“Why is a raven like a
writing-desk?” - the Mad Hatter in Alice
in Wonderland.
Although,
according to Carroll himself, the riddle originally had no answer, he supplied
an “afterthought” answer in his preface in a later edition. His answer was that
it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat, and it is never put with
the wrong end in front. Of course,
this opened up a plethora of unique, proposed answers and contests.
Here are my favorites:
1) Both have
quills dipped in ink – David B. Jodrey
2) Because one
has flapping fits and the other fitting flaps – Peter Veale
3) Because a
writing-desk is a rest for pens and a raven is a pest for wrens - Tony Weston
4) Because it bodes ill for owed bills -
Francis Huxley
(answers taken from The Annotated Alice: The Definitive Edition by Martin Gardner)
No comments:
Post a Comment