"We do not have whims on the moon": A Wrinkle in Time, The Lotus Caves, and the Problem of American Exceptionalism in 1960s Science Fiction for Children
{"title":"\"We do not have whims on the moon\": A Wrinkle in Time, The Lotus Caves, and the Problem of American Exceptionalism in 1960s Science Fiction for Children","authors":"R. Gooding","doi":"10.1353/uni.2021.0025","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"good starting for at A Wrinkle in Time a novel that begins during the space race and presents a defence of American liberties against the dehuman izing forces of Soviet collectivism in the form of IT, a giant, disembodied brain. A a less well-known novel that is set on the moon after has won the and represents those same liberties under threat by an ancient alien plant. Although it’s not certain that had A Wrinkle in Time in when The Lotus Caves , the two much: imprisonment by a being drawn from the pages of 1930s pulp science fic tion, a preoccupation with mind control, a missing adult in apparent need of rescue, and a child’s reliance on familial love as protection against the loss of selfhood. But if both L’Engle and Christopher choose as focalizers children who reject the exchange of freedom for a happiness that demands the loss of identity, in A Wrinkle in Time the temptation to make the bar gain can be traced to a civil society that is losing touch with its divinely constituted foundations, while The Lotus Caves locates the problem in the appeal of religion itself. More precisely, in L’Engle’s novel preserving individual liberties cannot be disentangled from a religious understanding of American exceptionalism, whereas in Christopher’s story loss of faith in America’s moral preeminence is symptomatic of a deeper skepticism about humanity’s privileged position in the natural order. in a post-Cold The","PeriodicalId":43426,"journal":{"name":"LION AND THE UNICORN","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.4000,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"LION AND THE UNICORN","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1353/uni.2021.0025","RegionNum":4,"RegionCategory":"文学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"LITERATURE","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
good starting for at A Wrinkle in Time a novel that begins during the space race and presents a defence of American liberties against the dehuman izing forces of Soviet collectivism in the form of IT, a giant, disembodied brain. A a less well-known novel that is set on the moon after has won the and represents those same liberties under threat by an ancient alien plant. Although it’s not certain that had A Wrinkle in Time in when The Lotus Caves , the two much: imprisonment by a being drawn from the pages of 1930s pulp science fic tion, a preoccupation with mind control, a missing adult in apparent need of rescue, and a child’s reliance on familial love as protection against the loss of selfhood. But if both L’Engle and Christopher choose as focalizers children who reject the exchange of freedom for a happiness that demands the loss of identity, in A Wrinkle in Time the temptation to make the bar gain can be traced to a civil society that is losing touch with its divinely constituted foundations, while The Lotus Caves locates the problem in the appeal of religion itself. More precisely, in L’Engle’s novel preserving individual liberties cannot be disentangled from a religious understanding of American exceptionalism, whereas in Christopher’s story loss of faith in America’s moral preeminence is symptomatic of a deeper skepticism about humanity’s privileged position in the natural order. in a post-Cold The
期刊介绍:
The Lion and the Unicorn is a theme- and genre-centered journal of international scope committed to a serious, ongoing discussion of literature for children. The journal"s coverage includes the state of the publishing industry, regional authors, comparative studies of significant books and genres, new developments in theory, the art of illustration, the mass media, and popular culture. It has become noted for its interviews with authors, editors, and other important contributors to the field, such as Mildred Wirt Benson, Robert Cormier, Chris Crutcher, Lensey Namioka, Philip Pullman, and Aranka Siegal.