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C.S. Lewis's Greatest Fiction: Telling Kids They’d Like Turkish Delight (2015)

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Re: C.S. Lewis's Greatest Fiction: Telling Kids They’d Like Turkish Delight (2015)

#121

Post by devdas »

jon_richards wrote: post #80
lovich wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you could name some of those I would like to try them. As an american interacting with immigrants and their food I've had a problem where everything they call desert tastes like a dinner item to me due to the lack of sugar. I can't imagine what too sweet for Americans could even be considering I happily ate nutella or pure sugar by the spoonful as a child

I don't know the names of them, but a lot of Indian sweets are sugar-based (or milk- and sugar-based), with only a bit of flour and some mild spices/flavours added. It isn't necessarily that Indian sweets are "too sweet", it's that they taste like sugar ("Duh, that's why they're called sweets"). They often use much larger sugar crystals, which greatly reduces the sweetness (its a surface area thing) and use unrefined…

The sugar stuff in that picture is called "sakhar phutane" in Marathi.

Re: C.S. Lewis's Greatest Fiction: Telling Kids They’d Like Turkish Delight (2015)

#123

Post by dnh44 »

opk wrote: post #92
jballanc wrote: post #61

The Turkish Delight in "The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe" was, for me, one of the first and clearest examples of how literature can project, even if unintentionally, a skewed view of a culture that bears little to no resemblance to reality. I remember a while back having a debate over dinner (and eventually dessert) with friends as to which European country has the best variety and overall quality of desserts. I…

For the best quality and variety of food in Europe, you're actually best off going to London because you can get everything. Italy (and to some extent France) suffer from a superiority complex with the result that it's hard to get anything other than Italian food. Best food I've had in Italy is in Puglia where there's more sea food. And otherwise, you get better Italian food in the US. Much of what you'd think of as…

London (not the UK, but just London) does indeed have a wider variety of food than Italy, but quality wise I would strongly disagree and feel that Italy is leagues ahead of the UK in terms of food quality.

Re: C.S. Lewis's Greatest Fiction: Telling Kids They’d Like Turkish Delight (2015)

#124

Post by abritinthebay »

pbhjpbhj wrote: post #112
abritinthebay wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

While true, Hershey's contains a lot more . That's why it tastes stronger. Why? We don't know, trade secret, but it's assumed the milk is lipolized somewhere in their process - as that would produce more of the acid.

An industrial chemist giving a public lecture on chocolate production at a UK University informed that the issue was that milk would go bad due to getting hot whilst collected and poor ongoing refrigeration. Thus Hershey was made with spoilt milk, and tasted as it does. When they were able to fix it there was opposition from the customers as they'd grown accustomed to the taste (of spoilt milk). They thus added the f…

haha, well it's quite possible: stranger things have happened.

I doubt it's verifiable but it seems reasonable. It's possible that it's lipolyized to stop it from spoiling so fast (as it would) and that could start that kind of story.

They also used to add various oil-based emulsifiers that European chocolate doesn't - which is why it has a much more greasy texture.

Re: C.S. Lewis's Greatest Fiction: Telling Kids They’d Like Turkish Delight (2015)

#125

Post by olavk »

ng12 wrote: post #119
olavk wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You use words like "plot" and "cabal" to make it sound like its a bizarre conspiracy theory. But Lewis himself have written openly and at length about his use of Christian theology in the stories, and its pretty blatant, veering into preaching in some passages. And it is pretty clear he presents the "middle eastern" culture in a negative light, because they don't embrace "Aslan" but worship a fake God. I don't see wh…

So your argument is that because Lewis was a devout Christian he must have also been a xenophobe? He was also a renowned expert in medeival European history, isn't it more likely that's where the inspiration came from?

No, my argument is that the books deliberately show the "middle eastern" culture and religion in a negative light in order to present Christianity as the best and only true religion.

Re: C.S. Lewis's Greatest Fiction: Telling Kids They’d Like Turkish Delight (2015)

#126

Post by QuercusMax »

Arananthi wrote: post #122

Has no one ever heard of Aplets and Cotlets? Shit sells like hotcakes, and it's literally just Turkish Delight with an Americanized name. This author has no idea what he's on about.

Never heard of it before this thread. Google tells me it's a Washington State thing. Is it available outside of Washington?

Re: C.S. Lewis's Greatest Fiction: Telling Kids They’d Like Turkish Delight (2015)

#127

Post by ng12 »

olavk wrote: post #125
ng12 wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So your argument is that because Lewis was a devout Christian he must have also been a xenophobe? He was also a renowned expert in medeival European history, isn't it more likely that's where the inspiration came from?

No, my argument is that the books deliberately show the "middle eastern" culture and religion in a negative light in order to present Christianity as the best and only true religion.

Have you read the books? Tash is explicitly a demon-type figure who rules through fear. I think you're projecting quite a bit.

Re: C.S. Lewis's Greatest Fiction: Telling Kids They’d Like Turkish Delight (2015)

#128

Post by olavk »

ng12 wrote: post #127
olavk wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, my argument is that the books deliberately show the "middle eastern" culture and religion in a negative light in order to present Christianity as the best and only true religion.

Have you read the books? Tash is explicitly a demon-type figure who rules through fear. I think you're projecting quite a bit.

Yes, Tash is presented as the evil religion compared to good and just Aslan. What exactly are you arguing?

Re: C.S. Lewis's Greatest Fiction: Telling Kids They’d Like Turkish Delight (2015)

#129

Post by ng12 »

olavk wrote: post #128
ng12 wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Have you read the books? Tash is explicitly a demon-type figure who rules through fear. I think you're projecting quite a bit.

Yes, Tash is presented as the evil religion compared to good and just Aslan. What exactly are you arguing?

That whatever parallel you're trying to draw between Tash/Aslan and Christians/non-Christians doesn't really hold water. In fact I'd argue the message is the opposite -- that because the Calormen have a different culture, believe different things, and occasionally fight with Narnia doesn't mean they're bad people.
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