History NoodleIncident / Literature

* The incident for which Montresor wants revenge against Fortunato in Creator/EdgarAllanPoe's ''Literature/TheCaskOfAmontillado''. Just what did Fortunato do that made Montresor feel it was necessary to wall him up in a tomb and leave him to die? He never says. While the full nature of the "insult" may never be known, Poe scholars have narrowed it down to being related to class conflict. Montresor is the scion of an ancient noble family, while Fortunato appears to be "new money." Arrogant, vulgar, and ignorant of the manners of high society, Fortunato inadvertently slighted Montresor's family honor in such a way that could only be redressed through violent retribution. Some have even theorized that Fortunato made his money by fleecing Montresor or one of his fellow ancient noblemen.

* Sticking with David Eddings, in ''Literature/TheTamuli'' trilogy, no ones knows exactly ''why'' the Delphae became shunned and despised 10,000 years ago to the point that their god turned their PhosphorEssence into CruelAndUnusualDeath, and the only entities in the know -- the Gods -- refuse to talk about it on the grounds that continuing the debate won't solve anything.

** In ''Literature/StarTrekDestiny'' the ''U.S.S. [=da Vinci=]'' makes a planet disappear to save it from the Borg. It's even [[LampshadeHanging mentioned]] in a follow-up book that one of the engineers that used to be assigned to the ''[=daVinci=]'' won't tell how they did it (mostly because he wasn't there and doesn't know, but also because he's having too much fun keeping people hanging in suspense).

* The Selelvian-Tholian War from the ''Literature/StarTrekNewFrontier'' series (started due to the events of ''Gods Above'' and ''Stone and Anvil'') isn't shown, because we skip ahead three years to the next book. All we do know is that the Federation won, Admiral Jellico no longer hates Captain Calhoun, and Soleta was drummed out of Starfleet after her Romulan heritage was revealed after saving Captain Shelby from an Orion raiding party.
** Prior to that it was the ''Grissom'' incident that Calhoun refused to discuss until ''The Captain's Table #5: Once Burned.''
* Similarly, in ''Literature/StarTrekDestiny'' the ''U.S.S. [=da Vinci=]'' makes a planet disappear to save it from the Borg. It's even [[LampshadeHanging mentioned]] in a follow-up book that one of the engineers that used to be assigned to the ''[=daVinci=]'' won't tell how they did it (mostly because he wasn't there and doesn't know, but also because he's having too much fun keeping people hanging in suspense).
* The ''Franchise/StarTrek'' novel ''Literature/HowMuchForJustThePlanet'', as a comedy, has several:
** Spock alludes to having had a brief encounter, presumably a date that didn't go well, with T'Vau, the slobbish and clumsy Vulcan from the ''Jefferson Randolph Smith''. We never get details, which is probably just as well given that Spock is able to correctly infer not only that the ''Smith'''s computer is having issues due to having a milkshake poured into it, but the flavour of the milkshake, based on that very little familiarity.
** The Direidi children Orville and Theodora / Orvy and Thed seem to have had a background history of wacky adventures even ''before'' they [[spoiler:accidentally stow away on a Federation escape pod and steal an inflatable Klingon Bird of Prey decoy]], to the point where Flyter mentions that he changed the lock codes on his place after Thed's last visit and still isn't sure that'll stop her.

** During Chekov's outburst during the golf game, he rants about the criticism he's constantly subjected to, ranging from things Scotty has said to him, to having to eat his groats as a child, to someone calling him "a disgrace to the Pioneer Railroad Porters' Corps."

** ''Literature/{{Night Watch|Discworld}}'' has Vimes threatening a recalcitrant prisoner with the "Ginger Beer Trick", aproximated by a finger popped from the mouth, a hissing noise and a blood curdling scream. [[note]] (This one's not really a mystery. You shake a glass bottle of soda or mineral water and spray it straight up the victim's nostrils, leveraging the pressure with the thumb. It hurts like hell and leaves no marks on the victims body. It is commonly done by drugdealers and corrupt cops in Latin America. For an on-screen example, you can watch it happen on an episode of ''Series/{{Dexter}}''.) And it doesn't have to be a nostril, either -- ''any'' mucus membrane will do, but the nostrils are simply convenient. Ginger beer is, however, particularly effective for it, as the ginger adds a burning sensation -- even just incautiously drinking the stuff hurts.[[/note]]

* In ''LightNovel/AnotherNote'', Mello explains that he's gotten to meet L in person, and heard from him the stories of how L arrived at Wammy's House, and how he bested Eraldo Coil and Denevue...but chooses not to share those stories, or the story of how he got to meet L, with the readers.

** After a missile is transformed into a bowl of petunias, which rapidly falls to the surface of Magrathea, we get this lovely line: "Curiously, the only thing the bowl of petunias was thinking as it fell was 'Oh no, not again.'"
*** This one is explained in a later book, so it's only temporarily an example. It remains an example in the TV and movie adaptations (which never get far enough to reach the explanation).

