Date: Sun, 23 Feb 1997 23:19:26 -0500
Subject: Re: M-TH: Marx's monkey writer


Scott McLemee writes:

>On Sun, 23 Feb 1997 rnmendez-AT-panama.phoenix.net wrote:
>
>> I am working on an essay on evolution and am trying to find a quote
>> attributed to Marx or Engels in which they state that even a monkey could
>> write a book if given enough time in front of a typewriter, or something
>> similar to this.
>
>This does not come from either Marx or Engels.  The source is, I believe,
>Thomas Huxley (a contemporary), in his debate with Bishop Wilberforce.
>(I may have the bishop's name wrong).  They were debating evolution.
>Huxley used as an illustration the imaginary bunch of monkeys at a
>typewriter, pounding away -- give them enough time, and they will type
>out the complete works of Shakespeare.

Hate to disappoint any aspiring literary monkeys, but the "enough time"
would have to be a very large multiple of the largest estimated life-span
of our present universe.

Shame Mage




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