Anyway, you remember how I was complaining that the local library did not have Many Waters by Madeleine L'Engle? Well... I assume you can read and I don't have to go on with this story because you've figured it out. I found a copy at Eastern's library--they have a surprisingly large children's section; it's actually bigger than the 'leisure reading' section for students, and ten times better. So if you see a lot of grade school books in the next few posts... (Actually, I should check if they have the two other books in the Space Trilogy...)
Okay, so, yeah. This book is about the two middle Murry children, Sandy and Dennys. It's set a year or two after A Wind in the Door, and it was actually written eight years after A Swiftly Tilting Planet...? Well, I guess that explains some incongruities. (Example: Sandy and Dennys say their sister believes in unicorns, but she's never seen them before and because Meg is the Susan Pevensie of this series, that means she wouldn't believe them. But in A Swiftly Tilting Planet, Charles Wallace rides a unicorn and since she's kything with him... actually, I think afterwards she's still like "unicorns are ridiculous. That didn't happen even though it clearly did." Meg Murry got into lipstick, and nylons and invitations... She is no longer a friend of unicorns.) The boys go on their father's tessering computer and type on it, asking it to take them somewhere warm and with a sparse population. Which it does, it takes them to pre-flood times. So the story is mostly about the boys living and growing used to living in the oasis where Noah and his family lives. And avoiding the temptations of the nephilim--they are fallen angels, though not quite ecthroi, that have taken to the earth to marry the "daughters of men" (Genesis 6:2). To offset the nephilim are the seraphim who kind of... are chilling. They're not marrying men, they're just kind of hanging around. I guess to offset the nephilim or something.
OH, I didn't mention why unicorns were important! They hang out in the oasis too. They become real and unreal at will. I can't remember what sort of particle the twins compare them to, but it is the type that has "a tendency to life." What really bothers me is I remember that phrase, but I have trouble with science and therefore have internalized very, very little of it. But yeah, the twins are talking about the unicorns: "'Meg says unicorns have been ruined by overpopularity'" (25). Yeah, well Meg is a bitch. Seriously. Her parents should have named her Susan.
Unicorns also, in the popular fashion, will not let themselves be touched and will not approach people who aren't virgins. When Japheth--Noah's son--explains this, Dennys' immediate comment is: "'Well, we don't even have our driver's licenses yet'" (26). HAHAHAHA. Best reaction ever. Speaking of unicorns only approaching virgins, I'm pretty sure there's a Family Guy sketch where a unicorn approaches Quagmire and they're all like "but don't unicorns only approach virgins...?" or something like that. Bye-bye, credibility.
Among the other strange forms of life in the oasis, there are manticores--ridiculous manticores! "The old man pulled himself out of the corner where he had been flung. 'Ridiculous manticore,' he grumbled, 'wanting to eat my mammoth'" (35). I love all the strange creatures in this land except for you, Manticory--you are a ridiculous manticore! (Oh yeah, they have mammoths too, but small ones, like German Shephard size, probably.)
Well, Noah has a daughter Mahlah, as well. She throws her lots in with the Nephilim--she is pregnant with a Nephilim baby, and has a Nephilim marriage. Being that I recognized the name 'Seraphim' and not 'Nephilim', I automatically assumed that the Nephilim were less-than-honourable angels, maybe not exactly villains of an ecthroi breed (not if they're coexisting with humans) but shifty and at the very least, bad at their cores. However, if one is not familiar with that name, there is a passage where Alarid the Seraphim speaks to Mahlah that pretty much affirms what I thought:
"Mahlah scrambled to her feet, letting her long black hair swirl about her. 'Alarid--' The seraph took her hand, looking down into her eyes. 'Are we really losing you?' She withdrew her hands, dropping her gaze, laughing a small, self-conscious laugh. 'Losing me? What do you mean?' 'Is it true that you and Ugiel--' 'Yes, it is true,' she said proudly. 'Be happy for me, Alarid. Ugiel is still your brother, is he not?' Alarid dropped to one knee, so that he no longer towered over her. 'Yes, we are still brothers, though we have chosen very different ways.' 'And you're sure yours is the better way?' There was scorn in Mahlah's voice... 'We do not judge. The seraphim have chosen to stay close to the Presence.' 'But you're to close to be able to see it! The nephilim have distance and objectivity.' He looked at her, and her glance wavered for a moment. 'Yes. Ugiel told me that.' ...'You will not forget us?' 'How could I forget you!' she exclaimed. 'You have been my friend since Yalith took me out to greet the dawn and I met you and Aariel.' 'You have not greeted the dawn lately.' 'Oh--I am learning about the night'" (59). Translation: She's done, she's turned away from the Presence. To further confirm this, Alarid cries when he leaves her--he knows what's up. Another thing I think is important to note--he kneels so he will be the same height as her (remember, people were much shorter back then, and the Nephilim and Seraphim are referred to as 'giants' in the Bible and the Torah) when he talks to her--they are on equal footing. The Nephilim never kneel. Always they overpower and dominate, are frightening and possessive.
