Humorous one-star reviews
On the topic of ratings, I must pass on this link to Amazon one-star reviews of classic literature. My favorite is the review of The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe.
“I bought these books to have something nice to read to my grandkids. I had to stop, however, because the books are nothing more than advertisements for 'Turkish Delight,' a candy popular in the U.K. The whole point of buying books for my grandkids was to give them a break from advertising, and here (throughout) are ads for this 'Turkish Delight'! How much money is this Mr. Lewis getting from the Cadbury’s chocolate company anyway? This man must be laughing to the bank.”
posted by Tim at 7:23 PM
18 Comments:
I've only read the first few pages of the first book in the Narnia Chronicles. Does Lewis make mention of some "Turkish Delight"?
Bah. As ane fule kno, it's Fry's Turkish Delight. (They're owned by Cadbury's these days but the name remains.)
And now I have to go out and buy some. Oh, the hardship.
jc, the Witch lures Edmund with Turkish Delight. Which is not the chocolate covered variety, but the one in powdered sugar.
The Turkish delight is enchanted and described from that perspective. As a kid, you do imagine that Turkish delight must be marvelous indeed.
I don't know how it is in England now, but most American kids have never had Turkish delight. Some kids have, however, and they are swiftly disabused of their Narnia impression. Instead of a beguiling treat, it more closely resembles hard rocks of flavorless gunk. THIS is what Edmund was craving for?!
You can recover some of your childhood feelings by sampling some real Turkish delight, known as Lokum in Turkish. The best place to get it is at its (purported) origin, the confectioner Haci Beker, near the Galata bridge in Istanbul. Fresh Turkish delight is soft. So long as its well wrapped it seems to last a week or two, then rapidly transforming into the familiar flavorless gunk. Turks often eat it with nuts inside.
For your Narnia party—the movie is coming!—you can make your own lokum. It's not that hard, although I admit I've never done it. Try that with a snickers!
As a side note, Lewis' enchanted lokum is a source of anti-Lewis sentiment in some quarters. The author of one site, apparently a few beers short of a six-pack, proclaims:
"Lewis' Chronicles of Narnia are nothing more than a manual of witchcraft for children. What Lewis is doing here is introducing the use of drugs in sorcery. ... What an "interesting" lesson for the kiddies from Mr. Lewis!!"
I suspect Lewis's Turkish Delight is the *actual* Turkish Delight. Soft, gelatinous cubes often with a kind of rose flavour and dusted - as bopeep wrote- in powdered sugar.
You can often pick it up homemade from Middle Eastern delis and restaurants/take-away shops.
It doesn't even *resemble* Fry's Turkish Delight.
I like both kinds.. the Fry's/Cadbury kind (which *is* soft, but coated in chocolate), and the real deal (which is softer, and suprisingly more flavourful if you're only used to the Fry's kind). It's not really hard to find the real thing in Australia, though obviously the Fry's kind is easier to get as it's sold in every supermarket, newsagency and corner store.
I think the significance of the Turkish Delight is that not only is it enchanted, but the children have come through the wardrobe from wartime Britain with evacuation and rationing (my parents have both said chocolates and sweets were virtually non-existent in their childhood).
The review made me laugh out loud.
Proper Turkish Delight (as opposed to the chocolate covered Fry's variety - do you remember those TV ads from the 70s?) is to die for and melts in the mouth... and the proper stuff has no gelatine and is therefore suitable for vegetarians - hoorah!
Fry's Turkish Delight has no gelatine in either (yes, I did go and buy some, although I'm being good and haven't eaten it yet!). The texture is created with pectins these days.
I've never found British Turkish Delight to be 'rocks of flavourless gunk', although I'll admit the Turkish stuff is much nicer.
I am amazed and amused at the 'witchcraft' accusations - do these crackpots not realise what the not-so-hidden agenda of the books is?? They were the only children's books sold in our church when I was a small child - it took me several years of Sunday School (and finally getting to the end of the sequence with The Last Battle) to twig.
