Bibliography

List of all the works mentioned throughout the course of the blog-


AllMoviesVideos. "Let the Feast Begin- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone". Youtube, Youtube. 13th Nov 2015, Web. 15th March 2018. 

Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. UK: Scholastic Ltd, 2009.

"Dystopia". Collins English Dictionary. 1st ed. Glasgow: HarperCollins Publishers. 2008.

Laetz. B. & Johnston, J. J. "What is Fantasy?" Philosophy and Literature, vol. 32 no. 1, 2008, pp. 161-172. Project MUSE, doi:10.1353/phl.0.0013

Lewis, C.S. On Three Ways Of Writing For Children. 1966.
http://myweb.scu.edu.tw/~jmklassen/scu99b/chlitgrad/3ways.pdf

Lewis, C.S. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. HarperCollins, 1994.

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. London: Bloomsbury, 1998.

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. London: Bloomsbury, 1999.

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Bloomsbury, 2001.

Tolkien, J. R. R. The Hobbit. London: George Allen & Unwin, 1975.

Warner Bros. Home Entertainment. ""Trolls Cooking Dwarves"- The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey- Available March 19". Youtube, Youtube. 20th Feb 2013, Web. 12th March 2018. 

Wizarding World. "Harry sneaks into Honeydukes- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban". Youtube, Youtube. 20th Dec 2017. Web. 15th March 2018.

Conclusion

As we come to the end of my blog, I would like to briefly summarise what I have analysed and argued here in relation to how food is used in different forms of fantasy fiction. It is to be noted that different fantasy genres can impact on the reading of food within the genre. I have argued how The Hobbit uses the unknown of high fantasy fiction to create an ambience of fear within a child reader and this is done with the process of someone becoming food, as the concept is completely foreign to them. I continued to look at how The Lion, The With and The Wardrobe uses its juvenile fantasy to teach its readers between right and wrong and depict moral lessons and the deception from characters such as the White Witch in the instance, as she uses treats to trick children into liking her displays this statement. Next, the Harry Potter series is the perfect low fantasy realm which incorporates the real and the unreal and this could be used to be relatable and for enticement purposes but also to appeal to a child's imagination, therefore, the mixture of common everyday food with magical sweets demonstrates this contrast. Finally, The Hunger Games depicts a common dystopia where there is obvious corruption, proving why the imbalance of food distribution and the control this one Capitol has over the food is symbolic for the hierarchy of the society they are apart of.

Overall, I hope I have analysed and discussed this area enough so you can see my point of view on the topic- I hope next time you pick up a fantasy book, you will think about the greater meaning of food within the text also as I believe food in fantasy fiction adds so much more to the narrative then we would initially believe.

Thanks for reading,


Emily

Food and corruption in dystopian fantasy

Finally, we have reached the last and the most recent of the fantasy novels I’m going to be looking at for my blog. This is none other than The Hunger Games (2008) by Suzanne Collins. I wanted to particularly look at this novel as it brings us into a whole different genre within fantasy fiction which none of the other three series cover- dystopian fantasy. Dystopia, as described by the Collins English Dictionary is “an imaginary place where everything is as bad as it can be” (176). The imaginary land makes the book fit into the fantasy genre, whilst still separating itself from other subgenres within fantasy due to the societal changes of the world. Basically, dystopian fiction depicts utter corruption, and in the case of The Hunger Games it makes no exception with even demonstrating the corruption of food.

The Hunger Games uses food as a symbol of control. We know this by the stark contrast by the lack of food we are shown in District 12 compared to when the characters travel to the Capitol, the richest land in this dystopia which controls all of the districts, and witness the consumption of food so grand they can barely believe their eyes. The readers first introduction of food is when Gale and Katniss meet in the forest to go hunting in order to feed their families. Collins writes:
""Look what I shot." Gale holds up a loaf of bread with an arrow stuck in it...It's real bakery bread, not the flat, dense loaves we make from our grain rations. I take it in my hands, pull out the arrow, and hold the puncture in the crust to my nose, inhaling the fragrance that makes my mouth flood with saliva. Fine bread like this is for special occasions." (8)
The description of this "real bakery bread" suggests an unfamiliarity to something that us readers, who are not apart of this society, would find unfathomable. That is because Collins is presenting this bread, a common and rather bland food, as something utterly incredible, to the point where the characters are drooling over it. It also shows just how poor these characters are if "fine bread like this is for special occassions", proving how they eat worse on a regular day to day basis.

