ADSactly Literature: Why is a raven like a writing desk?

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Mad Hatter: 'Why is a raven like a writing-desk?'
...
'Have you guessed the riddle yet?' the Hatter said, turning to Alice again.
'No, I give it up,' Alice replied: 'What’s the answer?'
'I haven’t the slightest idea,' said the Hatter'

I remember reading once in a book the answer to this famous riddle and being terribly excited, because no one had come up with a solution and yet, here it was, someone had finally got it. And then, I went online, to see what other people were making of it, and I realized I was wrong. People have come up with loads of solutions since Lewis Carroll wrote this incredibly puzzling riddle, and yet none is the right one. And they all are, at the same time.
Lewis Carroll (the pen name of mathematician Charles Lutwidge Dodgson) was a man who admittedly did not like endings. He couldn't bear saying goodbye or finding definite answers for something. A bit ironic, him being a mathematician and all, but I guess it only adds to the great enigma Carroll was. In fact, if you take a more careful look through his stories, you will find plenty of unanswered questions and endings open to interpretation, including the ending line of Through the Looking Glass:

Which do you think it was?

And of course, none is more strange than the Mad Hatter's riddle. Readers have been trying to find an answer to this question, deemed by many unanswerable, for over a hundred years. From fellow famous writers to people on the Internet, there have been many interpretations to the raven like a writing desk question and I would like to share some with you.

1. Poe wrote on both.

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This answer is credited to one Sam Lloyd, puzzle enthusiast, in his Cyclopedia of Puzzles (1914). Famously, Edgar Allan Poe wrote, in his poem 'The Raven', of such a bird that haunted the author, at first creeping up on him, making him wonder who it was rapping on his door and then, slowly driving him mad at the memory of his beloved Lenore. It is, arguably, Poe's most famous poem.
And then, there's of course, the writing desk in which he wrote a lot of his work. It's a good answer, if you think about it.

2. Because there is a b in both, and because there is an n in neither.

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This marvellously absurd answer was found by Aldous Huxley (author of Brave New World) in a piece for Vanity Fair in 1928. Another technically correct answer, I think this one fits the best, simply because it's so strange. It doesn't seem like an answer at all, and yet it works, which makes me feel that the Mad Hatter would have approved.

3. Jumbled up letters

There have also been many answers that were really just plays on words, but also correct.

Because one has flapping fits and the other has fitting flaps.
Peter Veale

Because one is good for writing books and the other better for biting rooks.
George Simmers

Because a writing desk is a rest for pens and a raven is a pest for wrens.
Tony Weston

You can't say any of these aren't true, can you?

4. Answers before Carroll posed the question

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_{Prehistoric depiction of a raven on cave wall source}

Interestingly enough, although the question was made famous by Lewis Carroll in his book, it has been circulating from times immemorial and other famous people have written or spoken about it, long before Lewis Carroll was even born.
The 'Why is a raven like a writing desk?' question (or WIARLAWD, as it' frequently abbreviated) first appears written in the Bible, in the Book of Xerxes,

And ye shall travel the world with not a possession, not even an ass; yet ye shall but quothe the raven at its writing desk.

The Book of Xerxes (part of the Old Testament) has been dissected by Christian, Jewish and Muslim scholars alike, though none have been able to agree upon what it means. Some say that it is a reference to supernatural spirits and that it was supposed to have been dictated by Mohamed. Christian theorist (and also a famous children's writer) CS Lewis argued that it wasn't so much a riddle as an admonition. And some Jewish theorists argue that it is a reference to the Judaic proscription against pride. Though none seem to agree.
The famous Roman orator and statesman Cicero spoke on it as well, during the famous trial of Bluto, saying

"If not like a writing desk, what is a raven? But a winged creature that circles in heaven? Surely not. No, my fellow Romans, the raven is not just like the writing desk; the raven is the writing desk!

Worth mentioning that the Senate was swayed by Cicero and Bluto was acquitted.

Even Dante mentioned it in his famous Inferno,

And at the fifth circle of Hell, I found souls running in a circle, writing desks strapped to their heads, and ravens pecking out their eyes, while demons and evil spirits hurled racial epithets at them.

5. Lewis Carroll's take

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And then, there is of course, the answer provided by Carroll himself. Though not nearly as famous as the question posed by his Mad Hatter, the solution Carroll seeks to provide does make some sort of sense. Carroll never wanted to actually answer this question. It was only intended as a joke, a funny absurd question, but his readers pestered him for an answer, forcing the writer to finally give in.

Enquiries have been so often addressed to me, as to whether any answer to the Hatter's Riddle can be imagined, that I may as well put on record here what seems to me to be a fairly appropriate answer, viz: 'Because it can produce a few notes, tho they are very flat; and it is never put with the wrong end in front!' This, however, is merely an afterthought; the Riddle, as originally invented, had no answer at all.

He included this bit in the preface of Alice in Wonderland in the 1896 (or 1897, unclear) edition. One thing that is interesting to note here is that Carroll originally wrote never as nevar (raven spelled backwards) in the answer above, but this little “typo” was removed by an editor. Get it? Put with the wrong end in front? Sure, it wasn't as epic as the riddle itself, but it was still an answer.

The question, of course, is open to interpretation. And that's, I believe, what makes it so incredible. That it can't really have any one answer, and so all of them work.

What is your take on it?

Sources: Uncyclopedia; StackExchange; Gizmodo.

Author: Hive account@honeydue

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