We are in the famous chapter VII of ” Alice in Wonderland ” written by Lewis Carroll, when Alice arrives at the house of the March Hare, and finds a table set, where the landlord with the Mad Hatter and the Dormouse are intent to take tea. The Dormouse sleeps soundly, the other two talk to Alice without inviting her to sit despite her many free seats. Alice, of her own free will, sits down anyway and begins to converse trying to answer a riddle launched by the Hatter: “What is the difference between a crow and a desk
” The riddle Why is a raven like a writing desk
“ (” Because a crow is like a desk
“Or” What do a crow and a desk have in common
“), this is the original riddle, to which the answer, in the book, does not follow. Or rather, the Mad Hatter himself, does not know.
“Well, you’ve solved the riddle,
” said the Hatter, turning back to Alice.
“No, I give up,” Alice replied. “What’s the solution
”
“I have no idea,” said the Hatter.
“Me neither,” said the March Hare.
Alice sighed, tired. “I think you could use your time better,” she said, “instead of wasting it on an unanswered riddle.” The answer
When Carroll thinks of the riddle he did it with the intention of leaving it without a solution, but the many requests from readers led him to find, together with other experts, a possible answer. Thus, in the preface of the 1896 edition, Carroll wrote: “I have been asked so often questions about whether an answer to the Hatter’s Riddle could be imagined, that I too could write here what seems to me a fairly appropriate answer. : “Because they both produce some Notes, even if they are always Flat; and they are never arranged the other way around! ”. Either way, this is simply an afterthought; the riddle, as it was initially conceived, had no solution at all. ” Get your wits with the 9 most famous riddles in literature
Riddles have deep roots in the Western literary tradition. In some books they serve to demonstrate the wit of the protagonist, in others the hero has to solve them to escape a difficult situation … The language game
“Because it can produce a few notes, though they are very flat; and it is nevar put with the wrong end in front! ” and the original answer, in English. The solution proposed by Carroll consists of two parts. In the first, he plays on the double meanings of “Note” (musical note or written note) and of “Flat” (Flat or flat). In the second, however, he states that both are never arranged backwards (a desk is never arranged with the front, on which one leans to write, against the wall), while replacing the word “never” (never) with “nevar” ( Raven spelled backwards) which has the same pronunciation in English. Readjustment
For those who have not read the book, but had approached the adventure of little Alice thanks to the Disney cartoon, a different riddle would be faced: “Why sunsets are puppets to be removed
“. This is a free adaptation, the result of a falsification designed at the table. In the other film versions the correct translation is respected. Not in Italy, and the reason for the anarchist translation, eccentric and independent, lies in the conception of Italian dubbing which tends to simplify every expression or word as much as possible for the public. So, the revised riddle becomes:
Mad Hatter: “Because sunsets are puppets to be removed
”
Alice: “A riddle
Let’s see a bit … Because sunsets are puppets to be removed
”
Mad Hatter:” Do you mind repeating
”
Alice:” Because sunsets are puppets to be taken away
”
Mad Hatter:” (screaming) I am what
”
March Hare:” (screaming) Watch out! And she is crazy to be tied up !! ”
Having been created on the spot by the adapters, the question actually has no answer, but neither does the original offer a real solution. The other solutions
Over time the answers to the riddle have multiplied thanks to the 1989 competition of England’s Lewis Carroll Society to find the best solutions.
The most popular answers today are the following:
– “Because Poe wrote on both” / “Because Edgar Allan Poe wrote on both”.
Ie refers to the famous poem written by Poe “the Crow”, presumably leaning on a desk.
– “Because there’s a” B “in both and a” N “in neither” / “Because there is a” B “in both and an” N “in none”.
In reality, the N is in both (raveN and writiNg-desk) while neither of them contains a B. But this does not mean that there is a B in the word Both and an N in the word Neither.
– “Because both have pen” / “Because they both have pens”.
The crow in fact has a plumage and the desk can have pens for writing.
In addition to these, there are a thousand other solutions, and you too can have your say.
