#17 A Wind at the Door

by Madeleine L’Engle

Rating: 3/5

Pages: 245 (with “Go Fish: Questions for the Author)

Publisher: Squarefish (an imprint of Macmillian)

While the first novel in the series was a breeze to read (it took me about a month), the second novel was more like an updraft that took me about two years to get through (not counting life events). I finally finished it June 2021 by scheduling reading time. I don’t know if many people know that this is a series that follows the lives of the Murrays. The journey so far has been moderately pleasant but also a bit confusing. This is A Wind at the Door by Madeleine L’Engle.

This story begins as abruptly as the previous book ended. I don’t know if L’Engle’s new idea will stretch across the remaining three books, but I see something developing. While the concept was interesting in the first book, this first sequel, at least for me, lacked some of the charm of the first novel. On the other hand, I don’t know what I was expecting would happen to the trio this time around. I thought there would be some sort of connection between the two books but there didn’t seem to be anything, except the smallest hint of the mention of the tesseract as a passive thought but no mention of Mrs. Whatsit, Who, or Which. We are instead taken on a journey to one of the most rooted places in the universe. Along with new characters that help Meg, Calvin, and Charles Wallace on this journey.

We find out during the first few chapters of the novel that about a year has passed since the last adventure and both Charles Wallace and Meg, as well as the rest of the family, have either forgotten that adventure or it’s as if nothing ever happened. And if they do remember it, it seems more like it was either inconsequential or that something like this always happens to them, which being the second novel in the series, it does. We start with Charles Wallace telling Meg that he believes that there is a “drove of dragons” in their backyard. Meg believing that Charles Wallace is exaggerating find that this, along with his high intelligence, is what gets him bullied at school. I find that the village just doesn’t like Charles Wallace. They didn’t like him before because they felt he wasn’t interacting at a “normal” level, and they don’t like him now because he is smarter than everyone else. This town just finds things to be prejudiced about when it doesn’t meet their “approval.” We then find out that Charles Wallace is sick, and help is sent to figure out why and possibly save his life because it is hinted that his life serves a bigger purpose.

In this adventure we come across some new faces. Some good, whose help becomes imperative to have, while others are deadly opponents.

We meet Proginoskes, nicknamed “Progo” by Meg, a cherubim that is partnered up with her to pass a series of tests for both the good of the universe and the greater good.

Sporos, an inhabitant connected to Charles Wallace.

Blajeny, the teacher that guides both Charles Wallace and “Progos” through this journey.

And although he isn’t exactly a new character, we become further acquainted with Meg’s former principal, Mr. Jenkins.

The Ecthori are the villains who are going around the universe destroying and “X-ing” anything and everything.

And yes, like last time, the focus is again on Meg’s struggle with leadership of sorts. But it falls a bit flat this time around. Meg is constantly whining and rejecting the call of her mission before the first test ever happens—which by the by happens halfway through the book. While it’s understandable that she is only a child with an enormous task, constant complaining doesn’t help anyone. We hardly see Charles Wallace after the first quarter of the book and Calvin barely registers in the story. It reads more like a brainstorming idea that is all over the place. It somewhat reminds me of “1001 Nights” where there is a collection of stories framed into the main plot of the bigger story. Unfortunately, at this point, I don’t know what the main story is. But then again this is only the second book in the series. I know that there are a few other series connected to the Time Quintet but as a reader, I personally don’t want to read every other book in the bibliography, so I hope that the questions related to these three characters are answered in the following books of this series.

There are a few things I found interesting in this book. We learn that the communication style Calvin and Charles share is called “kything.” It’s not named in A Wrinkle in Time (AWT). But in A Wind in the Door (AWD) it is described as having the ability to read a person’s mind or feelings as if the person is either “one” with the person or communicating as if they were face-to-face. There is a running theme of “non-physical sight” at every turn from “not everything is as it appears to be” and “there is more to what one sees,” but also seeing by “sensing,” either through “kything” or rhythm of being. This had been implemented in AWT but is picked up again in this story and making it a strong point so that Meg is able to save her brother and the day.

