Why raven like writing desk

Lewis Carroll himself got bugged about this so much that he was moved to write the following in the preface to the edition of his book:. Did this discourage people?

Not bad for amateurs. But the real answer, to which the careers of Poe and Carroll bear ample testimony, is that you can baffle the billions with both. Big joke! The indignities we authors suffer! Sure, we make up for it in money and groupies, but still, if in some book e. So, Mary. Remember Mary? You wanted to know whether there was a really hilarious solution to this riddle. Got your answer now? Cookie banner We use cookies and other tracking technologies to improve your browsing experience on our site, show personalized content and targeted ads, analyze site traffic, and understand where our audiences come from.

Victoria Castiglione, Denmark, Western Australia. A raised eyebrow can be more eloquent than a dropped jaw. Harvey Mitchell, Castlemaine, Victoria, Australia. To remind the rest of us why we are the hoi polloi. Philip Bool, Winslow, Victoria, Australia. Michael Polanyi, Toronto, Canada. At what point does the thrill of the new replace the comfort of the old? R De Braganza, Kilifi, Kenya.

Which classical English novelist did most for the advancement of women? Edward Black, Sydney, Australia. Send answers to weekly. Why is a raven like a writing desk? Jennifer Rathbone, Toronto, Canada The answer lies in the quill: both may be penned, but they can never truly be captive. The unanswered riddle, which many people were exposed to in their formative years, got under people's skin.

In their attempt to adequately extricate it, they've come up with answers. A satisfying, but meta, answer is, "Poe wrote on both," given by puzzle enthusiast Sam Lloyd. More in the spirit of the nonsense genre, Aldous Huxley ventured, "Because there is a 'b' in both and an 'n' in neither. The unanswerable riddle has been answered, though, and has been answered for many years. Lewis Carroll himself wrote the answer, after being badgered by people nonstop since the book's original publication.

He said that, in the original book, there was no answer. To end the pain of ceaseless inquisitive fan letters, though, he went ahead and thought up an adequate response that he put in preface to later editions. Carroll's answer to why a raven is like a writing desk? Originally, it was supposed to be a little funnier than that. Carroll spelled 'never,' as 'nevar' — 'raven' spelled backwards — but a proofreader erased the inverted pun before it was published.