thehungergames.wikia.com

If we are to contrast this with the presentation of food in the Capitol, the over the top decadence in the Capitol is noticeable and questionable, as why if a whole district was starving do they feel the need to have such lavish food? At Katniss' first meal in the capitol she describes a meal that comes at the press of "a button on the side of the table" and consists of "chicken and chunks of oranges cooked in a creamy sauce laid on a bed of pearly white grain, tiny peas and onions, rolls shaped like flowers, and for dessert, pudding the colour of honey" (79). This description here is so enticing and is something that would make anyone else salivate, unlike the poor characters from district 12 who salivate over bread. Katniss continues with her description by imagining how she would create the meal herself back home. She notes how chickens are "too expensive" so would have to replace it with a "wild turkey", however she would have to shoot an extra turkey "to trade for an orange" and continues to think about how she would be able to replicate this meal and how much more of a struggle it would be compared to it coming in "a press of a button" (79).  The Capitol obviously have access to whatever they please as they are the controllers of their society. It is to be suggested that they give this lavish food to people that visit from the poorer districts before they enter the hunger games not only to strengthen them up but to perhaps make them more happy and stop them from resisting their rules.

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Ultimately, they want all of the districts on side and through them sharing their wealth in the form of food this could help aid that. As well as this, food is an assertion of dominance, therefore by the capitol withholding it from the poorer districts it asserts the societies hierarchy. The use of reading food as a weapon for control works well within the dystopian genre due to the corrupt nature of the societies these worlds are set in, as this is considered their norm.

Thanks for reading,


Emily


Works cited-

Collins, Suzanne. The Hunger Games. UK: Scholastic Ltd, 2009.

"Dystopia". Collins English Dictionary. 1st ed. Glasgow: HarperCollins Publishers. 2008.

Harry Potter and Honeydukes

Alas, we have reached my penultimate novel I will be analysing, and the final in the Harry Potter series (sorry, I couldn’t just pick one). Now I couldn’t publish a blog about food in fantasy literature without looking at one of the most fantastical elements of food in all of fantasy literature- in my opinion. And that is, of course, the legendary Honeydukes sweet shop presented to us in Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban (1999). Rowling describes the shop as this:

“There were shelves upon shelves of the most succulent-looking sweets imaginable. Creamy chunks of nougat, shimmering pink squares of coconut ice, fat, honey-coloured toffees; hundreds of different kinds of chocolate in neat rows; there was a large barrel of Every Flavour Beans, and another of Fizzing Whizzbees, the levitating sherbet balls that Ron had mentioned; along yet another wall were ‘Special Effects’ sweets: Droobles Best Blowing Gum (which filled a room with bluebell-coloured bubbles that refused to pop for days), the strange, splintery Toothflossing Stringmints, tiny black Pepper Imps (‘breathe fire for your friends!’), Ice Mice (‘hear your teeth chatter and squeak!’), peppermint cream shaped like toads (‘hop realistically in the stomach!’), fragile sugar-spun quills and exploding bonbons.” (147)

Now, if that description isn’t enough to make any child want to go through all the ups and downs of the wizarding world just to get to that sweet shop then I’m not sure what will. Rowling entices us with sweet we are familiar with but uses adjectives such as “creamy” and “shimmering” to demonstrate just how delicious and beautiful they must be. Here we see the ordinary mixed with the extraordinary, which is again enticing for the child reader, we want to be in this sweet shop, experiencing what we have never experienced. The lengthy description of magical sweets really cements the world of fantasy we are in in this moment in time, it is like noting we could every imagine.

I couldn’t write about food depicted in Harry Potter without discussing this scene. Ultimately, it appears Rowling is appealing to every young readers fantasy. This is important whilst considering the novels low fantasy genre, as it would surely be more appealing to a young child reader if they can ever so slightly relate, yet expand on what they know and imagine sweets in there most extreme and fantastic capacity.

Thanks for reading,

Emily

Works cited-

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. London: Bloomsbury, 1999.

