After an unjustifiably long hiatus (5 weeks!), The Daily Ant is back. And time is on our mind. Ant wrinkles in time.

As consumers of mammalian media surely know already, Ant Wrinkle in Time hit theaters yesterday. Based on the Madeleine L’Engle novel of the same name, Ant Wrinkle in Time tells the story of an ant that sets out to travel through interstellar space on a string.

Given the proclivities of the era in which it was published, this moving novel was, tragically, forced to be re-written from a vertebrate perspective. Publishers found a willing accomplice in L’Engle, who two decades later would lay her anti-ant biases bare for all to see:

The problem of pain, of war and the horror of war, of poverty and disease is always confronting us. But a God who allows no pain, no grief, also allows no choice. There is little unfairness in a colony of ants, but also there is little freedom.

— Madeleine L’Engle, Walking on Water: Reflections on Faith and Art (1982)

Although relegated to a mere supporting role, including descriptions of the female worker as “he” (see the antesthetized image above), our ant hero nevertheless features prominently in the published work. Thankfully, such prominants carries forward into the newly-released film:

Although we have not yet seen the formicid flick, we are wholly unsurprised at the tepid reviews Ant Wrinkle in Time has received thus far. The vertebrate critic complex can barely stand the appearance of ants in any film context. It’s no wonder that such a positive portrayal of our traveling ant, even one adapted in subservience to mammalian preferences, offends mainstream sapien sensibilities.

For its radical inclusion of ants against all odds, we give Ant Wrinkle in Time an enthusiastic six tarsi up.