ABSTRACT
Nonsense, by definition, is what is not sense. But not-sense can achieve that gratifying state in various ways. One might simply be the reversal of sense. Take this rhyme by Rabindranath Tagore: Old Mother Khanto's Grandma-in-law Has the strangest sisters you ever saw. Their saris on the stove they keep, And saucepans on the clothes-horse heap. From carping tongues to be at rest, They hide inside an iron chest, But at the window air their cash Without a jot of worry. They put salt in their betel-leaves, And quicklime in their curry. 1 This is the programmed inversion of logic. The eccentric ladies simply exchange the rightful locations of two classes of articles: clothes on the kitchen stove, pots and pans on the clothes-rack, and so on. It is all profoundly logical. There is patent method in the madness.
