Are You There, God?

An interesting quote from this interview with Judy Blume:

“With Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, I thought I was writing about organized religion, yet the book has become famous for dealing with puberty. Hardly anyone ever mentions religion or Margaret’s very personal relationship with God.”

I know that if you ask almost anyone what Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret is about, they’d say a girl getting her period, but I actually really enjoy Margaret’s struggle with organized religion throughout. It feels very natural, and I like that Margaret is always reaching out for something greater in the universe, even if she can’t call herself Jewish or Christian exactly.

Make sure to check out the whole interview!

Religion in Wrinkles

Austin Allen looks at how Madeleine L’Engle combines fantasy and religion in her potentially most famous work, A Wrinkle in Time:

“I think she’s being careful, ducking accusations of parochialism, and leaving everything up to the reader’s interpretation. But I also think the variety of her idols suggests a restless imagination, one that was more confined than inspired by doctrinaire Christianity. Her impulse toward sermonizing wrestles with her impulse toward a vision that is—like her extraterrestrials and shimmering presences—unclassifiable.”

This is one reason that I like L’Engle’s work in general. She acknowledges a greater purpose in the general and, even as she tends toward the Christian, suggests that whatever the universe is, it’s beyond our current power of comprehension. But that doesn’t mean we should strive to reach out toward it.