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A Swiftly Tilting Planet: Difference between revisions
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The third book in [[Madeleine L'Engle]]'s ''Time
Reciting a rune bestowed upon him by his in-law Mrs. O'Keefe, Charles Wallace summons the winged [[Unicorn]] Gaudior, who takes him on a journey through time to seemingly random events, all connected by location and the name "Maddox". Their mission is to change several important "[[For Want of a Nail|might-have-beens]]" to avert disaster in the present. The Echthroi, evil beings introduced in ''[[A Wind in the Door]]'', beset them at every turn.
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* [[After the End]]: The Projections. Both were possible futures after a nuclear war on Earth encountered during interdimensional travel. One was an apocalyptic wasteland with hideously mutated barely-sentient "humans", another one had some semblance of civilization with a city of concrete bunkers and [[Gas Mask Mooks|gas-mask-wearing soldiers]].
* [[American Civil War]]
* [[Arbitrary Skepticism]]: The events of ''[[Many Waters]]'' happen before ''A Swiftly Tilting Planet''. After a time-traveling adventure to thousands of years before the birth of Christ, you'd think that Sandy and Dennys would not be so incredulous. This is explained by the fact that L'Engle wrote ''Many Waters'' eight years after ''A Swiftly Tilting Planet'', but for anyone reading the books in their chronological order this is just weird.
* [[Arcadia]]: The area where the Murrys live, in the past.
* [[Arc Words]]: St. Patrick's Rune.
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* [[For Want of a Nail]]: What they're trying to do, to avert WWIII.
* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: It's heavily implied that Mortmain is making sexual advances at Beezie.
* [[The Generalissimo]]: "Mad Dog" Branzillo rules the fictional South American country Vespugia. The plot revolves around going back in time and changing events so that Branzillo becomes a benevolent ruler instead. {{spoiler|This turns out to have been temporary, however--by ''Troubling a Star'', which takes place perhaps twenty-odd years later, the benevolent version of Branzillo has been overthrown and Vespugia is back to being a troubled country with a distinctly military bent.}}
* [[Going Native]]: Madoc, a Welsh prince who joined the Wind People.
* [[Good Is Impotent]]: Somewhat averted. The "good" people are proactive, strong, and willing to face evil, at least to give it a stern talking-to. But the wicked people are tolerated in the communities because they're ''better at things'' - one woman who is racist against Indians is the best midwife in the village, and Gedder the evil sumbitch is able to teach others how to farm.
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* [[Heroic Lineage]]: A big theme.
* [[Hidden Depths]]: From what you've barely heard about Mrs. O'Keefe in previous books, she sounds horrible. In this book, you find out how she got that way (and how she isn't so bad deep down).
* [[Hidden Elf Village]]: The Unicorn's hatching grounds, which is safe from
* [[I Just Want My Beloved to Be Happy]]: Aww, Matthew.
* [[Identical Grandson]]: Matthew and Bran for Madoc, Chuck for Brandon.
* [[Idiosyncratic Episode Naming|Idiosyncratic Chapter Naming]]: Named after the verses of St. Patrick's Rune.
* [[If You Know What I Mean]]: Paddy's comment that Mortmain is "after" Beezie.▼
* [[Incorruptible Pure Pureness]]: Tends to get invoked a lot with those of the Madoc line.
* [[Indian Maiden]]/[[The Chief's Daughter]]: Zyll and Zylle.
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** Subverted with Calvin, though, whose ancestors, the O'Keefes, include a guy who flings homeless puppies to death against walls, and Paddy, who is implied to be cut from the same cloth as Mortmain.
* [[Kick the Dog]]: Jack O'Keefe kills homeless puppies by flinging them against the walls of barns.
▲* [[If You Know What I Mean]]: Paddy's comment that Mortmain is "after" Beezie.
* [[Loads and Loads of Characters]]
* [[Love Makes You Evil]]: If you marry the wrong person, it can. Any kids you have with him/her will turn out evil as well.
* [[Meaningful Name]]: The names "Maddox", "Bran", "Zilla", and their variations. Also the various characters named "[[Obviously Evil|Mortmain]]", which means "dead hand" in French. And the first person that Charles Wallace mentally fuses with is named Harcels--an anagram of Charles.
* [[Mental Fusion]]: Going "Within", where Charles Wallace "fuses" with several people to influence events.
* [[Mighty Whitey]]: Madoc, though he has completely abandoned his Welsh homeland, and has no intention of ever returning.
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* [[Nightmare Face]]: The creature Charles and Gaudior briefly encounter in a Projection.
* [[Noble Savage]]: The People of the Wind.
* [[A Nuclear Error]]: A nuclear exchange between Vespugia and the U.S. would not destroy the U.S. Nuclear weapons are difficult and expensive to make (you need the materials, for one thing), and the United States is an awfully big target, which would require several nukes to take out. (Ca. 2000, the PRC lacked the capacity to hit any more than the U.S.'s West Coast.) On the other hand, Vespugia is said to be about the size of
* [[One Steve Limit]]: Averted with Mattie and Matthew, Richard, Ritchie, and Rich Llawcae, Brandon and his namesake nephew, David and Davey Higgins, and most impressively, Zyll, Zylle, Zillie, and Zillah. Then again, most of this has to do with history repeating itself.
* [[Pegasus]]: Gaudior. However, when he takes flight, he hardly ever moves in ''space,'' but only through time. (The movement of the planet Earth itself throughout time is not accounted for.)
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* [[Sinister Minister]]: Pastor Mortmain
* [[Spell My Name with an "S"]]: How do you even pronounce "Zylle" to make it distinct from "Zyll" and "Zillie"?
**
* [[Supporting Protagonist]]: On several levels: First, Charles Wallace is only going Within various people from the past, and only once is it explicit that he's even ''doing'' anything while being Within. Then, even when they finally reach 1863, {{spoiler|Charles Wallace is Within Matthew, who is having a vision of ''Richard,'' who is all the way in Vespugia, having the big fight with Gedder that the entire book has actually been building up to.}}
* [[Telepathy]]: "Kything". Also Gaudior's main form of communication.
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** Also [[Meanwhile in the Future]].
* [[Unicorn]]: Gaudior. It deserves noting that he's ''very'' different from the unicorns depicted in ''[[Many Waters]]'' in the same world -- he's bigger, he's more reliably (albeit still not completely) real, and he's telepathic. And has magic.
* [[Unfortunate Implications]]: The book has been criticized for racism because its entire plot turns on a South American man having the right white ancestors. It also literally associates blue eyes (even in people of color) with innate goodness and dark eyes with corruption and evil and treats colonization by certain white families as benevolent rather than problematic. And then there's the whole [[Noble Savage]] trope...
* [[You Fail Physics Forever]]: Even a full-scale nuclear war would not even blow up a planet. It would "merely" turn a good portion of the world. (perhaps all of it) into an uninhabitable, or barely habitable, wasteland. The quote in the [[Artistic License Astronomy]] entry is especially curious, as the conversations with Sandy and Dennys, as well as the Projections, depict a more realistic result.
* [[War Is Hell]]: Bran's time as a Union soldier.
* [[Witch Hunt]]: A literal one targeting Zylle.
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[[Category:A Swiftly Tilting Planet]]
[[Category:Literature]]
{{DEFAULTSORT:Swiftly Tilting Planet, A}}
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