I find the following judiciously extracted and slightly laddergramed scene from Fyodor Dostoyevsky's The Idiot remarkably amusing:
[Myshkin speaking] "...I was immensely struck with the bass, and for some reason extraordinarily pleased with it, and suddenly everything seemed to clear up in my head."
"A bass? That's odd," observed Lizaveta Prokofyevna. "Yet there's nothing odd about it; one of us may even fall in love with a bass," she observed, looking wrathfully at the laughing girls. "It's happened in mythology. Go on, prince."
"I've been awfully fond of basses ever since; they have a special attraction for me. I began to ask about them because I'd never seen one before, and I understood at once what a useful creature it was - industrious, strong, patient, cheap, long-suffering. And so, through the bass, all of Switzerland began to attract me, so that my melancholy passed completely."
"That's all very strange, but you can pass over the bass; let's come to something else. Why do you keep laughing Aglaia? And you, Adelaida? The prince told us splendidly about the bass. He has seen it himself, but what have you seen? You've never been abroad."
"I've seen a bass, maman," said Adelaida.
"And I've even heard one," asserted Aglaia.
The three girls laughed again. Myshkin laughed with them.
"That's too bad of you," observed the lady. "You must excuse them, prince, they are good-natured. I am always quarreling with them, but I love them. They are flightly, thoughtless madcaps."
"Why?" laughed Myshkin. "I should have done the same in their place. But still I stand up for the bass; the bass is a good-natured and useful creature."
Is your bass good-natured and in need of use?
[Myshkin speaking] "...I was immensely struck with the bass, and for some reason extraordinarily pleased with it, and suddenly everything seemed to clear up in my head."
"A bass? That's odd," observed Lizaveta Prokofyevna. "Yet there's nothing odd about it; one of us may even fall in love with a bass," she observed, looking wrathfully at the laughing girls. "It's happened in mythology. Go on, prince."
"I've been awfully fond of basses ever since; they have a special attraction for me. I began to ask about them because I'd never seen one before, and I understood at once what a useful creature it was - industrious, strong, patient, cheap, long-suffering. And so, through the bass, all of Switzerland began to attract me, so that my melancholy passed completely."
"That's all very strange, but you can pass over the bass; let's come to something else. Why do you keep laughing Aglaia? And you, Adelaida? The prince told us splendidly about the bass. He has seen it himself, but what have you seen? You've never been abroad."
"I've seen a bass, maman," said Adelaida.
"And I've even heard one," asserted Aglaia.
The three girls laughed again. Myshkin laughed with them.
"That's too bad of you," observed the lady. "You must excuse them, prince, they are good-natured. I am always quarreling with them, but I love them. They are flightly, thoughtless madcaps."
"Why?" laughed Myshkin. "I should have done the same in their place. But still I stand up for the bass; the bass is a good-natured and useful creature."
Is your bass good-natured and in need of use?
