Posted by: @sir-cabbage

However, I've no problem with Edmund liking it. 🤣 

I do.  I have a problem with it.

(Maybe I was just given really bottom-of-the-barrel Turkish Delight and need to give it another chance...maybe.  Still working up the courage).

@glenwit Well, Edmund is supposed to be a character we don't like (at first.) Maybe him having bad taste in candy fits in with that.  

I was able to give up many sweets for my health in the past few years. So I can identify with Edmund’s liking for Turkish Delight. It used to be very hard to stay away from the bars from the bakery in the college food service where I used to work.  But now I don’t have so much of a craving for sweets like chocolate and I can easily do without them. If you don’t eat them regularly you lose the taste for them. It may seem hard to do it at first, but later it becomes easier to resist food that is not good for you.

Posted by: @sir-cabbage

I'm afraid I do not rate Turkish Delight! A bit (very) too sickly-sweet for me!

I too wonder if that was the logic for Lewis selecting Turkish Delight in the first place.

i.e. that he chose an item of confectionery that the reader of the 1950s would instantly identify as being obviously over-indulgent and thus indicative of a greedy child.

I know there was that rumour a while back about a planned LWW adaptation in the 1990s which was going to use Cheeseburgers instead of Turkish Delight as a more modernised food reference, but for me that feels like the wrong sort of vibe (theres an element of practical logic to a hungry young child out in the cold asking for a Cheeseburger... The Turkish Delight however is pure indulgence).

To me the modern day equivalent would be the Cadbury Creme Egg - i.e something familiar enough to be relatable, but also not so mundane that it feels like a reasonable request from Edmund. A creme egg is something we recognise as not being a routine every day treat (unlike say a snickers bar), and it is perhaps overly sweet and sickly such that it lacks practical value as sustenance - thus the request for it is instantly framed as indulgent and greedy on both counts 

(Not that I'm for a second suggesting they change it - I'm more just thinking out loud as to how audiences of the time would have interpreted it compared to now)

Posted by: @icarus

Posted by: @sir-cabbage

I'm afraid I do not rate Turkish Delight! A bit (very) too sickly-sweet for me!

I too wonder if that was the logic for Lewis selecting Turkish Delight in the first place.

i.e. that he chose an item of confectionery that the reader of the 1950s would instantly identify as being obviously over-indulgent and thus indicative of a greedy child.

Since I read one of Dorothy Sayers' books a few years ago, I have wondered whether he could have gotten the idea from his old friend. In Strong Poison - chapter 22 - she mentions a "nauseating mess called Turkish Delight":

"Thank you," said Wimsey. "Do sit down. You have dined, of course? But you will have a cup of coffee. You prefer the Turkish variety, I fancy. My man brews it rather well."

Mr. Urquhart accepted the offer, and complimented Bunter on having achieved the right method of concocting that curiously syrupy brew, so offensive to the average Occidental.

Bunter thanked him gravely for his good opinion, and proffered a box of that equally nauseating mess called Turkish Delight, which not only gluts the palate and glues the teeth, but also smothers the consumer in a floury cloud of white sugar. Mr. Urquhart immediately plugged his mouth with a large lump of it, murmuring indistinctly that it was the genuine Eastern variety.

Dorothy Sayers doesn't seem to think much of this item of confectionery, and it seems she would agree with the term "sickly-sweet". The way she uses the item in her novel, may even have inspired Lewis further in his selection.

I don’t know if Turkish Delight is so popular among college students here in the U.S., although it was offered in the C. S. Lewis course that I took in the 1970’s.  That was mainly to show what Edmund ate in the first published Narnia book. But I asked one of the bakers in the food service if they ever made it. He replied that he had made it in baking school. So I guess it is kind of a delicacy which may be more popular in Britain and Europe.  But at least I was able to sample it only once decades ago. When Turkish Delight is mentioned I always think of the bars from the college bakery which seemed very similar. They are also very tempting and something that would probably be a strong temptation for Edmund. 🙂

My mom made it for me and some friends not long after we saw LWW in theaters. It did leave a bad aftertaste after consumption and I never ate it again. I recently came across a meme on facebook of Edmund eating Turkish Delight titled that if any of us found it gross then we are entitled to compensation.  

I'll be sticking to simple beignets.

I've never even tried Turkish Delight — it's just one of those things that don't appeal to me and that I know would be too sickly sweet for my tastes anyway. But like most others here, I've no problem with Edmund liking it. It's clear enough, as someone else said, that Lewis picked it out as an over-the-top and slightly exotic-sounding choice for Edmund to show his greed and self-indulgence, which is an important feature of the plot here.

One thing I remember noting in another discussion a while back was that none of the adaptations of LWW I've ever watched or heard — three film / TV versions and two radio plays, plus one stage play — have ever mentioned specifically what the book does, that the Witch's Turkish Delight is enchanted and will make those who eat it want to go on and on eating it till they kill themselves. That's something that stood out hugely to me when I first read the book (or had it read to me, rather) as a young child, because it was so chilling — we all know, as kids, what it's like to crave some favourite treat and then feel sick after having too much of it, but what if you just couldn't stop stuffing yourself with it? It's the perfect way for Lewis to explain Edmund's predicament to young readers, without using a term like "addiction" that wouldn't fit in with the tone of the book. (But without me, at that age, even knowing what addiction was, I reckon that scene in LWW had a lot to do with my decision early on never to even try recreational drugs of any sort.)

Getting back to the point, though, the book makes clear — through Lewis-as-narrator's explanation — that Edmund's decision to ally himself to the Witch isn't solely based on her appealing to his gluttony for sweet foods and his ambition to rule over his brother and sisters; she's actually hooked him in with evil magic that keeps him wanting more and more Turkish Delight until he can't think of anything else or enjoy the good, honest, natural food that the Beavers provide. I'm guessing the reason why none of the adaptations include that detail is that it's given in the narrator's voice and would be too awkward to fit into a screen version or stage play, although the two radio versions could easily have used the narrator (they both have one) to make the comment about the Turkish Delight's powers.

If I were writing a new screen adaptation, though, I'd put it in where, after the others realise that Edmund has disappeared from the Beavers' house, Mr Beaver remarks, "He had the look of one who has been with the Witch and eaten her food." One of the other children could ask at that point: "Eaten her food? What do you mean?", so that one of the Beavers (perhaps Mrs Beaver, to give her a few more lines!) could reply with something like: "We know that the Witch has ways of enchanting food — usually some sweet treat — so that anyone who tastes it will want to go on and on eating it, even till they kill themselves. You mark my words, that's what she's done to Edmund."

I should probably add that even at the very young age (still in kindergarten) when I first encountered LWW, I already had an idea of what Turkish Delight was, since we have Cadbury / Fry's Turkish Delight chocolate bars in Australia. But as those were and are one of my dad's favourites, I was satisfied that Turkish Delight in our world isn't anything to be afraid of! (Still wouldn't eat it myself, though.)

I've tried Turkish Delight, and it's certainly something I wouldn't want to eat all the time. Though I reckon that too much of anything (candy or otherwise) can make you sick.

The White Witch could have tempted Edmund with anything, such as a chocolate bar or a caramel candy. Though CS Lewis obviously went with Turkish Delight. I'm sure he would have known about the different flavors, like rosewater, lemon, lime, orange, pistachio, mint, and cinnamon.

I've noticed that in the screen adaptions, when Edmund asks the White Witch if he could have some more and she says, "No", she does it in a harsh tone at first. In the book, she says it with a laugh. 

If I was doing a screen adaption, I would go by the book: that is have the White Witch say “no” with a laugh.