History Main / TheTreacheryOfImages

-->'''David''': "There is no [[spoiler: murder. [[PunctuatedForEmphasis There.is.NO.MURDER!]] ]] It never happened !".

* In Creator/MarkTwain's story ''Literature/TheMysteriousStranger'', after the *ahem* ''friendly'' angel has wrought death, madness and devastation on the community, he tells the young boy/narrator that the boy ''is the only real thing in the universe, and that everything else - including the angel - is a figment of his imagination''. Twain was [[CreatorBreakdown not in a happy place]] when he wrote this. Adapted with much NightmareFuel in the stop motion movie ''WesternAnimation/TheAdventuresOfMarkTwain'': "Nothing exists save empty space and you. And you are but a thought."

* Creator/ScottMcCloud (of ''ComicBook/{{Zot}}'' fame)'s ''ComicBook/UnderstandingComics'' takes this to a thought-provoking OverlyLongGag extreme as part of his demonstration of just how much the reader of a comic is mentally filling in. Not only is it not a pipe, it's not even a painting of a pipe. Is it a drawing of a painting of a pipe? No, actually it's not even that -- it's a ''printed copy'' of a drawing of a painting of a pipe. In fact, it's ''several'' printed copies, [[SequentialArt appearing in multiple panels, each one dependent on the reader to observe]].

** In ''Discworld/ThiefOfTime'', Susan Sto Helit becomes a school teacher. We see her holding up a cardboard clock and asking the kids what it is. Susan is mildly impressed when one of the kids eventually guesses it's "all cardboard, made to look like a clock". One of the lessons ''Miss Susan'' drills into her students is "Always see what's really there."
** In ''Discworld/WitchesAbroad'', Granny Weatherwax is trapped in a maze of mirrors with infinitely receding reflections. She can’t get out until she identifies the real one. [[spoiler:Unlike her sister, who's been using mirror magic too much and goes running through the images, she immediately points to ''herself''.]]

[[SelfDemonstratingArticle You are not seeing this page]]. There is no page. There are merely [[ZeroesAndOnes a series of zeroes and ones]], grouped into TCP segments, interpreted as HTTP code, and displayed via a matrix of glowing dots; just part of a large and complex abstraction which people call a "page" by means of convention, even though it only superficially resembles a thin rectangle of plant-fiber covered in ink shapes. [[StrawNihilist Believe nothing.]]

!!These are not Examples. They are only our descriptions of them:

** In ''Discworld/WitchesAbroad'', Granny Weatherwax is trapped in a maze of mirrors with infinitely receding reflections. She can’t get out until she identifies the real one. [[spoiler:The person who set the trap should have realized this would never work on Granny Weatherwax, since she immediately points to ''herself''.]]

* According to Creator/Sanrio, the namesake of Franchise/HelloKitty [[https://www.nydailynews.com/life-style/kitty-not-cat-sanrio-article-1.1920049 is not a cat]]:

--> Hello Kitty is not a cat. She's a cartoon character. She is a little girl. She is a friend. But she is not a cat. She's never depicted on all fours. She walks and sits like a two-legged creature... The design takes the motif of a cat, but there is no element of a cat in Hello Kitty's setting."

Compare TwoPlusTortureMakesFive, a darker version when someone forces you to see and believe things like these. Compare and contrast ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve & WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief. Contrast PerspectiveMagic, in which reality conforms to even the unrealistic aspects of an image. Falls on the cynical side of the [[ThePowerOfLanguage Power of Language]] scale. See also {{Expospeak}} and TrueArtIsIncomprehensible.

[[folder:There is No Anime & Manga Here]]

Compare TwoPlusTortureMakesFive, a darker version when someone forces you to see and believe things like these. Compare and contrast ClapYourHandsIfYouBelieve & WillingSuspensionOfDisbelief. Contrast PerspectiveMagic, in which reality conforms to even the unrealistic aspects of an image. See also {{Expospeak}} and TrueArtIsIncomprehensible.

[[caption-width-right:300:Nor is this an image by Dan Piraro.]]