Ohalibama is also an interesting character--her father was a Nephilim, her mother a human. An interesting character because she was--not exactly orphaned, but her father left. I would say most likely because she turned out to be a female instead of a son. So there we go, high five true nature of the Nephilim, you jerks. Anyway, whereas Mahlah is turning to the darkness, Ohalibamah has found the light, despite her parentage. Yaaaay!
"'Thank you, Ohalibamah, my wife.' Japheth leaned to her and kissed her on the lips. Dennys, watching through the confusion of headache and fever, thought that it was a nice kiss. It was the kind of kiss he had seen his father give his mother. A real kiss. If he lived through this, he would like to kiss someone like that" (80).
"'The other one... said that they came from some kind of Nighted Place.' 'United States,' Dennys corrected automatically" (82). Nighted Place? Is that anywhere near Spare Oom of War Drobe?
Ah, yes, Yalith is also wanted by the Nephilim Eblis. However, she likes the twins. She doesn't quite desire them, that's too harsh a word... but if she was a little older, she would certainly be in love with them. (Remember, they're identical twins, and she has never seen a twin before--and until close to the end they are never together so it's hard to comprehend their being different people.)
So, both the Nephilim and the Seraphim have animal forms. The Seraphim's forms tend to be creatures like lions, giraffes, camels... useful animals, helpful animals, noble animals. On the other hands, the Nephilim: "--Vultures are underestimated. Without us, disease would wipe out all life. We clean up garbage, feces, dead bodies of man and beast. We are not appreciated. No sound was heard and yet the words seemed scratched upon the air. A scarab beetle burrowed up out of the sand and blinked at the vulture. --It is true. You help keep the world clean. I appreciate you... A crocodile crawled across the desert... It was followed by a dragon/lizard, who stretched his leather wings, showing off. A dark, hooded snake slithered past them both... A tiny mimicry of a crocodile... scrabbled along beside the crocodile and the dragon/lizard. --I am small, and swift, and my flesh is not edible and causes damage to the brain. I am the way I am. That is how I am made. On the skink's back, a flea tried to dig through armored flesh. --I, too, am the way that I am. A shrill whine cut across the clear air. A mosquito droned. --I, too. I, too. I will feast on your blood. A small, slimy worm wriggled across the sand, leaving a thin trail. A slug's viscous path followed. --I am not like the snail, needing a house. I am sufficient unto myself... A rat, sleek and well filled, wriggled its nose and whiskers and looked at the vulture's naked neck. --I, too, eat the filth off the streets. I eat flesh. I prefer living flesh, but I will take what I can get. I, too, help keep the world clean" (119).
The Nephilim are all congregating. There are others too, a bat and a cockroach... But you see? Regardless of what benefits they have for mankind, these are creatures that wallow in filth. They devour filth. They are creatures that one associates with filth and dankness and wallowing trash pits. And what they say! The slug's is most interesting: he needs no home. He can survive without one. The Nephilim have left heaven and are permanently bound to earth. He has no home. And the dragon/lizard thing is showing off his wing-stubs, which no other lizard around has. Priiiide. It's what the Nephilim are all about, bro.