** The Literature/CiaphasCain'' books are full of vague references to past events. Some are covered in the short stories, but most go unexplained. Thus far.

* ''Literature/TheDemolishedMan'' has one, used several times. Lincoln Powell, police detective and head of the Esper Guild –- an upstanding citizen, one would think –- has a prankster side that he calls "Dishonest Abe". He always blushes when asked "Who stole the weather?", apparently referring to one of Dishonest Abe's escapades.

* ''Literature/AgathaHAndTheSiegeOfMechanicsburg'': Agatha set a record by taking more than two minutes to make her first kill after becoming the Heterodyne and ringing the Doom Bell. No explanation was given for why her heroic father Bill hadn't been able to manage that.

** There's also a bit from ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire Goblet of Fire]]'', after the second Defense Against the Dark Arts class, where Ron asked Harry "Did you hear [[{{Paranoia}} Mad-Eye Moody]] telling Seamus what he did to that witch who shouted 'Boo' behind him on April Fools' Day?" with no further explanation made, ever.

** [[AuthorExistenceFailure Now we'll never know the details of Flashman's Civil War service]]. He was an officer in the US army in 1862, the CS army in 1863, and received the Congressional Medal of Honor... somehow.

%% This page has been alphabetized. Please add new examples in the correct order.

*** When Colonel Brisby, Commanding Officer of a military starship, gets the identification back on his newest recruit, a young ex-slave and ex-Free Trader. Turns out the youngster - our protagonist - went missing after a starship "accident" when he was a baby and is in fact the much-sought-after [[spoiler:sole heir to a Galaxy-spanning mercantile empire]]. After reading the message, Brisby muses "Why do things like this always happen to ''Hydra''?", leaving the reader to wonder just what other adventures the Hegemonic Guard Cruiser ''Hydra'' has been involved in.

** As of Book Six, we now know more of the details. One of Holly's fugitives locked himself into a car in Hamburg. She tried to unlock it, but her omnitool had been stolen by Mulch Diggums a few hours before. The target was apprehended by humans, and he tried to bargain with them for political asylum. The rest is easy to piece together. Thinking he's a confused kid, they take him to the police station. A daytime raid on a police headquarters — a retrieval squad needing a time stop, with four mind wipes for all the humans involved.

* ''Literature/TheBelgariad'': In ''Polgara the Sorceress'', Polgara describes how she has to go undercover in Gar Og Nadrak, laying the groundwork for an alliance with the West. She gains a reputation as a dancer, eventually getting an audience with the young and notoriously lecherous Nadrak king, Drosta Lek Thun. She dances, pulling out all the stops to impress him, reducing him to a quivering shambles, but refuses to ''describe'' her routine — "the children, you understand".

* ''Literature/TheDemolishedMan'' has one, used several times. Lincoln Powell, police detective and head of the Esper Guild – an upstanding citizen, one would think – has a prankster side that he calls "Dishonest Abe". He always blushes when asked "Who stole the weather?", apparently referring to one of Dishonest Abe's escapades.

** They occasionally refer to the unlucky Mr. Hong, who disappeared in mysterious circumstances after opening The Three Jolly Luck Takeaway Fish Bar on the site of an old fish-god temple on Dagon Street during a full moon (some references also state that said full moon was on the Winter Solstice; thankfully, that's where the chain of unfortunate coincidences end — there's no "after a delivery of a rare kind of squid" to make it worse). No one knows quite what happened, but it wasn't pleasant: one of the references mentions that he left behind "one kidney and [[AlienGeometries half an earhole]]". Note that Dagon is the name of a Philistine fish god, and is also a malevolent deity in the [[CosmicHorrorStory Lovecraft mythos...]]

** ''Literature/{{Night Watch|Discworld}}'' has Vimes threatening a recalcitrant prisoner with the "Ginger Beer Trick", aproximated by a finger popped from the mouth, a hissing noise and a blood curdling scream. [[note]] (This one's not really a mystery. You shake a glass bottle of soda or mineral water and spray it straight up the victim's nostrils, leveraging the pressure with the thumb. It hurts like hell and leaves no marks on the victims body. It is commonly done by drugdealers and corrupt cops in Latin America. For an on-screen example, you can watch it happen on an episode of ''Series/{{Dexter}}''.) And it doesn't have to be a nostril, either--''any'' mucus membrane will do, but the nostrils are simply convenient. Ginger beer is, however, particularly effective for it, as the ginger adds a burning sensation--even just incautiously drinking the stuff hurts.[[/note]]
** Then there's [[BunglingInventor Bloody Stupid Johnson]] (a ShoutOut to real world [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capability_Brown Capability Brown]]), the "unique" designer/architect always mentioned in passing (along with his creations--which work, just not the way you expect them...or are supposed to)...and it is hinted in ''Literature/{{Jingo}}'' that an ancestor of Lady Sybil's had something to do with said passing, as well.

