History Main / RecursiveReality

* [[PostModernism Subverted in]] JorgeLuisBorges short story '' "Averroe's Search" '': In the last page, Borges realizes that he has broke the [[MutuallyFictional StableFictionalLoop] and incurred in an [[OntologicalMistery Ontological Paradox]]

* TurtlesAllTheWayDown - It's an infinite regress; [[{{Postmodernism}} there is no "reality"]] except in the mind of one character / {{God}} / the author. No matter how far [[UpTheRealRabbitHole up or down you go]], [[ClosedCircle you can't get out]]. Perhaps they AscendedToAHigherPlaneOfExistence or they're in a DyingDream. Perhaps [[ThroughTheEyesOfMadness they're simply insane]]. If lucky, it's a [[{{InteractiveFiction}} Multi User Shared Hallucination]], not a [[AndIMustScream Solipsistic Nightmare]]. (The name comes from a famous "argument" for the TurtleIsland cosmology as an explanation for [[GravityIsAHarshMistress gravity]].)

** An OrIsIt ending implies that the entire Buffyverse exists solely within her mind...but the existence of ''{{Angel}}'' proves that the Buffyverse is greater than the sum of events that Buffy learns about or experiences.

* ''HouseOfLeaves'' is about Johnny Truant, who's editing a manuscript about Will Navidson, who [[MindScrew may or may not be fictional in Johnny's universe]]. This is the most simplified description possible.

*** Snowman's heart contains the troll universe, she is currently inside the troll universe.

* Abed tries to do this via a film project in ''{{Community}}''. [[{{Understatement}} It doesn't work.]]

* Abed tries to do this via a film project in ''{{Community}}''. [[Understatement It doesn't work.]]

* From StuartAshen: [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LM7_36SP1tA this pub]] (0:26 may startle you).

* The MacGuffin that draws Edgar Bug to Earth in the first ''MenInBlack'' film is [[spoiler:a miniature galaxy]]. The final scene reveals that [[spoiler:our galaxy is just like the MacGuffin, and lies several layers down within a miniature galaxy-orb that an alien is playing marbles with.]]
** ''MenInBlack II'' pulls a similar gag by showing a world inside a locker where K's watch is a symbol of worship, then at the end, K shows J that ''their'' world is also simply inside a larger locker (doesn't work quite as well as the first film, due to FridgeLogic).

* In PiersAnthony's ''{{Xanth}}'' series, Princess Ida has a tiny moon the size of a baseball that orbits around her. The moon contains a whole world with its own Ida, and that Ida has a moon with a different world on it, but that moon also has an Ida, who has a moon and so on and so on and so on. ''Faun And Games'' was about exploring these moons, and the main character goes through at least six layers.

* The ''DoctorWho'' serial "Castrovalva" features a variation on this, where the entire town (a town called Castrovalva) had been warped in on itself. One of the cliff-hangers had a hilarious line from the Fifth Doctor.

* The entire premise of the ''DoctorWho'' episode "Amy's Choice" is a choice between two possible [[RecursiveReality realities]] in which they keep falling asleep and "dreaming" of the other world, in which they are entirely convinced they are in the "real world" again. [[spoiler: Turns out both scenarios are dreams, but there is a brief moment that could be an {{UpTheRealRabbitHole}} situation.]]

* One of the oldest {{science fiction}} examples is ''He Who Shrank'' by Henry Hasse, originally printed in 1936 in ''AmazingStories''. The protagonist is injected with a serum that causes him to shrink smaller than an atom, where he discovers that every atom is a solar system, with a nucleus for a sun and electrons that orbit like planets. He shrinks through several universes until he [[PlanetOfTheApesEnding lands on our world]], and tells his story to a writer who unsuccessfully tries to sell the story to a newspaper as nonfiction.

-->''The Mathemagician stopped what he was doing and explained simply, "Why, in a box that's so small you can't see it--and that's kept in a drawer that's so small you can't see it, in a dresser that's so small you can't see it, in a house that's so small you can't see it, on a street that's so small you can't see it, in a city that's so small you can't see it, which is part of a country that's so small you can't see it, in a world that's so small you can't see it."
-->Then he sat down, fanned himself with a handkerchief, and continued. "Then, of course, we keep the whole thing in another box that's so small you can't see it--and, if you follow me, I'll show you where to find it."''

* The above quote from ''ThePhantomTollbooth'' describes the box where the number Infinity is kept.

''[[MemeticMutation Yo dawg, I heard you like universes. So I put a universe in your universe, so you can]] [[MindScrew get your mind blown while you get your mind blown.]]''

''[[MemeticMutation Yo dawg, I heard you like universes. So I put a universe in your universe, so you can]] [[MindScrew get your mind blown while you get your mind blown.]]''

* An episode of ''TeenTitans'' had the characters being imprisoned by Mumbo in his magic hat. Cyborg points out that Mumbo, appearing in the world inside the hat, is still wearing his hat. Which everyone is still inside. Including Mumbo. And his hat.