Wizarding World. "Harry sneaks into Honeydukes- Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban". Youtube, Youtube. 20th Dec 2017. Web. 15th March 2018.

Desserts in low fantasy

As stated in my previous entry, the Harry Potter series begins to become more high fantasy as it progresses, though early on a lot of the low fantasy elements are still incorporated. This makes no exception for the second novel of the series, Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. The food in question I am going to be looking at in this post is none other than delicious desserts. And I’m sure when we think of cake in comparison to this novel, our attention is drawn to Aunt Petunia’s cake like desert that gets dropped on the head of the Dursley’s dinner party guests by Dobby the house elf. Prior to this scene Rowling writes how “the Dursley’s hadn’t even remembered that today happened to be Harry’s twelfth birthday” and had “never given him a proper present, let alone a cake” (9). Before the Dursley’s summon Harry off to his room for the evening, Harry notices Aunt Petunia’s pudding on top of the fridge: “a huge mound of whipped cream and sugared violets” (13). Us readers are all quite aware of how horrible Harry was treated by the Dursley’s throughout the series, and this scene can be seen as the icing on the cake of their complete hatred for him (pardon the pun). It’s his birthday and he doesn’t get a cake, yet the guests are allowed an indulgent pudding! Not only that, the pudding is described as a “master piece” (20) and the use of “whipped cream and sugared violets” gives the food a level of decadence, it is a special desert. Therefore, this demonstrates how Rowling is using the lack of and the presence of food here to show the relationship Harry has with the Dursley’s. The scene progresses into new territory where we see the fantastic combined with the real, after Harry and Dobby have a confrontation, as the scene states: “Aunt Petunia’s masterpiece of a pudding, the mountain of cream and sugared violets, was floating near the ceiling” (20). This turns the normal into the abnormal, reminding the reader that in this low fantasy realm, even something ordinary can be altered. I believe Rowling does this effect with objects such as food as every reader of the text can relate to it.

harrypotter.wikia.com

Following on, the use of cupcakes in a later scene used by Harry, Ron and Hermione in order to entice Crabbe and Goyle to eat them although they are laced with sleeping draft is clever. They are described as "plump chocolate cakes" (159), and the adjective "plump" really creates a fullness, as if these cake are round and thick, which is perfect for Crabbe and Goyle, who are described to be "greedy" with "large mouths" (160). Low and behold, the cakes were ultimately too enticing for the boys and they walked right into the trap. Once again, this scene demonstrates similarly what the previous scene discussed is doing. It demonstrates an incorporation of ordinary food with the un-ordinary circumstance of being within a magical world. The use of these foods that regular people can identify with is not only appealing to the novels characters yet it reminds us as readers that this is not a complete fantasy-land.

harrypotter.wikia.com

Thanks for reading

Emily

Works cited- 

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets. London: Bloomsbury, 1998.

Food as comfort in low fantasy

Moving forward the later half of the twentieth century, we arrive at yet another one of the most famous series within fantasy literature of all time, and that is, of course, Harry Potter! I choose low fantasy as the texts genre here as I am only going to be addressing the early Harry Potter novels, though it is apparent that the series does progress to a more high fantasy realm. It is categorised as more of a low fantasy world then if we would compare it to say The Hobbit, due to there being an element within each of the novel set in the real world, it isn’t all set in a parallel, imaginary land. This real world element is crucial to each narrative throughout Harry Potter also, whether it is depicting Harry’s awful home life or Ron’s rural country home or seeing the characters navigate their way across England in order to look for clues to destroy Voldemort. Ultimately, without the fantasy elements mixed with the realistic elements, we would not have the Harry Potter narrative as we know it.