* Author Irene Kampen [[note]]Best known as the author of ''Life Without George'', the book that became ''Series/TheLucyShow''.[[/note]] returned to college at UW - Madison in 1969. In her book on that experience, ''Due To Lack of Interest, Tomorrow Has Been Canceled'', this is a running gag. When the CSDU ("What's the CSDU?") holds a meeting in her apartment, a member tells her they can't meet on campus anymore after that Timothy Leary thing. Later, a classmate asks her to chaperone a frat party, explaining that they must have an "older person" present because of all that trouble about the goat. "''What'' trouble about the goat?" "Oh, there was just some trouble about a goat." As she leaves at the end of term, she's asked to sign a petition and is told it's "about the protest." She knows by now not to ask.

** ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndThePhilosophersStone Philosopher's Stone]]'' mentions two, both related to Quidditch. One is a claim that referees are sometimes known to vanish and turn up in the Sahara Desert months later, which later turned out to be an exaggeration--it only happened once, and it was because his broom had been turned into a Portkey. The other one is the 1473 Quidditch World Cup, where all seven hundred fouls in the game were committed (and several were likely created). Among the things we know happen are that a Chaser was turned into a polecat, some players brought actual weapons onto the field, and that the Transylvanian team released a storm of vampire bats from under their cloaks. One has to wonder how many players survived the 1473 match, and what the hell kind of foul is worse than trying to kill someone with a broadsword.

-->But this must have been before his—let us say—nerves, went wrong, and caused him to preside at certain midnight dances ending with unspeakable rites, which—as far as I reluctantly gathered from what I heard at various times—were offered up to him—do you understand?—to Mr. Kurtz himself.

* In one of Creator/PeterSBeagle's Joe Farrell stories, Farrell had to [[ItMakesSenseInContext duel a ghost to the death with bad poetry.]] He's nearly beaten until he remembers [[https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/A_Tragedy_(Theo_Marzials) "A Tragedy" by Theophilus Marzials.]] Before he recites it, he says, "Remind me to tell you how i learned it - there was a Kiowa Indian involved."

* The ''Literature/MediochreQSethSeries'' contains occasional references to exploits of Mediochre which took place before the start of the first book. Most of them go unexplained. Perhaps the oddest is that Mediochre - a NonActionGuy and TechnicalPacifist - once (presumably successfully) fought off a horde of Skeletons with his teeth, because one of his feet was "stuck" and his hands were "full" (it later implies they were full because he was holding TheLancer, Joseph, who was unconscious at the time.).

* ''Literature/TheStormlightArchive'': In ''Literature/{{Edgedancer}}'', Wyndle uses the one time he had to grow a garden for a keenspren as a benchmark for how weird the conversation has gotten. What kind of conversation he had — and what keenspren are, for that matter — is left unsaid.

** There are lots of those. "The Great Panic", for example, although that is explained. For example, there was a certain incident on Flight 575. Details are sketchy - in fact, there aren't any - but it is strongly implied that a stow-away infected managed to break out of the cargo hold, with fatal consequences.

** Apparently the previous Muggle Prime Minister tried to throw Fudge out of a window. The time period that the series takes place in implies that Fudge was refering to UsefulNotes/MargaretThatcher, and it certainly sounds like something she would do.

** Apparently the previous Muggle Prime Minister tried to throw Fudge out of a window.

-->What happened in Albania would ''stay'' in Albania.

** Mundungus Fletcher did something to piss off Aberforth that Abeforth still holds a grudge over but what that is is never stated.

** Also a nice twist and version with Grindelwald. When in first book we hear that "Dumbledore... is famous for his victory over the dark wizard Grindelwald", we imagine it being a simple story -- that no one could beat Grindelwald, until young Dumbledore duelled the Dark wizard to the death and killed him. In the last book it is revealed that the story is [[HoYay much]] [[DownerEnding more]] [[HeroicBSOD complicated]]...

* Every once in a while, this is completely serious. For instance, the narrator of ''The Monsters of Morley Manor'' by Creator/BruceCoville, [[DemonicPossession possesses]] a {{Mook}} at one point, and starts to remember parts of the mook's TrainingFromHell. He "still can't talk about" when four trainees were locked in a room with only enough water for two of them to survive until they were scheduled to be released.

** ''Literature/{{Night Watch|Discworld}}'' has Vimes threatening a recalcitrant prisoner with the "Ginger Beer Trick", aproximated by a finger popped from the mouth, a hissing noise and a blood curdling scream. [[note]] (This one's not really a mystery. You shake a glass bottle of soda or mineral water and spray it straight up the victim's nostrils, leveraging the pressure with the thumb. It hurts like hell and leaves no marks on the victims body. It is commonly done by drugdealers and corrupt cops in Latin America. For an on-screen example, you can watch it happen on an episode of ''Series/{{Dexter}}''.) And it doesn't have to be a nostril, either--''any'' mucus membrane will do, but the nostrils are simply convenient. Ginger beer is, however, particularly effective for it, as the ginger adds a burning sensation--even just incautiously drinking the stuff hurts. [[/note]]