* There is an urban legend about a philosophy class where the final exam was to write an essay arguing that a chair placed at the front of the room did not exist. One student simply wrote down "What chair?" and got the highest grade.

* Zeno's Paradox is a related concept (also featured extensively in ''Literature/GodelEscherBachAnEternalGoldenBraid''). Since you can continually halve the distance between two objects, and since there are an infinite number of points in between, it is impossible to traverse the distance. (Before you can go there, you must go halfway there. Before you can go halfway there, you must go a quarter of the way there. Before you can go a quarter of the way there...) According to records, the philosopher Diogenes responded by standing, [[CrowningMomentOfFunny and silently walking out of the room.]]

* Creator/ScottMcCloud (of ''ComicBook/{{Zot}}'' fame)'s ''ComicBook/UnderstandingComics'' takes this to a thought-provoking OverlyLongGag extreme as part of his demonstration of just how much the reader of a comic is mentally filling in. Not only is it not a pipe, it's not even a painting of a pipe. Is it a drawing of a painting of a pipe? No, actually it's not even that -- it's a ''printed copy'' of a drawing of a painting of a pipe. In fact, it's ''several'' printed copies, appearing in multiple panels, each one dependent on the reader to observe.
-->"Do you hear what I'm saying? If you do, have your ears checked, because no one said a word."

* The novel ''Literature/NineteenEightyFour'' uses this trope endlessly and is one of the most basic functions of the party. A relevant part of [[spoiler: O'Brien]]'s conversation with Winston revolves around whether the Party could, pragmatically speaking, change reality itself, with the torturer arguing that he could "float like a soap bubble" if he wanted to. After all, if Winston perceives (forcibly) such a thing, and it is on record, in what sense is it ''untrue''? Also, it is never revealed whether Goldstein or Big Brother are real, but it is suggested that, sociologically speaking, for all intents and purposes, they ''are'' real.
-->"Does BIG BROTHER exist?"
-->"Of course he exists. The Party exists. BIG BROTHER is the embodiment of the Party."
-->"Does he exist in the same way as I exist?"
-->"You do not exist," said [[spoiler: O'Brien]].

* [[DittoFighter Ditto]] in the anime and manga of ''{{Pokemon}}'' have much more advanced shapeshifting skills than in the video game, but aren't particularly bright. In one case, a Ditto was shown a picture of a Dratini in a book and told to turn into it...and the Ditto turned into a book.

* Most of the more esoteric ''Franchise/ElderScrolls'' lore is pretty much made of this trope. For example: gods basically only exist [[GodsNeedPrayerBadly because people believe in them.]] And if different cultures have different interpretations of the same god, it splits into separate entities. [[MindScrew Sort of.]] The [[BigBad Thalmor]] endgame is basically to "unmake" the universe and become/return to being gods by eroding the worship of Talos, who helps to hold the world together, and make it so that the universe was never created. And that's not even getting into Dragon Breaks...

** [[http://neuromancer.hu/neuroblog/simpsonsnemcouchgag.png Ceci n'est pas une couch gag.]]

* In several Creator/RobertAHeinlein books, Fair Witnesses will reply to 'What color is that house' with 'It appears to be white on this side', as they have not seen the other side, and even if they were to walk over there and look, they could not be sure that someone had not repainted it as soon as it was out of their sight. This extends so far that they will even look over at the house before answering, just to make sure. Note that in the case of this example, the house in question was the property next door to the one the woman lived at, and that she was probably very familiar with it. But her training was such that she was unable to assume anything.[[note]]Also, she had been specifically asked to "put [her] Fair Witness robes on", to help make this very point. Otherwise, she presumably could have gotten away with making assumptions like anyone else.[[/note]]

* ''{{Concession}}'': This is a [[http://concessioncomic.com/index.php?pid=20061121 penis.]]
* ''{{Starslip}}'': Behold! This isn't the [[http://starslip.com/2007/12/05/starslip-number-667/ Spine of the Cosmos!]]

** [[http://safebooru.org/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=234455 Ceci n'est pas une Tsukasa.]] Exacerbated by the fact that [[LuckyStar Tsukasa]], as a fictional character, doesn't exist any ''other'' way, either ...