History UnusuallyUninterestingSight / Literature

** A meta example is the Three Hour Darkness: supposedly, according to the Bible, the whole world was plunged into darkness for three hours during the day when Jesus was crucified. If this event really happened, apparently ''not one historian or other person'' thought it was worth mentioning, as there are no extra-biblical records of it at the time. Needless to say, most scholars don't think it really happened.

** The Librarian of Unseen University has been an orang-utan since a magical accident in the second book, ''Discworld/TheLightFantastic''. They never got around to changing him back, mostly because the Librarian [[CursedWithAwesome has grown to like his new form]]. It's gotten to the point that if someone were to tell the faculty about the 300-pound ape wandering around the campus, they would ask the Librarian if he'd seen it.
** In ''Discworld/WyrdSisters'', it's said that there's so much magic in the Ramtop Mountains that weird things are always happening. When the citizens of Lancre hear about or see something that would be regarded as an omen anywhere else (like geese walking backwards, moving trees, or two-headed calves being born), they just roll their eyes and say to themselves "Oh, it's just another bloody portent." It's only when the portents ''stop'' happening that [[NothingIsScarier people get worried]]. At a later point, the Fool ends up with Greebo perched on his head. The guards who see this just assume that walking around with a cat on your head is one of those things you do when you're a professional jester.
** In ''Discworld/UnseenAcademicals'', everyone seems more focused on the results of the football game than the floating, glowing golden woman. Admittedly, [[SeriousBusiness it was a pretty close game]], and weird manifestations of gods really do happen a lot. In ''The Discworld Almanak'' we're told that the God of Astrology regularly visits the publishers with the rays of the sun coming out of his head, a belt of stars, one foot resting on a lion and the other on a crocodile, and carrying nine daggers in one hand and the crescent moon in the other. The only reason he turns heads when walking through Ankh-Morpork is that the lion moves faster than the crocodile.

* None of the humans in ''Literature/AnimalFarm'' seem to be bothered by the fact that farm animals are somehow capable of organizing a revolution, running a farm on their own, and even [[spoiler: read, write and possible talk.]] They are kind of shocked about Mr. Jones losing his farm, but otherwise, act as if they knew animals were always somewhat sapient.
* In his book ''The Age of Reason'' Creator/ThomasPaine wrote that, assuming it happened, the rising of the dead described in the [[Literature/TheBible Gospel of Matthew]] at Jesus' death must have been this, since no one appears to have written down any other accounts. Matthew is also the only Gospel that mentions it. Nor does it say [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse what happened afterward]]-did they return home to their families, attempt to reclaim their property, or just go back into their graves quietly?

* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', the protagonist at one point reveals himself to his TrueCompanions to be alive despite having seemed dead for over a year. Absolutely nobody is surprised by this, though they do take the time to confirm its him first. At least one person even figures it out, figures out what he's doing, and comes to help without even being told it's him. They, too, are completely nonchalant about it.

* ''Literature/{{Discworld}}'' has the Librarian of Unseen University, who has been an orang-utan since the second book. It's gotten to the point that if someone were to tell the faculty about the 300-pound ape wandering around the campus, they would ask the Librarian if he'd seen it.
** In ''Discworld/WyrdSisters'', it's said that there's so much magic in the Ramtop Mountains that weird things are always happening. When the citizens of Lancre hear about or see something that would be regarded as an omen anywhere else (like geese walking backwards, moving trees, or two-headed calves being born), they just roll their eyes and say to themselves "Oh, it's just another bloody portent." It's only when the portents ''stop'' happening that [[NothingIsScarier people get worried]]. At a later point, the Fool ends up with Greebo perched on his head. Everyone who sees this just assumes that walking around with a cat on your head is one of those things you do when you're a professional jester.

''Ama Clutch''': Odd, isn't it I thought all Munchkinlanders were tiny. She's a proper height, though.

** In ''Discworld/WyrdSisters'', it's said that there's so much magic in the Ramtop Mountains that weird things are always happening. When the citizens of Lancre hear about or see something that would be regarded as an omen anywhere else (like geese walking backwards, moving trees, or two-headed calves being born), they just roll their eyes and say to themselves "Oh, it's just another bloody portent." It's only when the portents ''stop'' happening that [[NothingIsScarier people get worried]].

