(title stolen from Josh Gondelman)
I promise not to reduce this tinyletter into just sending you links of things I've written, but since I wrote a bit about A Wrinkle in Time a few letters ago, I wanted to share with you this piece that I wrote about Aunt Beast for Electric Literature:
I needed Aunt Beast. It didn’t occur to me that she might be cut — not because she’s crucial to the book’s plot, but because she’s crucial to its heart. The whole book tells us that messy, angry, stubborn girls can save the day. But Aunt Beast tells us that those problem girls can also be loved.
You can read the whole thing here.
I really wanted to love the Wrinkle in Time movie. I cried at the first trailer, and was so excited for this totally different vision of this world I've loved almost my whole life (27 years???). I'm glad I knew going in that Aunt Beast would be absent. I think I'm glad I also knew going in how mixed-to-negative the responses were. Which isn't to say there aren't people who've loved it—critics and moviegoers and lots and lots of kids. But I'm glad I had my expectations tempered.
My short take is that it was a bad adaptation. The screenplay was obvious where it should've been subtle and the whole Camazotz sequence made no sense. I have a good ten-minute rant on this (which just yesterday I gave my sister over brunch) which I will spare you here. But the Mrs. Ws were beautiful and I love Chris Pine's new scruffy, dirty, thing, and a million more kids (and my husband) are gonna read the book because of this, so god bless. And, selfish writer that I am, I'm glad the movie finally gave me a reason to write about this book I've always loved.
Now I just need something to force me to write about the Clan of the Cave Bear series, and then I can retire.
xxo