#SQUADGOALS (38)

By: Anindita Basu Sempere
September 20, 2017

One in a series of enthusiastic posts, contributed by HILOBROW friends and regulars during 2017, on the subject of our favorite squads.

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Meg Murry from A Wrinkle in Time was not a heroine one dreamed of becoming but one I could imagine being. She wasn’t pretty, popular, and plucky — the kind of girl who knew how to wield femininity as a weapon. She wore glasses and excelled at math, and she was too uncompromising for common friendship.

An oddball and misfit, she couldn’t bring herself to care about anything related to school, even in the moments she wanted to make life easier for herself. Her principal described her as “the most belligerent, uncooperative child in school.” Her classes were irrelevant, and what she cared about and loved most — her family — was misunderstood and ridiculed.

Her father had disappeared. Town gossip said he had left Mrs. Murry, the beautiful and brilliant scientist, for another woman. Meg knew this wasn’t true, but she had no evidence to the contrary. Her baby brother Charles Wallace had been a silent toddler, and while the family knew of his genius, everyone else believed he was “not quite bright” and “subnormal.” These judgments, and the smug superficiality behind them, made Meg furious.

She was quick to jump to the defense of her squad, the family she loved and who loved her back as she was. Over the course of the Time Quartet, Meg and her family repeatedly stood up for love and goodness and what was right no matter how difficult. They shared in their stubbornness, humanity, independence, and integrity.

Meg eventually became Mother to a sprawling brood of smart and difficult children, some of whom went on to have adventures of their own. As she explained to her eldest daughter Polly in A House Like a Lotus, their family — the Murrys and O’Keefes — fought “on the side of angels.”

Brilliant, flawed, and idealistic, they followed their callings around the globe and sometimes across space and time. But no matter the physical or temporal distance, they held tight to each other and always found their way home.

***

#SQUADGOALS: Annie Nocenti on THE WILD BUNCH | Alice Boone on PRETTY LITTLE LIARS | Gordon Dahlquist on BOWIE’S BAND | Rob Wringham on THE HOME GUARD | Jennifer Krasinski on WATERSHIP DOWN RABBITS | Annalee Newitz on ROBIN HOOD’S MERRY PALS | Adrienne Crew on THE BLOOMSBURY GROUP | Mark Kingwell on THE HONG KONG CAVALIERS | Adam McGovern on KAMANDI’S FAMILY | John Overholt on THE CLUB | Greg Rowland on THE VULTURE SQUADRON | Sara Ryan on BETSY, TACY & TIB | Chelsey Johnson on VI ÄR BÄST! | Brian Berger on THE JOHN FORD STOCK COMPANY | Sherri Wasserman on THE WARRIORS | Jessamyn West on FAREYNIKTE PARTIZANER ORGANIZATSYE | Josh Glenn on DADA | Matthew De Abaitua on THE TIME | Mandy Keifetz on THE FOUNDING FATHERS | William Nericcio on ZOOT SUIT PACHUCOS | Deb Chachra on FIREFLY CREW | Matthew Battles on THE ANIMAL FAMILY | Ingrid Schorr on THE HARLEM GLOBETROTTERS | Joe Alterio on THE USUAL GANG OF IDIOTS | Dan Reines on THE BREAKFAST CLUB | Rob Walker on LES TROIS INSÉPARABLES | Devin McKinney on 1975 RED SOX | Steph Burt on DAMAGE CONTROL | Elina Shatkin on THE HOLOGRAMS | Chris Spurgeon on THE ALKALI METALS | Carl Wilson on NEW YORK SCHOOL POETS | Barbara Bogaev on THE MOD SQUAD | Franklin Bruno on THE AACM | Judith Zissman on THE FUTURIANS | Mimi Zeiger on ARCHIGRAM | Jacob Mikanowski on THE RATBASTARDS | Lynn Peril on THE DALY SISTERS | Anindita Basu Sempere on MEG MURRY’S FAMILY | Libi Rose on THE ENIAC TEAM | Gary Panter on THE TRIBE OF HIPPIES | Peter Doyle on CORNEL WILDE BOYS | Ken Layne on THE MONKEY WRENCH GANG | Molly Wright Steenson on BAUHAUS | Katie Hennessey on BEAT POETS | Mimi Lipson on THE RUNAWAYS | Jordan Ellenberg on BOURBAKI | Michael Campochiaro on THE SUICIDE SQUAD | Deborah Wassertzug on THE BLOODHOUND GANG | Colin Dickey on ACÉPHALE | Douglas Wolk on SEVEN SOLDIERS OF VICTORY | David Smay on THE MYSTIC KNIGHTS OF THE OINGO BOINGO | Karinne Keithley Syers on BLACKLIPS PERFORMANCE CULT.

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