At the beginning of the story, before the adventure is well underway, Meg is worried about Charles Wallace being bullied by the kids in his elementary school. Meg is frustrated that even though her parents are scientists, they don’t seem “smart” enough to realize how constantly he is bullied at school. She mentions this to Calvin, who responds that he might be better off in a “city school where there’re lots of different kinds of kids … [and] [m]aybe he wouldn’t stand out as being so different if there were other different people too.” And that the only reason the twins and Calvin have fared better in their respective schools is because they “play by the law of the jungle.” Something Meg and her youngest brother don’t do at all. It almost feels that L’Engle is commenting on how things could be or should be in society, apart from all the “world saving from dark forces” aside. The two Murry children that refuse to be other than wholeheartedly themselves are outcasts and the twins and Calvin blend to survive. This is survival is on a different scale than that of the “Ecthori.” It is still the same battle where Meg will always name herself before letting anyone “X” her or who she is. In that respect, I believe that Meg is admirable. It does offset her whining a bit.

This whole twitter is now "x" thing has reminded me of a passage from "A Wind in the Door" by Madeleine L'Engle. It's on pages 83-4 in the Laurel-Leaf Commemorative Edition that I have and is part of chapter four.

"The cherubim raised a great wing to sketch the slow curve of sky above them. The warm rose and the lavender of sunset had faded, dimmed, was extinguished. The sky was drenched with green at the horizon, muting upwards into a deep, purply blue through which stars began to appear in totally unfamiliar constellations.

Meg asked, "Where are we?"

"Never mind where. Watch."

She stood beside him, looking at the brilliance of the stars. Then came a sound, a sound which was above sound, beyond sound, a violent, silent, electrical report, which made her press her hands in pain against her ears. Across the sky, where the stars were clustered as thickly as in the Milky Way, a crack shivered, slivered, became a line of nothingness.

If this thing was happening in the universe, no matter how far away from earth and the Milky Way, Meg did not wonder that her father had been summoned to Washington and Brookhaven.

"Progo, what is it? What happened?"

"The Echthroi have Xed."

"What?"

"Annihilated. Negated. Extinguished. Xed."

The last bit was boldest by me for emphasis. To be Xed is to be destroyed and made nonexistent and that just has lived in my brain rent free for a long time.

Look, I have no criticisms of A Wrinkle in Time (2018) except that it completely downgrades the villain of the story.

In the book, the villain is evil itself. It has spread across the universe in many ways, subatomic and cosmic. Camazotz is a tragic casualty of this evil, and here it is displayed in a way that the readers can understand.

My problem isn’t that in the book IT is a brain and in the movie IT’s. Like. A whole weird glowing dimension of darkness. I think they did IT brilliantly and in a way that fits the aesthetic of the movie. They took liberties, and they did it respectfully and captured the spirit of the story, except in one aspect.

My problem is that they represent IT as the origin, the source of this evil, and thus Camazotz as ITs home, making IT seem much less cosmic.

I can believe that IT is potentially an echthros with a strong hold on an entire planet. That makes sense. I can believe that said planet being a dark one could potentially be a very catastrophic force. That lines up with some of the themes of the (original?) Time trilogy. But them making Camazotz the epicenter of the evil that is the villain of this series just sorta diminishes it.

Aight rant over, back to your regularly scheduled bullshit <3

It took me a remarkably long time to realize that the Echthroi got twitter

Most people just like to shit on men for fun and profit. They like to shit on god for fun and profit. Then they trash the world. But also more importantly in a spiritual way in that they are constantly, fucking constantly poisoning the social environment making it impossible to get anything positive done,

Create middle class families, especially white middle class families. And shit on the poor. And shit on the Jews of course with palestine.

They learn it early in school

School is a masonic project. to teach children the values learned in "the enlightenment" (the Echthroi's values) vs. the values of god. Get families broken up and kids away from their moms.

But who am I kidding?

Is anyone fucking listening?

I guess this is the price of existence.

I think about Jeffrey's existence. What he's there for, and I guess, really he's there to destroy reality. Like Kefka or the Nothing. And everyone is behind him of course.....because like the Morque, they want POWER. they even say if for these dead "martyrs" "rest in power"

I think he's going to win.

I can already feel it in myself. I hate this existence. Working so hard in school. Having my friends and family turn on me. Being bullied. Watching as their are even worse predators all around me, especially in power. Watching people actually still follow and listen to these monsters.

My mother was raped by her father and her mother never left him, however when my father lost his job...she left him. That fact always haunts me because it shows just how much women care morea bout societal acceptance than protecting their children. And I'm a poor man, so clearly I have nothing to offer.

So, thanks to people's faithfulness to the system we'll have prison hells. We'll have horror show after horror show. Economic inequality, revolutions, wars, crime, simulations of reality, hells. We don't have marriage but we have free pornography. Then some religious person points out maybe that they shouldn't do that and...the religions are fucked up too. However, they are less fucked up than the wider culture. But, blame god. that will solve all your addiction problems.