This clarification in genre is important when looking at how we should read food within the Harry Potter series, as it is a text which includes real world food with multiple magical dishes, which allows the readers to clarify that this not specifically the world or a fake world- it is both. I would firstly like to look at The Philosopher’s stone (1997) and question why the very first meal the children are given at Hogwarts is none other than the British classic- a roast dinner. Though the food magically appears from nowhere, Rowling writes how “he had never seen so many things he liked to eat on one table: roast beef, roast chicken, pork chops and lamb chops, sausages, bacon and steak, boiled potatoes, roast potatoes, chips, Yorkshire pudding, peas, carrots, gravy, ketchup and, for some strange reason, mint humbugs” (92). This is a description of food I’m sure the majority of British readers of the novel will relate to and may even have our own stomachs rumbling. A roast dinner is known as traditional comfort food in our society, therefore I argue that Rowling strategically has this grand meal on the children’s first day at Hogwarts as not only a welcome dinner but to put them more at ease with their surroundings. These children have just left their normal lives to come and live out the rest of their teenage years in the magical halls of Hogwarts. This roast dinner can be seen as a sign of comfort, a taste of home, perhaps a promise to keep them happy and safe (however I’m sure we are all aware that that is most certainly not the case. I have inserted the scene from the movie below, so we can witness the beauty of the feast in its entirety.

Thanks for reading!

Emily

Works cited-

Rowling, J. K. Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone. Bloomsbury, 2001.

AllMoviesVideos. "Let the Feast Begin- Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone". Youtube, Youtube. 13th Nov 2015, Web. 15th March 2018.

Food as an object of trust and temptation in juvenile fantasy

Now, let’s take a jump over to 1950, the book in discussion today is none other than the most infamous of the seven texts published by C. S. Lewis from his series The Chronicles of Narnia, The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. I would classify the text in the realm of juvenile fantasy. Though all the texts I am going to be discussing on this blog could be contended to be juvenile fantasies as they are intended for children, as well as a wider audience, Lewis’ world of Narnia appears to the most juvenile in its narrative due to his allegorical symbolism. This tells the reader that the narrative was written with the intent on teaching us a moral lesson, whereas this could be more argued for other texts within the fantasy genre.

The use of food throughout The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe appears to be used as a symbol of trust. From the first point where Lucy enters Narnia, she befriends the faun, Mr Tumnus, whom asks: “how would it be if you came to have tea with me?” (13). After Lucy declines Mr Tumnus persists and manages to persuade her round by promising her “toast- and sardines- and cake” (13). Little are we aware of in the beginning that Mr Tumnus is being persistent to capture Lucy for the White Witch, which suggests why he threw a decadent spread, in order to get her to stick around for as long as possible: “And it really was a wonderful tea. There was a nice brown egg, lightly boiled…and then sardines on toast, and then buttered toast with honey, and then a sugar-topped cake” (16). This initial introduction to food in Narnia proves how Mr Tumnus was using it as a tool of deceit. This is further demonstrated by the White Witch, when she gains Edmunds admiration by giving him “something hot to drink” whilst he was so cold “his teeth were chattering” (37). This shows the queen being maternal towards Edmund and looking after him, which would in turn create a bond of trust between them. The most iconic scene including food throughout the text is obviously the infamous Turkish Delight. It is described that “each piece was sweet and light to the very centre and Edmund had never tasted anything more delicious…this was enchanted Turkish Delight and that anyone who had once tasted it would want more and more of it, and even, if they were allowed, go on eating it till they killed themselves” (38-39). This was a cunning move from the White Witch, in giving a young Edmund his favourite treat and promising him that if he returns to Narnia to see her along with his siblings that she would be able to give him “some more Turkish Delight” (39).

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Lewis states himself in his essay On Three Ways of Writing for Children (1966), how food is the most tempting and enticing mode as it is the most easily accessible form of pleasure. Lewis pens how once “a man, who has children of his own, said, ‘Ah, I see how you got to that. If you want to please grown-up readers you give them sex, so you thought to yourself, “That won’t do for children, what shall I give them instead? I know! The little blighters like plenty of good eating.”’ In reality, however, I myself like eating and drinking. I put in what I would have liked to read when I was a child” (1).

To summarise, from this reading and analysis of food in The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe, it is apparent how food is a temptation for children. Therefore, Lewis included it within his characters who intended to deceive the children as they would become more trustworthy figures to the children they were trying to betray. If we relate this to the genre of juvenile fantasy, the lesson being taught here can be put as simply as this: don't take sweets from strangers!

Thanks for reading,

Emily

Works cited-

Lewis, C.S. On Three Ways Of Writing For Children. 1966.
http://myweb.scu.edu.tw/~jmklassen/scu99b/chlitgrad/3ways.pdf

Lewis, C.S. The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe. HarperCollins, 1994.