History CassandraTruth / Literature

* In ''Forest Of A Thousand Lanterns'', the [[TragicVillain protagonist]] guiltily enjoys sadistic fantasies of murdering her romantic rival, despite knowing they are morally wrong. When she confides in Wei about them, he assumes it's just bog-standard jealousy that she shouldn't worry about. (Partly justified by the fact that the primitive society they live in barely understands mental illness, much less '[[spoiler:a GodOfEvil is [[MoreThanMindControl trying to corrupt]] people's souls]]'.)

* At the end of ''Literature/TheDireSaga'', Dire tries to explain her actions to the heroes and they assume she's inventing a story to justify villainy. Although, frankly, it is a little implausible that [[spoiler:a low-level street gang is being led by history's most scary villain, long thought dead bu revived by a vampire, and is colluding with a group of techno-mercenaries to help a group of artificial intelligences to use Y2K as a smoke screen as an opportunity to kill off an earlier group of AI]].

* ''Literature.SecondApocalypse'': Sorweel hates the Anasûrimbor family because they invaded his kingdom and killed his father. The goddess Yatwer puts a glamor over his face so that the Anasûrimbor family cannot use their Dunyain abilities to see his thoughts through his expression. Moënghus, who has no Dunyain blood, tries to convince Serwa that ''of course'' he hates the family, but Serwa insists on trusting her perceptions.

* ''{{Lolita}}''. After emptying a couple of pistol magazines into fellow paedophile Claire Quilty, Humbert discovers some {{Upper Class Twit}}s have turned up for a dinner party at his house. He confesses to killing the man, but they just joke that someone should have done it a long time ago. It doesn't help that a [[RasputinianDeath dying Quilty then staggers into the room]].

** Cornelius Fudge becomes like this in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire Goblet of Fire]]'', refusing to believe ''anybody'' who claims a threat of Voldemort's return may actually be true. A lot of this is due to an obsession that Dumbledore is trying to replace him as Minister for Magic. (Rita Skeeter's malicious slander doesn't help either.) This ignorance causes him to make several foolish mistakes and continues into the next book, where even a mass-breakout at Azkaban isn't enough to make him see reason, and eventually leads to him being dismissed from his position. (With his replacement being Dolores Umbridge, the ''last'' person who should have had it.)

* In ''Literature/{{Edgedancer}}'', Szeth keeps on telling Nale and his acolytes that the Desolation they've been trying to prevent is already here, but Nale is too keen on BelievingTheirOwnLies to listen to him, and his acolytes trust him more than they do Szeth.

* PlayedForLaughs at the end of the DaleBrown novel ''Flight of the Old Dog'', where Patrick [=McLanahan=] casually tells his mother that he had just come back from bombing Russia. Mrs. [=McLanahan=] doesn't believe him. Also used seriously in ''Plan of Attack'', where no one outside of the Air Battle Force believes that a Russian attack is coming, as well as in ''Edge of Battle'' where no one believes just how dangerous Comandante Veracruz's plan really is.

* In ''Literature/{{Edgandancer}}'', Szeth keeps on telling Nale and his acolytes that the Desolation they've been trying to prevent is already here, but Nale is too keen on BelievingTheirOwnLies to listen to him, and his acolytes trust him more than they do Szeth.

* Kim Stanley Robinson's ''Icehenge'' plays with this. [[spoiler:It's unclear whether the first third of the book is narrative or excerpts from a document that may or may not be contradicted by the rest of the novel.]]

%% [[spoiler: The existence of demon pox]] in ''Literature/TheInfernalDevices''.

** Cornelius Fudge becomes like this in ''[[Literature/HarryPotterAndTheGobletOfFire The Goblet of Fire]]'' refusing to believe ''anybody'' who claims a threat of Voldemort's return may actually be true. A lot of this is due to an obsession that Dumbledore is trying to replace him as Minister of Magic. (Rita Skeeter's malicious slander doesn't help either.) This ignorance causes him to make several foolish mistakes and continues into the next book, where even a mass-breakout at Azkaban isn't enough to make him see reason, and eventually leads to him being dismissed from his position. (With his replacement being Dolores Umbridge, the ''last'' person who should have had it.)

