Hate your family? Become a fantasy hero. Or maybe not.

[fictualities]

What makes for a page-turning story? What's the engine that makes a narrative speed along like The Little Engine that Could? I've got a suggestion, one that I think works for at least some stories: hatred. You start out by drumming up a little hatred in your readers for the protagonist's enemies (like every single Harry Potter book does with the

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[fictualities]

*bounces* Eee, I LOVE those books! That's another great example of a harmonious and happy home life, of characters who are at peace with each other. But it says a lot about TDiR that they are even MORE free of conflict than this splendid example. Meg gets along great with her family, but school's another story, and the opening chapters have a lot in them about her frustrations at being different and her anger at any adult who dares to say anything about her father. TDiR has no equivalent of that tension between the hero and the world -- he's got good friends at school (who happen not to be around during the Christmas holiday, but he's got them. He's an accomplished boy soprano who's won prizes for his singing. In some way's it's spooky how well he's adjusted to his environment.

But I'm not really arguing against your point about A Wrinkle in Time -- I just think that TDiR occupies an even more extreme position on the spectrum of narratives focused on goodness. AWT is most definitely focused on good peoples' adventures in the world and sees hatred as quite literally toxic. In one of the AWT books -- I forget which -- Calvin does a science experiment that shows plants grow better in a friendly environment than in a room where people are always arguing. That's the AWT ethic right there.