Det är bra att överväga i tidens sammanhang. Rationeringar var i kraft i andra världskriget England, och turkiska Delights var en speciell delikatess som var populär vid den tiden och svår att komma ifrån. Tänk också på att maten i allmänhet var mindre sockerförpackad än många av de alternativ vi har idag, så många livsmedel som vi kanske anser "nedslående" skulle ha haft ett mycket annorlunda intryck av människorna i deras tid. Från en artikel för några år sedan angående denna exakta fråga:
The question of Turkish Delight often becomes still more perplexing when a young Narnia fan actually eats the stuff, and finds that it does not live up to Edmund’s rapturous praises. As with so many things in pop culture, the answer lies in the context, and since we’re living in a beautiful future, an academic article has stepped in to tell us all about the importance of Delight.
According to food critic Cara Strickland, the Turkish sweet cast an intoxicating spell over late-Victorian England. Made from a confection of rose oil and sugar, the candy is simple on paper, but proves extremely difficult to make – no matter how Western Europeans tried, they never quite replicated it. Thus, if you wanted real Delight, you had to import it from Turkey, which got expensive fast, so that it became a marker of either status or indulgence in much the way the way coffee had a century earlier.
Of course just as costs had gone down, the outbreak of World War II and its subsequent rationing meant that the candy was harder than ever to come by. Perhaps this is why it became so significant to Lewis? As he welcomed refugee children into his Oxford neighborhood, he thought back on the candies and holidays that had marked his own childhood.
It makes sense that Turkish delight would have been on Lewis’s brain as he crafted a book where Christmas features as a main theme. In Narnia, it is “always winter and never Christmas,” a product of the White Witch’s evil magic. It makes sense to draw a parallel between this dismal fantasy and the stark realities of wartime. Rationing extended to timber, which made Christmas trees harder to come by, and confectionery rationing didn’t end until February of 1953—still well before the end of sugar rationing later that year. When the White Witch asks Edmund what he’d like best to eat, it’s entirely possible that Lewis was answering for him: the candy that would be most difficult and expensive to obtain. Edmund isn’t just asking the witch for candy, he’s essentially asking her for Christmas, too.
Varför var Turkish Delight den ultimata frestelsen i CS Lewis 'Narnia? - Leah Schnelbach
Den artikel som jag har refererat sammanfattar och citerar från en artikel som skrevs av Cara Strickland. Hon går långt mer djupt i frågan, bland annat påpekar Lewis fascination med turkiska kulturen ( Aslan är till synes det turkiska ordet för Lion). Det är alldeles för långt och detaljerat att inkludera, så jag rekommenderar att du checkar ut direkt om du vill gå djupare .
Så det var i grunden både en kulturell delikatess vid den tiden och som artikeln spekulerar, sannolikt något av en specifik koppling till Lewis själv.