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. 🙂