* In ''Literature/TheLongDarkTeatimeOfTheSoul'', Thor the Thunder God has a spectacular fight with a huge golden eagle in a Primrose Hill neighborhood, in which thunderbolts and hammers are tossed and the opponents RoofHop between the tops of lampposts. When it's over, an elderly lady who'd paused under one of the lampposts simply resumes her dog's evening walk, content to move on without comment now that the ruckus isn't in her way.

* ''Literature/{{The Satanic Verses}}'': When Saladin Chamcha is detained by officers just as he starts [[SlowTransformation turning into]] a devil, he is the only one that gets [[BalefulPolymorph freaked out]] about it: the officers mock his goat-like appearance, but they treat it as something completely mundane instead of a supernatural occurence.

** Also from Creator/DouglasAdams, in ''Literature/TheLongDarkTeatimeOfTheSoul'', Thor the Thunder God has a spectacular fight with a huge golden eagle in a Primrose Hill neighborhood, in which thunderbolts and hammers are tossed and the opponents Roof Hop between the tops of lampposts. When it's over, an elderly lady who'd paused under one of the lampposts simply resumes her dog's evening walk, content to move on without comment now that the ruckus isn't in her way.

** Built up in book one, ''Off Armageddon Reef''. King Haarahld and Prince Cayleb each work out that ''seijin'' Merlin Athrawes is much more than the already extraordinary person he appears. So much so, that when Merlin has to expose some of his full ability to deliver a warning from Cayleb to Haarahld in a single night (when normal methods would have taken two weeks) neither are especially shocked. When Haarahld in particular fails to react to Merlin's sudden appearance, Merlin ponders if their family has some kind of genetic defect since something is clearly wrong with their "Fight or Flight" instincts.

** Four hundred years prior, in ''Literature/BekaCooper'', he helps a young Provost's Guard named Beka, and ''everyone'' noticed that he was strange. Other constables joked that he should get pay, like the scent hounds, for taking shifts. He's accepted, but Beka's friends speculate about him and actually figure out what he is. This discrepancy can partly be attributed to Creator/TamoraPierce growing and changing significantly as a writer in the time between the two series, but there's some in-universe reasoning too: with Beka, the cat was far more flashy and willing to use strange abilities, while with Alanna he usually kept to advice and standing guard; he spoke more to Beka's friends than Alanna's, and in Beka's time [[spoiler:the gods forbid him to visit the mortal world for one hundred years]] thanks to his interference. He seems to have learned to be less flashy. And since the end of ''Mastiff'' has him [[spoiler:spelling George so he doesn't remember that Beka's cat was anything other than ordinary]], he may just be using magic to keep too much attention from heading his way.

-->'''Galinda''': "Ama, are you blind? That Munchkinlander girl is ''green''."
-->''Ama Clutch''': "Odd, isn't it I thought all Munchkinlanders were tiny. She's a proper height, though."

* The Cullens and Hales in ''Literature/{{Twilight}}''. For the most part they don't claim to be related by blood, but they're all very pale, young-looking, hot (specifically, they are all breathtakingly beautiful and snow white, with gold--not brown--eyes) people whom {{Muggle}}s (with the exception of Bella) have a tendency to avoid, but no one seems to find it strange.
** To be fair, they ''do'' find them strange. They simply have stopped caring way before Bella came to the town.

* Among many others in ''Literature/{{Animorphs}}'', the commercial scene in the third book.
* Lampshaded in ''Literature/TheHeroesOfOlympus'' when Percy runs through traffic with "June" Juno in Son of Neptune, most of the drivers, "''just swerved and looked irritated, as if they had to deal with a lot of ratty teenagers carrying old hippie women across the freeway.''" It's The Mist again.
* The character of Clara in ''Literature/TheHouseOfTheSpirits'' has [[MindOverMatter telekinesis]]. It's mentioned that when she was young and people came over for dinner her family worked out a system to prevent people from noticing plates and saltshakers randomly rising into the air. When she's older, her husband and children are utterly unfazed by seeing her sitting in a chair that's zooming around the room and playing the piano with the cover closed.
** It's at least partially a MagicRealism novel, so that's par for the course.
* The Cullens and Hales in ''Literature/{{Twilight}}''. For the most part they don't claim to be related by blood, but they're all very pale, young-looking, hot (specifically, they are all breathtakingly beautiful and snow white, with gold--not brown--eyes) people whom {{Muggle}}s (with the exception of Bella) have a tendency to avoid, but no one seems to find it strange.
** To be fair, they ''do'' find them strange. They simply have stopped caring way before Bella came to the town.
** In the first book, Edward stopped a runaway van in the school parking lot from hitting Bella, using his bare hands. The book specifically says that a "sea of faces" in the parking lot turned to look. But nobody except Bella noticed anything unusual, including the van driver.
** ''Eclipse'' alludes to a vast amount of death and destruction going on in Seattle thanks to the newborn army, and ''The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner'' confirms that it reached levels where one would think national security would take interest (especially seeing as the timeline set it at not long after 9/11). While some people are mildly concerned, most of the citizens of Forks pay little attention to the fact that countless people are dying or disappearing, and the streets are filled with fires and car wrecks (and, oh yeah, an ''entire ferryboat of people die''). In ''Breaking Dawn'', no one at all comments on the incident. Of course, it could also be that it's a result of Bella telling the story and being too disturbingly self-centered to care.
** In ''New Moon'', Charlie doesn't seem to notice Bella coming home with stitches and a huge bandage around her arm. She tries to handwave it as normal for her to come home with injuries from her clumsiness, but one would think such a huge cut would get ''some'' attention from the Forks Police Chief.