I didn't realise they had dispensed with the gelatine - I might slum it and try some for old time's sake ;-)
Yes, the witchcraft comment is a bit ironic given some people are getting their knickers in a twist, on the basis that the new film risks sending an overt Christian message to their children (not sure why that is a problem per se - being overly PC or maybe a reaction to Christian fundamentalism?)
Tim, regarding the taste thing - it might be a difference in the tastes we are exposed to as we grow up, as well as the "wrong sort" of Turkish Delight - my brother brought a Hershey Bar from the States and we all tried some and I'm afraid we all thought it was revolting (and I am a serious chocoholic).
m...er... I didn't mean that last bit to sound so offensive ...
Hershey's has, IIRC, sour milk in it. I likened the taste to 'parmesan cheese' to be polite when American friends pressed me to try it (although privately my reaction is more like 'vomit', I'm afraid.
Fusses over books always amaze me. Perhaps I was less gullible as a child than some but no book ever influenced me to feel significantly different about anything - my 'religious' views such as they were came from school and parents, not Narnia; reading Diana Wynne Jones (my generation's Harry Potter) did not make me a Satanist or Wiccan; the only book-related thing I can think of is that the Swallows and Amazons books made me want to learn to swim so that I could go sailing. Evil and oppressive influences, clearly.
Your description just about sums it up (the chocolate I mean).
Yes, I have read Pullman's Dark materials trilogy and loved them, although completely disagreed with the sentiments (and his antipathy to CS Lewis)... although presumably as I am an adult, I am beyond the malign influences of the book ;-) .... Like you, I didn't even twig to the Christian message in CS Lewis's books as a child, despite a (relaxed) religious upbringing. They were just a great story.
Have you seen some of the other reviews in the link posted by Tim? There are some crackers - the one for Catch 22 was also particularly funny (and possibly true!)
Mmmmmmmm ... Turkish Delight ...
If you're stateside, on the west coast, a decent approximation would be "Aplets & Cotlets", if you can find them.
Shameless plug: http://www.libertyorchards.com/newac.asp
(no, I don't work for them)
Rick Brannan
LT username: supakoo
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Oh phooey. Now I'm going to have to take the bus to my town's only Persian grocery and buy some (real, fresh, homemade) Turkish delight.
{shakes fist in air} Damn you, anonymous one-star reviewer and C.S. Lewis! Damn you!!! {/fist}
Incidentally, aplets and cotlets *are* Turkish delight, as made with North American ingredients. These delicious sweets were created by two Armenian brothers who emigrated to Washington, and who decided to recreate "Rahat Locoum, the popular near eastern candy they had loved as children". ("Rahat locoum" apparently means perfumed delight, and it IS the original name for Turkish delight.)
Turkish Delight I associate with the anti-Islamist tone of the later Narnia chronicles, The Horse and His Boy etc.
Real fresh Turkish Delight is indeed barbarously divine, but Lewis was right that more than just a very little piece brings on nausea.
I think the Lewis/Islam/Turkey thing is both more complex than it might at first appear (eg., Aslan is the Turkish word for "lion") and less "significant." I don't think Lewis had a particular anti-Islamic axe to grind, but obviously he was interested in the problem of other religions in Christian thought.
I also note: This place needs a forum. This is just one of a number of non-feature conversations that I and other have clearly found interesting. (It would be nice if Turkish delight were an actual feature of LibraryThing; perhaps one piece for every 25 books cataloged?)
Yes, please, a forum, please!
But one which is integrated into LibraryThing and uses the same user profile. And maybe lets us discuss books as well ("See what are people are saying about Cryptonomicon" for example), and maybe doesn't really distinguish between the two, but kind of integrates the general idea of "discussion" into the whole site.
Because, like it or not, LibraryThing is no longer just about cataloguing your books - it's about mixing with the sort of people who think that's a wonderful idea. ;)
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