Due September 30th, 2009

Today, I was home sick, so I read, and almost finished, A WRINKLE IN TIME. In this post, I'm going to talk about some excerpts from the novel that I found most interesting.

Excerpt one: Without warning, coming as a complete and unexpected shock, she felt a pressure she had never imagined, as though she were being completely flattened out by an enormous steam roller. This was far worse than the nothingness had been; while she was nothing there was no need to breathe, but now her lungs were squeezed together so that although she was dying for want of air there was no way for her lungs to expand and contract, to take in the air that she must have to stay alive. This was completely different from the thinning of atmosphere when they flew up the mountain and she had had to put the flowers to her face tobreathe. She tried to gasp, but a paper doll can't gasp. She thought she was trying to think, but her flattened-out mind was as unable to function as her lungs; her thoughts were squashed along with the rest of her. Her heart tried to beat; it gave a knifelike, sidewise movement, but it could not expand.

It is interesting to me to think about a human, three-dimensional body being transported into a two-dimensional world. A person's lungs wouldn't be able to expand and contract. In other words, they wouldn't be able to breath. The person's blood vessels would be flattened like a pancake, and I doubt blood could flow like that. Average movement, muscle control, and thinking in general would be out of the question, unless the brain still works flat? When I think of 2-D, I think of cartoons or video games, and though I think it'd be fun to be a cartoon character, I think it'd be even better to be able to breath.

Excerpt 2: "Now, don't be frightened, loves," Mrs. Whatsit said. Her plump little body began to shimmer, to quiver, to shift. The wild colors of her clothes became muted, whitened. The pudding-bag shape stretched, lengthened, merged. And suddenly before the children was a creature more beautiful than any Meg had even imagined, and the beauty lay in far more than the outward description

I think that most of the concepts in A WRINKLE IN TIME are hard to explain visually. In my opinion, this excerpt is the one in the book that is the easiest to picture. Some parts of the novel are kind of overly descriptive, and some parts aren't descriptive enough. I think this part is the perfect mix, simply because it is a mixture of description of the scene visually along with what is happening in general.

September 22nd, 2009

This week, I read, yet again, A Wrinkle in Time. I just finished Unwind, so I'm planning on reading more of my personal reading book so I can finish it up. In what I read, Meg is finally beginning to understand the purpose of their journey. Their father is trapped in a black hole of sorts and it is their job to retrieve him. Mrs. Whatsit explains to the children the concept of tessering, which involves taking shortcuts through time and space. However, Meg accidentally gets caught in the wrong dimension and finds her lungs flattening, making it impossible to breath. She was caught in the second dimension . As she begins to lose consciousnes, she is finally rescued.
In this post, I'm going to analyze a quote from the novel. At one point in the book, Meg's mother says, "But you see, Meg, just because we don't understand doesn't mean that the explanation doesn't exist." To me, this is a very powerful quote. I think it gives the reader an idea of what both characters are like. For example, if I read this quote without reading the rest of the book, I would infer that Meg's mom is a very curious person about the unknown, while Meg is a little more of a skeptical figure. To test this theory, I read the quote to my brother who has never read the novel and asked his opinion. He said that he thought whoever said that would be an open-minded person who likes to explore new possibilities. Our answers, though not exactly the same, are pretty close.
At one point in the novel, Meg goes through a phase in which she cannot stop questioning things and just go with the flow. This quote helps her realize that she can't control everything. In general, I think this quote means that there are things out there beyond human beings and the earth, and just because we don't know about them doesn't mean they don't exist.

P.S. I commented on Eddie's blog.

Entry 2-- September 15th, 2009

This week I continued reading A WRINKLE IN TIME. I haven't had a chance to read much of it since we started reading "Unwind," so it was nice to get back to it. For this entry, I'm going to dive deeper into the depths of the themes that I've noticed throughout my reading.
In my opinion, the main themes of the novel are personal responsibility, individuality, and good versus evil. Based on what I've read thus far, Meg has matured immensely. She's starting to realize that she has to stop blaming the world for her own problems. At the beginning of the novel, she hated her appearance and wanted nothing more than to fit in at school. Now, however, she is starting to understand that being different isn't as bad as she thought. She seems to be growing more comfortable in her own skin.
This book also tackles the theme of good versus evil, as most novels seem to do. However, this book does it a little differently. While most stories have an antagonist, a protagonist, and an obvious plot, in this book it's not quite definite who is good and who is bad. The evil in this story is represented by an intangible force called "the dark thing," a black hole that is trapping Meg's father. Good is associated with undying love and personal morals while evil is associated with conformity and hatred.
I'm excited to continue reading and find out whether good or evil prevails in the end.

A Wrinkle in Time

Today, I started reading A Wrinkle in Time. Honestly, the only reason I picked it up was because I've been home sick since Wednesday and I needed to catch up on the reading I knew I'd missed on Thursday and Friday. I dug through my library until I was tired of searching. I was tired and sick, so I told myself I'd grin and bear whatever book I finally selected. After I got into it, though, I realized that it has the potential to be my favorite book ever. For this entry, I'm just going to discuss the characters and what I've read so far.

The main characters are named Meg, Charles Wallace, Calvin, Mrs. Whatsit, Mrs. Who, and Mrs. Which. I've read up to page 97, and so far the characters are really interesting me. My favorites, however, are clearly Meg and Charles Wallace. At school, Meg is that weird, unattractive, friendless girl with the weird family that one often finds in fiction. She is very similar to Meg Griffin from the television show Family Guy. Charles Wallace--and no, Wallace isn't his last name-- is known as the weird girl's equally strange brother who never learned to talk. However, Charles Wallace won't start school until the following year so no one knows the truth: this kid is brilliant. He can read and write things even his mom doesn't understand, and his mom is a successful scientist.

The basis of the plot is that the children's father is gone; no one really knows where. The family expects his return, but his absence without plausible explanation causes a stir of rumors around town. One day, Charles Wallace wanders off the family's secluded ranch to a house a few miles away. No one knows about this until a few days later, when a woman is found hiding in their basement in the middle of the night. The woman is an old, shriveled-up thing wrapped in coats and scarves. When Charles Wallace, Meg, and their mother find her while having a midnight snack, the boy says, "Mrs. Whatsit! What are you doing here?" The story continues with Charles Wallace, Meg, and another boy being twirled through time and space to the "5th dimension" led by Mrs. Whatsit and two of her friends. They are told that their father is exploring the dimension but is trapped in a mysterious void. The story is tackling many themes such as the relationship between space and time, and the eternal quality of love and loyalty.

To conclude, so far this is a spectacular book that never loses the reader's interest. I'm excited to continue reading.