* Built up in Creator/DavidWeber's ''Literature/{{Safehold}}'' book, ''Off Armageddon Reef.'' King Haarahld and Prince Cayleb each work out that ''seijin'' Merlin Athrawes is much more than the already extraordinary person he appears. So much so, that when Merlin has to expose some of his full ability to deliver a warning from Cayleb to Haarahld in a single night (when normal methods would have taken two weeks) neither are especially shocked. When Haarahld in particular fails to react to Merlin's sudden appearance, Merlin ponders if their family has some kind of genetic defect since something is clearly wrong with their "Fight or Flight" instincts.
** The second book, ''By Schism Rent Asunder'', reveals the reason that Haarahld was less than shocked was because [[spoiler: he knew about the falsehood of the [[PathOfInspiration Church of God Awaiting]] all along, and suspected Merlin to be the second of two known [[GambitIndex gambits]] to overthrow it.]]
* In JohnTSladek's satire ''Roderick'', none of Roderick's schoolteachers believe he's a robot. They all assume he's a disabled kid in a mobility suit who's fantasizing about being a robot.
* Justified in the Literature/{{Belgariad}}, no one thinks Garion's BFS is at all out of place, because the Orb attached to the pommel gives it a built in WeirdnessCensor that makes people ignore it.
* This principle is so well understood in Franchise/TheHitchhikersGuideToTheGalaxy universe that it has been weaponized as the SEP (Someone Else's Problem) field. If something is so unusual that it doesn't make any sense for it to be there, people will just pretend it isn't.