"Eblis, shimmering in and out of his dragon/lizard form, touched wings with Aariel. 'We have made our choice. We have forsworn heaven.' 'Then the earth will never be yours'" (127). Eblis is a Nephilim, as I've mentioned, and Aariel is a Seraphim. This happens during Mahlah's wedding--in an attempt to disrupt it or stop it, I assume. However, it still happens. But Yalith resists Eblis.
"'You have been sent by El--this I believe.' 'Hey, it's the least I can do,' Sandy protested'" (132). Can you imagine if that's what Jesus said? "Are you the son of God, sent from him?" "Hey, it's the least I can do. You guys needed help."
So, there's this girl, Tiglah, who works at the bathhouses. She's a human who's under the Nephilim influence, and she attempts to seduce either Sandy or Dennys because the Nephilim want them parted for their own nepharious reasons. (Ohh, you see what I did there??) Anyway, Tiglah comes on to Sandys--"Then he was surrounded by her particular odor of scented oil and her own unwashed body. He knew what she wanted, and he wanted it, too; he was ready, but not, despite her gorgeousness, with Tiglah. Tiglah was not worth losing his ability to touch a unicorn" (201). Again: "You're a virgin? Dude, what a loser!" "At least I can still touch unicorns, a--hole!" Or, if anyone ever wants to have sex with you: "Come on baby, don't you want to do it?" "I love unicorns more than you!" That will end well. Actually, my mocking it aside, there's something strangely poignant about it. I like it a lot more than I like making fun of it, even though that's really fun too.
Of course, towards the end of the book, Noah begins and finishes the ark and carrying out what El has asked of him. El has told Noah to make the ark for him and his sons and their families--but the sisters are not mentioned. In Mahlah's case, one can infer that it is because she has married a nephil and bore it a child, but in the other sisters' cases, there is no mention or explanation of why exactly. Sandy and Dennys are not mentioned either. So, not only is Yalith worried for her sisters and herself, she is worried for herself. Aariel attempts to comfort her by telling her this: "'Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it'" (242). That is, they are still loved even if they die (?), so their death happens for some particular reason if it does. The quote itself actually comes from the Song of Solomon (I guess that's a Hebrew book specifically; I don't recognize it other than recognizing Solomon's name itself). Anyway, the full quote is "Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it. If a man were to give all his wealth for love, it would be utterly scorned" (Song of Solomon 8:7).
"'Some things have to be believed to be seen'" (256).
Even as the rain begins to fall, the twins are still there: "'Grandfather Lamech said that these are the last days.' The occasional slow drops of rain made Sandy on edge, and argumentative. Another splash of rain touched Dennys's face, muting the stars. 'There have been many times of last days,' he said, 'and they mark not only endings but beginnings'" (299). They precede this with an argument on entropy--as Sandy puts it, "'the universe winding down'" (299). That's essentially what it is, for all of you who never took an astronomy class. Anyway, Dennys reminds his brother that after endings come beginnings again, which is something more people should try to remember! (This is why I tend to be, for the most part, calm and laid back.) Um... Yeah, just thought I'd bring it up. A good example of what Dennys is trying to say is Isaac Asimov's short story 'The Last Question'. You should look it up right now because it is AWESOME, I promise.
Yup. Well, that's about it on my notes... Anyway, the story ends with the promise that it will end pretty much as the Bible dictates... So that's cool. Everything is wrapped up, though a grisly end is implied for Mahlah (and for the Nephilim as well, I suppose, since they are earthbound).
The book itself was pretty good. Especially because Susan--err, Meg--wasn't around. At first it was a little annoying to hear the twins go back and forth, but they get separated pretty early on in the book and are for a good portion of it, and by the time they get back together they somehow don't seem as annoying. I probably would have enjoyed the book more if I read it at the same time I originally read all of the other books in this quintet, but really that's no big deal, and really my affection for all of them probably really was greater back then. Like--I loved it then, and rereading them now has just provided clarification for some concepts, even if my affection has diminished a little. So... yeah. Pretty good. Yay!
Answer to last post's cryptic song lyrics for Emma: Golden Years by David Bowie
This post's cryptic song lyrics for Emma: Self-sustaining system bit her in the neck and quick and kissed her and took all she got
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