Don't blame all the rich people who sold you the addictive products. Don't blame the constant immorality. Make sure to keep hurting people, especially men. The kids bully each other, the men won't or can't protect the children. The women use all their social power to take jobs from the men and use shitty socially aggressive tactics to fuck over the men. Then they lust over the rich men who make money by degrading the general population. And their's predators on top of them and so on and so forth.

Jeffrey's good man. Not a good man, but he's good at being evil. Pushing the world towards pain and suffering. Then people will naturally not want to exist like I do now. He knows exactly what to do to make it seem like he's the good guy. After extended torture and psychological manipulation, I'm sure I'll fall for it too. That's the point of Darkmatter's videos which are very hostile to god, but informative. He might be hostile in some ways, but he's truthful. that's important.

He's one of the only people who is nice to me though and honestly I don't know why. I don't know why. Or, I do. He is playing some long game. The only real friend I have

They all want something. Money, cigarettes, women, to have their fragile egoes validated, POWER. to get in groups and do gang violence then call it something nice like democracy. They sometimes try to make it up by going to church maybe.

Created beings are hateful inferior creatures.

I am beginning to learn to hate people.

Wow. Way to go, Elno. I hadn't been using Twitter much anyway, but the update from rounded blue bird app icon to mini black screen of death with an ominous X reminded me to clear it off my homescreen. It's now buried in the graveyard folder of seldom-used apps along with DeviantArt. .

(Also, am I the only one reminded of the Echthroi who kept Xing people in A Wind in the Door, the sequel to A Wrinkle in Time? I keep thinking of all those creepy Dr. Jenkins clones. I guess those are the bots.)

She cried out, "I hold you! I love you, I Name you. I Name you, Echthroi. You are not nothing. You are."

Elon **does** seem committed to establishing a social media platform that only the Echthroi could love

Γεροντικό: Η αγάπη για τους εχθρούς δεν είναι δυνατή παρά μόνο με τη χάρη του Αγίου Πνεύματος. Ο Κύριος μας έδωσε την εντολή ν΄ αγαπούμε τους εχθρούς και όποιος αγαπά τους εχθρούς εξομοιώνεται με τον Κύριο. Η αγάπη για τους εχθρούς δεν είναι δυνατή παρά μόνο με τη χάρη του Αγίου Πνεύματος. Γι΄ αυτό, μόλις σε προσβάλει κανείς, προσευχήσου γι΄ αυτόν στον Θεό κι έτσι θα διατηρήσεις την ειρήν... Περισσότερα εδώ: https://romios.gr/gerontiko-i-agapi-gia-toys-echthroys/

this is matthew and he thinks sex is disgusting

Ο μακαριστός Αρχιμανδρίτης π. Επιφάνιος Θεοδωρόπουλος καταρρίπτει τα επιχειρήματα των άθεων εχθρών της Ανάστασης Του Χριστού. Ένα πρωινό συζητά ο γέροντας με δυο-τρεις επισκέπτες στο σπίτι του. Ο ένας είναι ιδεολόγος κομμουνιστής... Όλο το οικοδόμημα του Χριστιανισμού στηρίζεται στο γεγονός της Α... https://orthodoxia.online/orthodoxia/archimandritis-epifanios-theodoropoulos-oi-echthroi-tis-anastasis-tou-christou/?feed_id=24612&_unique_id=643b09db4d10c

Ο Κύρτσος “τελειώνει” τον Μητσοτάκη: Προβάλει ψεκασμενα θέματα για εσωτερικούς εχθρούς και ξένες δυνάμεις

Ο Κύρτσος “τελειώνει” τον Μητσοτάκη: Προβάλει ψεκασμενα θέματα για εσωτερικούς εχθρούς και ξένες δυνάμεις

Ξεσπά ο Γιώργος Κύρτσος και αποκαλύπτει: Ο Κύρτσος “τελειώνει” τον Μητσοτάκη: Προβάλει ψεκασμενα θέματα για εσωτερικούς εχθρούς και ξένες δυνάμεις – olympia source https://www.olympia.gr/1508519/politiki/o-kyrtsos-quot-teleionei-quot-ton-mitsotaki-provalei-psekasmena-themata-gia-esoterikoys-echthroys-kai-xenes-dynameis/