* Justified in the {{Literature/Nightside}} series, where overtly gawking at the bizarre sights and extraordinary characters on the streets only marks you out as a tourist.
* In the Literature/{{Earthsea}} series, Roke Island is home to the [[WizardingSchool School of Magic]] which results in all sorts of bizarre occurrences such as flying houses, people transforming into an animal (or vice versa), etc. The locals are used to this and barely give a second glance.
* In the Literature/TortallUniverse, ''Song of the Lioness'' has Alanna followed around and helped by a supernatural cat. He's black with startling purple eyes, talks, does magic, is generally very intelligent and knowing, and does such very uncatlike things as traveling across the world and joining his mistress in battle. People notice his eyes, and are startled the first time he speaks to them, but largely his strangeness is not remarked upon, although such cats are not otherwise seen in the story. Even Alanna, though she once wonders if he's a god or something, quickly concludes that he's just a cat.
** Four hundred years prior, in ''Provost's Dogs'', he helped a young constable named Beka and ''everyone'' noticed that he was strange. Other constables joked that he should get pay, like the scent hounds, for taking shifts. He's accepted, but Beka's friends speculate about him and actually figure out what he is. This discrepancy can partly be attributed to Creator/TamoraPierce growing and changing significantly as a writer in the time between the two series, but there's some in-universe reasoning too: with Beka, the cat was far more flashy and willing to use strange abilities, while with Alanna he usually kept to advice and standing guard; he spoke more to Beka's friends than Alanna's, and in Beka's time [[spoiler: the gods forbid him to visit the mortal world for hundreds of years]] thanks to his interference. He seems to have learned to be less flashy. And since the end of ''Provost's Dogs'' has him [[spoiler: spelling George so he doesn't remember the description of Beka's magic companion]], he may just be using magic to keep too much attention from heading his way.
* According to ''Literature/TheZombieSurvivalGuide'' the Romans considered the zombies just like this: a (creepy) problem requiring a practical solution (namely, cut the head off the monster and burn the whole thing as soon as they are all beheaded). They also wrote their own manual to dispatch zombies that allowed them to neutralize all outbreaks in their territories before they became actual threats (the one that did was outside of their territories and prompted both the building of Hadrian's Wall and the creation of the Roman manual).
** After a certain point, the Historical section states about the Romans, "This was the last Roman Recorded Zombie attack of note, as others were so short or not well enough described to count." Basically, by the end the Romans were ''[[CurbStompBattle curbstomping]]'' zombies so effectively they weren't even taking them seriously anymore.
** This trope was also invoked near the end of the Roman empire, where an old, retired legionnaire saves a woman and child by walking up, decapitating the zombie and walking away.
* In ''Literature/TheDresdenFiles'', the protagonist at one point reveals himself to his TrueCompanions to be alive despite having seemed dead for over a year. Absolutely nobody is surprised by this, though they do take the time to confirm its him first. At least one person even figures it out, figures out what he's doing, and comes to help without even being told it's him. They, too, are completely nonchalant about it.
** And in the book after that, when the protagonist has (seemingly) returned to being dead, his apprentice in magic is not only completely unsurprised when he comes back to life, but actually prepared for it by setting aside a room for him in her apartment.
** This trope is justified, given that said companions are fully aware of the supernatural world and how much weird crap goes on around the protagonist.
* In the ''Literature/PrincipiaDiscordia'', in the story of how the Honest Book of Truth was discovered, Lord Omar is told by a servant of Eris to go to a sacred mound and dig up the book there. He digs for five days and five nights and finds no book, so he decides to take a rest, using a giant golden treasure chest he found on the first day as a pillow.
* ''Literature/BoredOfTheRings'' describes one minor character as
-->...a stranger to the boggies of the Bag Eye, a stranger they had understandably overlooked because of his rather ordinary black cape, black chain mail, black mace, black dirk, and perfectly ordinary glowing red fires where his eyes should have been.

* In his book ''The Age of Reason'' Creator/ThomasPaine wrote that, assuming it happened, the rising of the dead described in the [[Literature/TheBible Gospel of Matthew]] at Jesus' death must have been this, since no one appears to have written down any other accounts. Matthew is also the only Gospel that mentions it. Nor does it say [[WhatHappenedToTheMouse what happened afterward]]-did they return home to their families, attempt to reclaim their property, or just go back into their graves quietly?
* Another noteworthy instance from Literature/TheBible is the account of Balaam and his donkey. You'd think a donkey asking you why you're hitting it in your own language would at least throw you off a little, but the story just has Balaam answer the donkey like it'd always been speaking to him.

* ''Literature/PaddingtonBear'': No one bats an eye at the talking bear in the hat and raincoat walking around town. It applies here just as it applies to [[Film/{{Paddington}} the movie based the books]].
* ''Franchise/HarryPotter'':
** Students raised among muggles (for example, [[AudienceSurrogate Harry himself]]) are taken by surprise at the many magical-related things that go on around them. Meanwhile, most witches and wizards don't even look up when they see people with strange hair colors, students getting changed into badgers, or people visiting the hospital wing as cat-human hybrids. On the flipside, students raised in the magical community are often amazed by things like aqua lungs or stationary pictures, which muggle-raised students find perfectly normal.
** When Harry stays with the Weasleys for the first time, he finds it strange that the sounds of explosions coming from Fred and George's room is considered normal. This gets subverted eventually when the twins open their toy shop, and the rest of the family is shocked that they were actually inventing things the whole time instead of just randomly blowing things up.
* Subverted in an early chapter of Literature/MercyThompson novel, Iron Kissed. Mercy and her friend Kyle hire a lawyer named Ms. Ryan to represent Zee in a murder case. But Mercy is forced to show the lawyer that she is a coyote shape shifter in order to understand the story. Mr. Ryan does not appear surprised at all at the sight of Mercy stripping naked, in fact she just casually asks if Mercy is a stripper. What does finally shock Ms. Ryan is seeing Mercy shift into a coyote, whom the lawyer thinks is a werewolf.
* ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'': Farinata, a heretic who believed the soul died with the body, seems to find everything uninteresting, even the eternal pain he suffers. At most he expresses mildly annoyance over the flaming tomb of spikes he rests in and when his conversation is interrupted by a father who realizes his son is dead, he doesn't move his face an inch until the father shuts up and then Farinata continues as if nothing had happened.
-->''"[T]hat great-hearted one, the other shade\\
at whose request I'd stayed, did not change aspect\\
or turn aside his head or lean or bend;\\
and taking up his words where-he'd left off..."''

