In Madeleine L’Engle’s A Wrinkle in Time, Camazotz is the planet controlled by IT.
Meg Murry, Charles Wallace, and Calvin O’Keefe travel to Camazotz while searching for Meg and Charles Wallace’s missing father. The planet appears orderly because its inhabitants conform to a powerful controlling intelligence called IT. The apparent regularity hides the loss of freedom, individuality, and independent thought.
Camazotz is one of several planets visited during the children’s journey through space and time. The name also connects the novel to mythology: Camazotz is associated with a bat deity in Maya tradition, although L’Engle uses the term in her own science-fiction setting.
Readers may confuse the planet with Uriel, a more peaceful world visited earlier in the story. IT’s control is centered on Camazotz, where Charles Wallace becomes especially vulnerable to its influence.