#mrs. which

[caribbeanblu]

“Do you realize

how many events and choices

that had to occur

since the birth of the universe,

leading to

the making of you

just exactly

the way you are?”

-Mrs. Which

✨ A Wrinkle in Time 💫

[curlyhairedbibliophile]

#FunkoPhotoADayChallenge | Book/Literary Characters 📚

[carolinahope]

The Best of 2018 - 3 wardrobes (2/3)

[prismably]

femslash february day 15: mrs. who, mrs. which, and mrs. whatsit

[lunarmoment]

Character Descriptions

I have trouble picturing faces. This is true in writing, in reading, and in hearing people tell stories. I’m not quite sure why I struggle with it - I’m pretty observant! - but most of the time if I’ve never seen a person, they walk around in my mind as a vague, half-formed face.

I was afraid for a long time this made me a bad reader or, worse for someone with dreams of being an author, a bad writer. I feel like I can just barely reach out and touch them; some moments, fractions of moments really, their faces rise in perfect clarity, but with a flicker they’re gone. It’s a specific snapshot instead of a dynamic image. Oftentimes I just throw in a couple random descriptors and have faith people will be able to figure it out for themselves. Everyone else is good at it, right? They’ll just think I know exactly what I’m talking about and picture whatever they see fit. Great!

The thing is, even though I can’t imagine their faces, I’ve never had any trouble recognizing who they are - my characters or other people’s. There had always been this weird disconnect between not having a visual but having a feeling, a distinct knowledge of who they are as a person, and I couldn’t figure it out. That is until I revisited a passage from A Wrinkle in Time.

I read this book when I was 10 years old, and this passage has stuck with me for the 13 years since. For context, Meg and her friends landed on a planet inhabited by blind creatures. They do not have/understand/need sight at all, and one of them asked Meg to describe the three people they’re looking for.

Meg tried. Blunderingly. Fumblingly. At first she described Mrs. Whatsit and her man’s coat and multicolored shawls and scarves; Mrs. Who and her white robes and shimmering spectacles; Mrs. Which in her peaked cap and black gown, quivering in and out of body. Then she realized this was absurd. She was describing them only to herself. This wasn’t Mrs. Whatsit or Mrs. Who or Mrs. Which. She might as well have described Mrs. Whatsit as she was when she took on the form of a flying creature of Uriel.

“Don’t try to use words,” Aunt Beast said soothingly. “You’re just fighting yourself and me. Think about what they are. This look doesn’t help us at all.” 

Meg tried again, but she could not get a visual concept out of her mind. She tried to think of Mrs. Whatsit explaining tessering. She tried to think of them in terms of mathematics. Every once in a while she thought she felt a flicker of understanding from Aunt Beast or one of the others, but most of the time all that emanated from them was a gentle puzzlement.

“Angels!” Calvin shouted suddenly from across the table. “Guardian angels!” There was a moment’s silence, and he shouted again, his face tense with concentration, “Messengers! Messengers of God!”

There it is! The essence of them! That’s how I know my blob forms of Mrs. Whatsit and Mrs. Who and Mrs. Which! In a way, I have the opposite problem of Meg. I can’t imagine their jaw shapes or noses for crap, but I know my vague shadow is a guardian angel, or a mentor, or a trouble maker, or a manipulator, or a hero. This passage struck me because it’s exactly what I struggle with, and even as a fourth grader reading this book for the first time, I knew that. In fact, I had just finished reading Lemony Snicket’s A Series of Unfortunate Events. The 2004 movie played out the first three books then stopped - in perfect form, when I read the first three, I pictured the Baudelaire children as the actors, and then for the rest of the series I had my vague shadow people lightly based off the cover art. It stressed me out. Was I stupid? Unimaginative? Broken?

This passage told me no, I’m not stupid or wrong. My mind just works a little differently. I’m more like Aunt Beast than Meg, and this is the only piece of media I can think of that so clearly and beautifully draws out that distinction. This not at all to say visual descriptions are bad or wrong or unnecessary - in fact, they’re quite important - but if you’ve ever doubted yourself because you can’t imagine the intensive details of a knight’s armor or the exact criss-crossing of wrinkles on someone’s face, it’s fine. You’re not a bad writer; you don’t have a bad imagination. You’re just like Aunt Beast.

Maybe I am alone in this, or a minority, or maybe a majority in a world that’s convinced me everyone can imagine visual descriptions perfectly and in great depth, but this passage is extraordinarily comforting to me. And maybe it will be for you too.

Happy writing, everyone!

tldr; You’re not a bad writer/reader for not being able to imagine things in great detail. You just know your characters as guardian angels instead of women in men’s coats and colorful shawls. Not everything comes naturally, and you shouldn’t let that scare you.

[lady-arryn]

+ bonus

costume appreciation: Mrs. Which from A Wrinkle in Time (costumes by Paco Delgado)

[awrinkleintimefilm]

Oprah attends the premiere of Disney’s ‘A Wrinkle In Time’ at the El Capitan Theatre

[ricamora-falahee]

A Wrinkle in Time (2018) dir. Ava DuVernay