-->'''Aaron Kelly''': What's goin' on? You all act like somebody died. Who's dead?
-->'''Widow''': You are!
-->'''Aaron Kelly''': Well, I don't feel dead, I feel fine!
-->'''Widow''': ''(annoyed)'' You don't look fine, you look dead. You better go back to the grave where you belong.

* ''Liturature/ScaryStoriesToTellInTheDark'': "Aaron Kelly's Bones" is a story about a dancing skeleton. When the man died, his skeleton comes out of the grave and goes back home. His widow is more annoyed that the corpse came back, thinking that she won't collect his life insurance if he keeps hanging around.

* According to ''Literature/TheZombieSurvivalGuide'' the Romans considered the zombies just like this: a (creepy) problem requiring a practical solution (namely, cut the head of the monster and burn the whole thing as soon as they are all beheaded). They also wrote their own manual to dispatch zombies, that allowed them to neutralize all outbreaks in their territories before they became actual threats (the one that did was outside of their territories and prompted both the building of Hadrian's Wall and the creation of the Roman manual).

* ''Literature/TheDivineComedy'': Farinata, a heretic who believed the soul died with the body, seems to find everything uninteresting, even the eternal pain he suffers. At most he expresses mildly annoyance by the flaming tomb of spikes he rests in and when his conversation is interrupted by a father who realizes his son is dead, he doesn't move his face an inch until the father shuts up and then Farinata continues as if nothing had happened.

** In ''Discworld/WyrdSisters'', it's said that there's so much magic in the Ramtop Mountains that weird things are always happening. When the citizens of Lancre hear about or see something that would be regarded as an omen anywhere else (like geese walking backwards, moving trees, or two-headed calves being born), they just roll their eyes and say to themselves "Not ''another'' bloody portent." It's only when the portents ''stop'' happening that [[NothingIsScarier people get worried]].

* Justified in the {{Nightside}} series, where overtly gawking at the bizarre sights and extraordinary characters on the streets only marks you out as a tourist.

* In ''Literature/PleaseDontTellMyParentsImASupervillain'', hardly anyone reacts to Lucyfar and The Inscrutable Machine duking it out in broad daylight in the middle of the city.

* In ''Franchise/HarryPotter'', students raised among muggles (for example, [[AudienceSurrogate Harry himself]]) are taken by surprise at the many magical-related things that go on around them. Meanwhile, most witches and wizards don't even look up when they see people with strange hair colors, students getting changed into badgers, or people visiting the hospital wing as cat-human hybrids. On the flipside, students raised in the magical community are often amazed by things like aqua lungs or stationary pictures, which muggle-raised students find perfectly normal.
** When Harry stays with the Weasleys for the first time, he finds it strange that the sounds of explosions coming from Fred and George's room is considered normal.

* In the Literature/EarthseaTrilogy Roke Island is home to the [[WizardingSchool School of Magic]] which results in all sorts of bizarre occurrences such as flying houses, people transforming into an animal (or vice versa), etc. The locals are used to this and barely give a second glance.

** Four hundred years prior, in ''Provost's Dogs'', he helped a young constable named Beka and ''everyone'' noticed that he was strange. Other constables joked that he should get pay, like the scent hounds, for taking shifts. He's accepted, but Beka's friends speculate about him and actually figure out what he is. This discrepancy can partly be attributed to TamoraPierce growing and changing significantly as a writer in the time between the two series, but there's some in-universe reasoning too: with Beka, the cat was far more flashy and willing to use strange abilities, while with Alanna he usually kept to advice and standing guard; he spoke more to Beka's friends than Alanna's, and in Beka's time [[spoiler: the gods forbid him to visit the mortal world for hundreds of years]] thanks to his interference. He seems to have learned to be less flashy. And since the end of ''Provost's Dogs'' has him [[spoiler: spelling George so he doesn't remember the description of Beka's magic companion]], he may just be using magic to keep too much attention from heading his way.