-->'''Cop:''' Because the police never believe the hero until it's too late. Haven't you ever seen old '60's sci-fi movies like ''[[Film/TheBlob1958 The Blob]]''?

-->'''Cop:''' Because the police never believe the hero until it's too late. Haven't you ever seen old '60's sci-fi movies like ''Film/TheBlob1958''?

* Subverted in "Police Operation" by H. Beam Piper. The Paratime Police are shown to ''actively'' take action to make true accounts of Paratime doings seem false. Flying saucers, their existence, and the relevant 'smothering out' technique are particularly discussed.

** This sounds very similar to what happens in his short story ''The Unicorn in the Garden''.

* In the first book of ''Literature/TheRavenCycle'' Noah consistently tells the others he's [[spoiler: a ghost]]. His first line in the series is literally "I've been dead for seven years," yet the others don't believe him until[[spoiler: they find his body in the woods]]. When this happens Noah's response is point out that he ''did'' tell them.

* A major part of the plot in the ''Literature/WarriorCats'' book ''Dark River'': when a crisis on [=RiverClan=] territory forces them out of their camp, the other Clans all start preparing for invasion, since they believe that [=RiverClan=] will now try to take some new territory. Hollypaw is seemingly the only cat on the lake that notices that all these fears are founded on nothing but paranoia, and that by preparing for a battle, everyone is making it that much more likely to happen. Naturally, nobody listens to her when she says they should try to ''help'' [=RiverClan=] with their problem, or at least get more information about it before jumping to conclusions, because she's just an apprentice and they are all "more experienced".

-->'''Polgara:''' You are now invincible. No one can kill you--no man, no demon--not even you yourself. BUT no one will ever again believe a single word that you say. You will be faced with constant ridicule and derision all the days of your life and you will be driven out wherever you go, to wander the world a sa rootless vagabond.

'''Polgara:''' There's no danger, Sadi. He can shout my name from every foortop, but no one will believe him.

* In ''Literature/TheMazeRunner'', Gally repeatedly tells everyone that Thomas is not to be trusted, and that he probably has something to do with them all being stuck in the maze. Obviously, considering that Gally’s proven himself to be a {{Jerkass}} with a mean streak, most of the Gladers ignore him. [[spoiler:It’s later revealed that he and Teresa were actually the ones in charge of building and designing the Maze project]].

** An interesting twist on the classic trope is that anytime Ron makes a snarky comment, half the time he's right. In ''Philosopher's Stone'': "I'll kill Fred, he was going on about wrestling a troll." Guess what they're doing a chapter or two later? In ''Chamber of Secrets'': "Maybe he murdered Myrtle, that would have done everyone a favor." And the previous victim of the Heir of Slytherin is... Less obvious examples in ''Prisoner of Azkaban'': "She's still acting like Scabbers has gone on vacation, or something." Surprise, surprise, Scabbers wasn't dead after all, just hanging out in Hagrid's hut. "What would [Hermione's Boggart] have been for you? A piece of homework that only got nine out of ten?" Lo and behold, Hermione's boggart is [=McGonagall=] telling her she failed everything. But overall, perhaps not so much them actively not believing Ron, as they're just not paying attention.

* Most books in the ''Literature/{{Goosebumps}}'' series by RLStine, in which the protagonists' supernatural claims are disbelieved by parents and authorities. This is turned around in "The Girl Who Cried Monster"; the girl's parents don't believe that her librarian is a monster, not because they don't think monsters exist, but because she has a habit of making up outlandish stories (in fact, it's her EstablishingCharacterMoment) and [[spoiler:because they're monsters, and they thought they'd [[FoodChainOfEvil eliminated all nearby competitors long ago]]]].