View On WordPress

Ο Κύρτσος “τελειώνει” τον Μητσοτάκη: Προβάλει ψεκασμενα θέματα για εσωτερικούς εχθρούς και ξένες δυνάμεις

Ο Κύρτσος “τελειώνει” τον Μητσοτάκη: Προβάλει ψεκασμενα θέματα για εσωτερικούς εχθρούς και ξένες δυνάμεις

Ξεσπά ο Γιώργος Κύρτσος και αποκαλύπτει: Ο Κύρτσος “τελειώνει” τον Μητσοτάκη: Προβάλει ψεκασμενα θέματα για εσωτερικούς εχθρούς και ξένες δυνάμεις – olympia source https://www.olympia.gr/1508519/politiki/o-kyrtsos-quot-teleionei-quot-ton-mitsotaki-provalei-psekasmena-themata-gia-esoterikoys-echthroys-kai-xenes-dynameis/

View On WordPress

Ο Κύρτσος “τελειώνει” τον Μητσοτάκη: Προβάλει ψεκασμενα θέματα για εσωτερικούς εχθρούς και ξένες δυνάμεις

Ο Κύρτσος “τελειώνει” τον Μητσοτάκη: Προβάλει ψεκασμενα θέματα για εσωτερικούς εχθρούς και ξένες δυνάμεις

Ξεσπά ο Γιώργος Κύρτσος και αποκαλύπτει: Ο Κύρτσος “τελειώνει” τον Μητσοτάκη: Προβάλει ψεκασμενα θέματα για εσωτερικούς εχθρούς και ξένες δυνάμεις – olympia source https://www.olympia.gr/1508519/politiki/o-kyrtsos-quot-teleionei-quot-ton-mitsotaki-provalei-psekasmena-themata-gia-esoterikoys-echthroys-kai-xenes-dynameis/

View On WordPress

Did the Goddess write the Torah

Honestly the way the old testament god is written is very very interesting and looks more like, uh, well, he doesn't seem like me in some ways and there's hints that .

If you want to go really extreme, maybe the god of the old testament IS the goddess trying to imagine or act like god and trying to pass herself off as god. Doing the things she does because that's how she imagines god would act. For instance, sometimes I see cis-women complain about how trans-women act because it loo

I mean even that "kill all the men rape the women thing", If anything I would do the opposite and enslave the men and kill all the women. then they can't enact vengeance now can they? The way war has been done in the past basically ensures that women and children are safe, but that men are constantly fighting each other.

Who would want the men fighting each other all the time and for what purpose?

The other thing is that he's always so jealous and passionate. He's written like a romantic character. He loves the Israelites so much that he just can't stand them worshipping any other gods except him. women love these characters that are just sooooo dangerous and then they fall hopelessly in love with THEM (only them) and all the other girls are shit.

Shouldn't god be a god of all people? It's a bit weird that god feeds into this chosen people narrative so easily given that a lot of the time you suspect that the Jews acting badly has something to do with this fascist Jewish narrative they tell themselves that they have the right to rule by blood. Also, because of all the rape, Judaism falls only through the female line- supposedly. God is this big patriarchal god, but weirdly enough Judaism is still dominated by women.

I don't know who wrote that book or for what purpose. Many of the atheists do have a point to which is that sometimes the religions seem to have unrealistic standards and then punish you for it although honestly I think it's the people who have unrealistic standards. And the authorities have been steadily changing shit since time immemorial on this too.

or maybe it only happens once I'm driven completely insane and then go on a binge to keep myself safe by being as powerful and violent as possible. That is very possible. a lot of people end up like that in this world thanks to the immorality of the people, the evilness of the system and the power of the echthroi.

I just can't help the feeling that all these holy books might have been manufactured not exactly with the purpose that people think. If they were manufactured with the right purpose then why is no one following me right now? Everything about this world is deceptive is what I've learned, there are a million cons and it would not be consistent if religion were left untouched especially considering how profitable it has been for so many people keeping all the religions at war with each other.

The way everyone justifies everything with "God" is so fucking stupid. Obviously everything is done by the people, not god whatsoever and saying it's all god's doing is a way of shifting blame on god and not the people for what happens. Once you have free will, the ball is in your court.

One thing that's definitely been true is that most people don't want responsibility for anything it seems. "I'm just doing my job" "not my problem" whatever the fuck it is, they don't want to take responsibility for it. It seems like the most common flaw in people. Even the word seems wrong as the "re" means to do again or in response to something as if someone has to tell you to figure out how your actions affects others. sponsibility might be a better word.