The 'Wit of the Staircase' is all about stairways. The main character in Treppenwitz is a miniature spiral staircase model paralyzed by its future, enchained by its past. It resents everything about its existence including the fact that it was carved by a craftsman rather than having sprung from the womb of a Matryoshka doll. Nor was it conceived as the creation ladder of Ramon Llull's 14th century eight-step ascension theory.
—Anonymous