2010 August 11 » Birdbrain(ed) Book Blog

Turkish Delight

Posted by Anastasia on August 11, 2010 No Responses »

Aug 112010

I haven’t read the Chronicles of Narnia series in a while, at least four or five years. I don’t even remember if I’ve read the entire thing or not, but I do remember reading The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe more than once. One thing that always puzzled me was Edmund’s betrayal of his family (and Aslan, of course). Why did he do over something so dull as candy?

Edmund, as you may recall, was for some reason obsessed with Turkish Delight and getting as much of it in his mouth as possible. I remember reading the scene where the Witch seduces him into betraying his siblings by waving a tray of the stuff in his face, and his response being basically “yeah whatever give me the stuff nom nom nom.” The first time I read TLTWATW I had no idea what Turkish Delight was, let alone why Edmund was so gaga for it.

Then, this past Saturday, my family and I went to World Market, an overpriced imported goods store that had a lot of tempting candy selections. Luckily I had a coupon and could indulge a bit, and so I bought various candies from around the world– including a box of Turkish Delight. I specifically bought it with Edmund in mind, wondering what it would taste like and would it really be worth throwing my family under the bus for? But really all I was hoping was that it didn’t taste nasty because then I’d have wasted nearly $5.

Well. It’s not nasty. I actually really like the taste: rose and lemon with the sprinkling of sugar on top. It’s fun to eat, and while I eat it I feel very luxurious and rich. And isn’t that why Edmund wanted to eat it, too?

The Lion, The Witch and the Wardrobe takes place during World War II, when England was on rations and candy was seriously hard to come by. All of the children wanted to indulge themselves– remember that dinner scene with the beavers, with the food lovingly described?– it’s just that Edmund wanted to indulge himself to excess.

I didn’t get that before, when I was younger. I just though Edmund was silly and stupid and greedy, and while he was he was also a little boy who missed having sweets (and a stable home, probably) and was lured into a bad situation by an adult who needed to get a different hobby than conquering fantasy worlds. Getting a different perspective on a character I previously actively disliked is a pretty interesting experience, and I can’t begrudge the nearly $5 I spent to have it. And since I know what happened to Edmund when he ate too much Turkish Delight, I’m going to close the lid on this box of Turkish Delight and put it away again before I eat too much myself– and barf all over this keyboard. Five pieces seems to be my limit. Ugh.

Have you ever suddenly gotten a different perspective on a character? Did it make you understand them or the story better? How did it happen to you?

Review: The Pirate Queen by Barbara Sjoholm

Posted by Anastasia on August 11, 2010 No Responses »

Aug 112010

131. The Pirate Queen by Barbara Sjoholm
Publication: Seal Press (June 1, 2004), Hardcover, 288pp / ISBN 158005109X
Genre: History, Memoir, Travel
Rating:
Read: June 2010
Source: Library
Summary from Amazon:

The Pirate Queen begins in Ireland with the notorious Grace O’Malley, a scourge to the most powerful fleets of sixteenth-century Europe. This Irish clan chieftain and pirate queen was a contemporary of Elizabeth I, and a figure whose life is the stuff of myth. Regularly raiding English ships caught off Ireland’s west coast, O’Malley purportedly fought off fierce Algerian pirates just hours after giving birth to her son. She commanded two hundred men (and a couple of husbands), and acquired lands and castles that still dot the Irish coastline today. But O’Malley was not alone, especially in the waters of the North Atlantic where author Barbara Sjoholm traveled through coastal communities and seafaring ports to collect these little-known stories. Since ancient times, women have rowed and sailed, commanded and fished, built boats and owned fleets. Yet their incredible contributions have been nearly erased from the history books, as have the myths of seal women, Finn wives, and storm witches. In The Pirate Queen, Sjoholm brings some of these extraordinary stories back to life, taking the reader on an unforgettable journey in this meticulously researched, colorfully written, and truly original work. Illustrations and maps add to these intriguing swashbuckling tales.

Review

I got this from the library after reading one of Ms Sjoholm’s short stories in Go Your Own Way: Women Travel the World Solo . Though I enjoyed it (The Pirate Queen), it’s already been surpassed by another of her books (Incognito Street), so writing this review will be difficult because I’ll have to disassociate the second book from this book, and that’s hard to me to do. Because the second book is so. good. This one is good. But it’s not as good. You know?

The Pirate Queen: In Search of Grace O’Malley and Other Legendary Women of the Sea is about Ms Sjoholm’s researching of ancient tales about seafaring women. She physically went searching for them, actually going to the places where seafaring women lived and worked, and that right there is something that blows my mind. Because how often do people actually do physical research, off of their computers, today? Even if you need an article from a library in another country, you can just ask to have it scanned and emailed to you. You can join newsgroups to find descendants of whatever. Heck, you could even ask on Twitter “does anyone know anything about seafaring women from ancient times?” and probably get a ton of responses. I suppose researching is harder with more obscure topics, like the one Ms Sjoholm was researching, but still. It’s pretty mind-boggling to me how far we’ve come since Ms Sjoholm wrote this book. How much easier it is to find out what we want to know– but maybe less fun. I know that I’d rather go on a sea voyage down the side of Norway than sit around on my computer for hours at a time.

Anyway, she goes on this long trip searching for women of the sea. She starts with the most well-known, Grace O’Malley, the Pirate Queen from Ireland. I knew a little bit about her from reading The Gift of the Pirate Queen, but I knew nothing of what Ms Sjoholm turned up: that she was a warrior, a pirate, a wily old woman who knew what she wanted and got it. She supposedly gave birth to a son and then immediately afterward fought off invading Algerian corsairs — she was awesome, and I’d love to read a book that goes more in depth about her life.

Even more interesting than Grace O’Malley, though, were the fisherwomen of Iceland and Norway. There’s this whole sequence in the book where Ms Sjoholm is trying to dig up info about the women who went out fishing and all she runs into is stodgy old men who insist that there was never any female fishers. “What about Skipper Thuridur,” Ms Sjoholm said (I’m paraphrasing, here). “Oh, her. Well, maybe she fished, but no other women did,” the Stodgy Old Dudes said (again, I’m paraphrasing). Ms Sjoholm knew there were fisherwomen, though, from talking with the FEMALE descendants, and it all makes for an entertaining, if slightly frustrating, story.

The Pirate Queen isn’t just about women of the sea, however. It’s also about Barbara Sjoholm herself. She wasn’t just searching for women who defied the norm, she was searching for her true name as well. And, I suppose, she was looking for validation on wanting to travel and explore– but you’ll have to read the book yourself to get more info on that.

I really enjoyed The Pirate Queen. Sometimes the switching from the retelling of a historical woman’s life to Ms Sjoholm’s life was a little rough, and the beginning was a little bit boring. By the end of the book, however, all I wanted to do was read more about Ms Sjoholm’s travels, about the women she dug up from obscurity, and about sea journeys in general. If you’re interested in travel books, in history, in women who did what they wanted and didn’t apologize for it, then I think you’d like reading this book. It’s a lot of fun, and look! I guess I didn’t have such a hard time writing about it, after all.