age. Tesseracts are geometric concepts, not wormholes. The idea of a star turning into a woman who then turns into a centaur is just plain weird.
But there’s a lot more to the book.
Like a liberal arts education, “A Wrinkle in Time” brings up Shakespeare, communism, Einstein’s theory of relativity, and much more. But the most important facet of the book teaches readers about what is good.
Facing IT, a bodiless brain controlling a planet, Meg realizes that knowledge is more than memorized facts; it’s even more than the capacity to think. Meg discovers that wisdom is the ability to love and that’s what saves the day.
At Hillsdale College, the goal of learning is to understand what is good. We read endlessly and judge conflicting ideas. Sometimes, we feel like we have no idea what is right, but in the end we, like Meg, will learn to discern what is important.
Some people see college as an assembly line. The workers only need to do one task at a time, with ruthless efficiency, as the car rolls down the conveyor belt. Any more information would be wasteful and confusing.
People at Hillsdale think differently.
We believe that education should be more than learning a skill so you can make money. We think college is supposed to teach you what you need to know to live. It sounds sentimental, but we learn to think so we can learn to be a good people. That’s exactly what “A Wrinkle in Time” communicates.
“A Wrinkle in Time” shows that life isn’t an assembly line. Meg, Charles, and Calvin use all of their knowledge to pursue what is right.
Freshmen will be expected to do that too, here at Hillsdale. They probably won’t save the world with their wisdom when they leave, but they will become a better people, and that sounds pretty good to us.
