Down the Rabbit Hole

My favourite quote of all time, at least that I can remember, is from Lewis Carroll's, Alice in Wonderland, when the Mad Hatter asks Alice, “Why is a raven like a writing desk?” He asks this towards the start but even by the end when Alice asks him for the answer, he responds with, “I have no idea.”

This is truly brilliant. Because it has left us pondering, and grappling for straws, imagining what the answer could possibly be! Maybe the raven’s feather forms a quill, used on the writing desk? Maybe they are the same colour? Maybe because they both can see the world? One by flying over it, the other by creating it through the written word?

I was so enthralled by the question that I tried to Google the answer. Several answers came up. Some of them include:

• “Poe wrote on both”, Sam Lloyd
• “Because there is a ‘b’ in both and an ‘n’ in neither”, Aldous Huxley
• “A writing desk is a rest for pens and a raven is a pest for wrens”, Anonymous

Carroll himself said that the question has no answer, but after serious convincing from fans, he did give us one. He said, “Because it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat; and it is never put with the wrong end in front.” He really is quite an exceptional writer.

That answer right there is, of course, brilliant all by itself. But it completely stumps everyone who was looking for a real answer. And well, I have come up with an answer for myself.

The question causes us to think and use our imagination. Remember the other quote, “Sometimes I’ve believed as many as six impossible things before breakfast.” Carroll’s question is just a catalyst to start our crazy, imaginative process, trying to decipher how a raven could possibly be like a writing desk. It is simply, just a way for us to think of some ridiculous and impossible things for breakfast (or at whatever time we are actually being asked this question).

*Sigh* Now I want to go and read Alice in Wonderland again. Or maybe Into the Looking Glass? Or maybe I should watch the movie? But Animated or Johnny Depp version? Or both? Yes, I am going to go do all those things :)

Catch up later!!!